After two devastating hurricanes, Helene and Milton, wrecked the southeastern coast of the U.S. coverage on the left and right were split in implicating climate change. The left was more likely to invoke climate change in making the hurricanes worse, while the right was more likely to omit any mentions of climate change or to label the connection between hurricanes and climate change as unsupported. 

So, how appropriate is it to link recent hurricanes to climate change?

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How Outlets on the Left and Right Describe Climate Change in Relation to Recent Hurricanes

There is some discourse among news outlets on the right and left about the impact of macro weather trends on hurricane Helene and Milton, in particular.

On the left, some cite research and U.S. government agencies which claim climate change had an impact on these hurricanes. Salon (Left bias), paraphrasing a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) scientist, reported that “although one cannot definitely say climate change was the sole or even primary cause of Hurricane Milton, certain scientific facts make it clear that climate change played an important role.”

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CBS News (Lean Left bias), citing a study from Climate Central, said that “record water temperatures have been made significantly more likely by human-caused climate change… The North Atlantic Ocean as a whole has seen record warm temperatures in 2024, storing 90% of the excess heat from climate change produced by greenhouse gas pollution.”

After Hurricane Helene and before Milton, The Associated Press (Lean Left bias) ran a story titled “Climate change boosted Helene’s deadly rain and wind and scientists say same is likely for Milton.” The study, which is not peer-reviewed, claimed “Human-caused climate change boosted a devastating Hurricane Helene‘s rainfall by about 10% and intensified its winds by about 11%.”

Furthermore, many outlets on the left featured a dominant narrative about Hurricane Milton, which quickly became a Category 5 Hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico, about how climate change is at least contributing to the rapid intensification of storms. NBC News (Lean Left bias), argued, “[Hurricane Milton’s] blisteringly fast evolution is part of a trend of rapidly intensifying storms fueled by climate change.”

Other outlets on the right argue the narrative that climate change is creating stronger storms is sensationalism or emotionalism – a type of media bias that is meant to shock or exaggerate details, often misleading readers.

ZeroHedge (Lean Right bias) published a story in October with the headline, “Media Uses Hurricane Helene To Promote ‘Global Warming’ Agenda.” The author argues that “pundits in the mainstream media are rushing to use the disaster as an excuse to promote their narrative that ‘global warming’ is real.”

In response to a CBS News story, ZeroHedge argued the author falsely claimed “that the world has seen an increase in the number of every kind of natural disaster, despite this having been debunked by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”

Notably, many Republicans do believe that climate change is real. A University of Chicago poll cites that 62% of Republicans believe that climate change is real and 34% believe it is human driven. Pew Research (Center bias) puts those numbers even higher, saying 47% of Republicans over age 50 agree “Human activity contributes a great deal or some to climate change,” among Republicans age 18-29 that number is 79%.

Newsmax (Right bias) claimed after Hurricane Milton struck Florida that “...there’s no factual basis for attributing patterns on climate change — much less on any human influence.”

Not only do outlets on the right mention climate change less, but they tend to be more skeptical of its connection to human influence. Some outlets on the left used the term “human-caused climate change” in their reporting without linking to a source or further explaining the term.

How Appropriate is it to Link Climate Change to a Single Weather Event? 

To understand whether it would be considered misleading to link particular hurricanes to climate change and explicitly imply they were made worse by the effects of climate change, AllSides asked Masters of Environment and International Affairs student Jeremiah Cutright.

"In general, it's impossible to say if any specific storm was caused by climate change, but we can say with good confidence whether or not they were made worse by climate change,” he said.

“It essentially ties back to ocean surface temperature - warmer waters create stronger hurricanes, but other factors are also important for their initial formation. So when there are extremely anomalous ocean temperatures, especially those only observed in recent decades or predicted through climate modeling, and they cause a storm to grow, we can be pretty confident in saying the storm was 'exacerbated' by climate change.

There are some scientists who claim they can prove if a storm was caused by climate change, but in my opinion it's a stretch and this field of climate disaster attribution is still very young.

But also the bigger thing is that trying to identify if any given storm was driven by climate change is sort of semantics if you ask me. The bigger issue is that we know on average storms will be stronger, and that trend is clearly playing out. The question whether storms are becoming more frequent still remains open, but many climate models predict this change even if it hasn't been observed yet. So while it may be hard to attribute any single storm to climate change, the phenomenon as a whole is clearly playing out."

Adding, "[Journalists] are probably right [to link it to climate change], but it's impossible to actually say for certain. In my opinion, they're probably rhetorically correct but scientifically wrong (because we can't say for sure)."

An NBC (Lean Left) article highlighted a report from the World Weather Attribution group which found “Hurricane Helene’s wind speeds were 11% more intense and its rainfall totals were about 10% higher because of climate change.” The report stated “The sea surface temperatures that propelled Helene and Milton were 200 to 500 times more likely because of climate change.”

Discerning Sensationalism from Science

Outlets on the left tend to tie specific events to climate change more than outlets on the right, which almost never do. But, beyond media bias, is it correct for the left to do so? 

If an outlet says that storms generally are becoming stronger due to climate change, that statement is scientifically backed based on current available research. However the outlet should, as always, include links to studies that provide backing. If an outlet claims that a specific storm was made worse by climate change, look for data about ocean surface temperatures that may support the claim. If an outlet claims that a specific storm was caused by climate change, it may be safe to be skeptical. 

Written by Research Manager & Data Journalist Andrew Weinzierl (Lean Left bias) and Bridging Coordinator & Media Analyst Clare Ashcraft (Center bias).

Reviewed by News Analyst and Social Media Editor Malayna J. Bizier (Right bias).