A majority of Americans say they believe climate change increased the severity of recent hurricanes that devastated Florida, Texas and  the Caribbean region over the past six weeks, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The results of the poll indicate that 55 percent of Americans now believe hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria were stronger than they would have been without man-made climate change, a significant increase from a similar poll taken more than a decade ago. A month after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, a similar 2005 Post-ABC poll found that only 39 percent of Americans believed climate change had a role in the intensity of the storm. Research suggests that warmer ocean temperatures and atmosphere increase the intensity and frequency of strong hurricanes, making devastating impacts such as record-breaking rainfall more likely.