Hurricane Ian is no anomaly. The climate crisis is making storms more powerful | Michael E Mann and Susan Joy Hassol

Ian is one of the five worst hurricanes in America's recorded history. That's not a fluke - it's a tragic taste of things to come

Climate change once seemed a distant threat. No more. We now know its face, and all too well. We see it in every hurricane, torrential rainstorm, flood, heatwave, wildfire and drought. It's even detectable in our daily weather. Climate disruption has changed the background conditions in which all weather occurs: the oceans and air are warmer, there's more water vapor in the atmosphere and sea levels are higher. Hurricane Ian is the latest example.

Ian made landfall as one of the five most powerful hurricanes in recorded history to strike the US, and with its 150 mile per hour winds at landfall, it tied with 2004's Hurricane Charley as the strongest to ever hit the west coast of Florida. In isolation, that might seem like something we could dismiss as an anomaly or fluke. But it's not - it's part of a larger pattern of stronger hurricanes, typhoons and superstorms that have emerged as the oceans continue to set record levels of warmth.

Michael E Mann is presidential distinguished professor of earth and environmental science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet

Susan Joy Hassol is director of the non-profit Climate Communication. She publishes Quick Facts on the links between climate change and extreme weather events

This article was amended on 1 October 2022 to clarify that Hurricane Ian was a category 1 storm when it hit Puerto Rico, and subsequently strengthened