Larger hurricanes bring far greater damage, generating wider footprints of high winds, heavier rainfall and more dangerous storm surge. “This discovery can be put directly into use for daily forecasting of hurricane size and impacts,” said Danyang Wang, postdoctoral researcher in Purdue’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS). The study found that hurricane size growth rates do not change much with global mean warming, though global temperatures continue to rise. The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season gave a striking example of why storm size matters. Wang focuses on the physics of hurricane structure, particularly storm size.