LONDON, England — A study by scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) have found that climate change made the conditions that formed and fueled the consecutive super typhoons that hit the country last month.

According to the study's weather researchers, the analysis also found that "the typhoon-favoring conditions will continue to increase as the climate warms, boosting the chances of destructive typhoons hitting the Philippines in the future."

Based on records from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), the country contended with six typhoons one after the other in just a span of a month, beginning with severe tropical stirm Kristine on October 24 the current year.

This was followed by super typhoon Leon which lashed out in Batanes and not long after, Typhoon Marce brought major destruction in Cagayan, including a whopping ₱16.2M in argiculture damages.

Typhoon Nika and Supertyphoons Ofel and Pepito soon followed wrecking a collective infrastructure damage worth ₱469M.

Doctor Ben Clarke, researcher at the Center for Environmental Policy of the Imperial College London, noted that "while these events were destructive in their own right as individual event(s), it was the successive nature of the storms that led to there being really severe impacts in the Northern Philippines."
“We have not seen a succession of events elsewhere,” Clarke added.

In agreement, researcher Clair Barnes of the Grantham Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College in London, cited how four typhoons simultaneous occurring in the Pacific basin was a first since records began in 1951.

"Because of climate change, the rate of major tropical cyclones making landfall, and the conditions leading to the high number of tropical cyclones from September to November in the area studied have all increased," the WWA study found even as it also highlighted that "winds have become more likely and more intense."

In ending, Clarke warned that "the likelihood of subsequent storms making landfall in the Philippines has increased and the potential intensity conditions leading to such events have become and will continue to become more intense."

"So that means that the storms were more likely to develop more strongly and reach the Philippines at a higher intensity than they otherwise would have. We're now more likely to see multiple major landfalling events in a given year in the Philippines. We'll also see more such increases as we continue to burn fossil fuels," he concluded.