For residents of southwest Louisiana, the prospect of Hurricane Delta, coming less than two months after Hurricane Laura slammed into the region in late August, is becoming overwhelming. The 25th named storm of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic Hurricane season, Delta is the 6th storm for which the projected path has included the area. Climate change, caused by burning fossil fuels, is warming sea surface temperatures and thus making hurricanes more intense. It is also making rapidly intensifying storms, like Hurricane Delta, more common. “This has to be the worst year that I have experienced,” Andrius Vitto, 42, a food truck owner from Grammercy, told the AP. After learning his hometown of New Iberia, located just to the east of Laura’s worst devastation, was in Hurricane Delta’s sights, “the hair rolled up on my arms,” he said. “To see all this happening in one year — you know with the wildfires, with the hurricanes, the rain, all the other stuff in the news — COVID — It’s mind-boggling.” Hurricane Delta has rapidly intensified in the last few days, with wind speeds increasing from 40 mph to 110 mph in just 24 hours before hitting the Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday morning. It is expected to hit the Gulf Coast, most likely in Louisiana, on Friday. (AP, Washington Post $, Washington Post $, CNN, Weather Channel, Yale Climate Connections; Delta rapid intensification: Yale Climate Connections, CBS, Insider; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes; 2020 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Wildfires