More Hurricanes? Prepare for Stormier Pop Charts

Over the past half-century, climate scientists have learned that the weather leaves behind a hidden history of itself. Through evidence preserved in tree rings, in the gunk at the bottom of lakes, and in towering stalagmites that rise from cave floors, researchers have learned how to read thousands of years of weather history, inferring the existence of long-forgotten rainstorms, hurricanes, and mega-droughts.

Recent research suggests that there may be a similar account hidden in popular music, too. Thursday, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, the meteorologist Paul Williams