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First Hurricane Ever Recorded in South Atlantic Batters Southern Brazil CoastIn late March 2004 The Southern Coast of Brazil was battered by the first ever hurricane recorded in The South Atlantic. NOAA's National Hurricane Center categorized this as a Category 1, the mildest range for a storm to qualify as a hurricane. Still the storm appears to have caused considerable damage, in part perhaps because the local populace has had no previous experience in responding to such storms. The storm has immediately raised speculation as to whether it might in some way be related to the pronounced global warming trend underway. A major scientific uncertainty in studies of climate change has been whether an enhanced greenhouse effect will increase the frequency or intensity of hurricanes. The jury seems out on these issues, but there seems a broader consensus that climate change is likely to produce a shifting of storm tracks and that some areas rarely or never visited by hurricanes may become vulnerable to such severe storms. Whether the South Atlantic hurricane is a once in a millennium anomaly or a harbinger of things to come, this storm is likely to spur more research into this topic.
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