Powerful hurricanes could strike New York City and Boston

Hurricane Sandy off the Mid Atlantic coastline moving towards New York City in 2012. Photo / AP

Major US cities will be under serious threat of Godzilla hurricanes, as wild weather patterns move closer to the northeastern coast of America.

New research has found cities on the northeastern coast of the United States will be struck with powerful weather events more often.

For the past several hundred years, crazy weather patterns that cause hurricanes have been moving away from the western Caribbean, towards the northwestern coast of America.

According to researchers at Durham University in the UK and the University of New Mexico, New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Portland could all be in the firing line in the future and cities need to prepare for potential devastating hurricanes.

About 10.8 million people live in the cities combined, meaning tragedy could strike at the new hurricane hot spots.

The researchers found the number of hurricanes occurring in the Caribbean island of Belize, had decreased significantly over time.

The researchers compared those findings with hurricane records from Bermuda, an island territory in the North Atlantic Ocean, and Florida, on the southeastern coast of America.
That showed that Cape Verde hurricanes lurking around the Caribbean, had shifted up north.

The hurricane's new track is a result of increased carbon dioxide emissions.

The rising emissions have expanded the Hadley cell, a pattern of circulated air in the Earth's tropical belt, which has pushed the hurricane's track further north, taking it away from the Caribbean and towards places like New York City.

If carbon emissions keep increasing, hurricanes will keep heading upwards, increasing the threat to the cities on the northeast coast of America.

The study's lead author, Lisa Baldini, from Durham University's department of geology, said since the 19th Century, the shift in the hurricane track was due to man-made emissions.

"If these emissions continue as expected this will result in more frequent and powerful storms affecting the financial and population centres of the northeastern United States," she told Durham University.

"Given the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy, it is important that plans are put in place to protect against the effects of similarly destructive storms which could potentially occur more in the future."

Hurricane Sandy was a deadly hurricane that made landfall in Cuba in 2012 and became the largest Atlantic hurricane on record.

It killed 233 people as it travelled across eight different countries.

Hurricane Sandy, which also left a trail of destruction in New York, developed in the Western Caribbean Sea and moved slowly northward as it intensified.

While hurricanes are moving away from the Caribbean and towards the northeastern coast, it doesn't mean the Caribbean will be completely free of the powerful weather event.

The study's co-author, James Baldini from Durham University's department of earth sciences, told the university it was still likely the Caribbean would be hit in the future.

"Although hurricane tracks have gradually moved northwards away from the western Caribbean, rising sea surface temperatures could promote the development of cyclonic storms within the western Caribbean," he said.

"Consequently tropical cyclone activity across the western Caribbean may remain essentially stable over the current century.

"However, increased sea surface temperatures also provide extra energy, potentially fuelling larger storms along the northeast coast of the United States and stronger storms impacting the Caribbean."