The National Weather Service has run out of letters for hurricanes in this record-breaking season, which is why tropical storms have started to sound like vengeful Greek demigods. And with Eta and Theta menacing coastlines, any climate-concerned citizen should be wondering: Is climate change the culprit?

Well, it’s complicated, but a new study suggests that climate change makes some elements of destructive hurricanes even worse.

The new study, published in the journal Nature on Thursday, shows that hurricanes have changed their behavior as the world has warmed up. After hitting land they rage longer, and stomp deeper inland, than they did 50 years ago.

“Overall, the implications of this work are stark,” said Pinaki Chakraborty, a professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Japan and the senior author of the study, in a press release. If humanity fails to curb climate change, hurricanes will get worse, he said. “Their destruction will no longer be confined to coastal areas, causing higher levels of economic damage and costing more lives.”

Hurricanes feed on moisture, so they weaken after they move over land. But in recent years, they have been lasting longer. Take Hurricane Zeta, which hit the Louisiana coast on October 28. Instead of petering out, it raged on to New Orleans, nearly 100 miles north. It weakened as it moved into Alabama, but was still strong enough to knock down power lines when it hit the Carolinas.

Read the full article about climate change affecting hurricanes by Nathanael Johnson at Grist.