Meteorologist Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, notes inevitable reservations about such indirectly measured records. And modeler Thomas Knutson of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, New Jersey, says, "We would not have expected the signal [of storm intensification] to be detectable at the present time," based on theory and his modeling of storms under a growing greenhouse. That, he says, prompts the question, "Are these trends real?"
In any case, no one, including Webster and Emanuel, is claiming that these two positive results suffice to link global warming firmly to tropical cyclone intensification. Webster, for one, would first want to understand exactly how warming waters could trigger such a large response.
