Hurricane Dorian has hammered the Bahamas for a day and a half in a devastating onslaught that's flooded neighborhoods, destroyed homes and left five people dead.

Dorian, one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, is stalled out and barely moving as it pummels Abaco and Grand Bahama. The storm's stalling has raised questions about the role of climate change in producing more intense and slower-moving hurricanes.

"It is no coincidence that the strongest storms on record globally, in both hemispheres ... have all happened during the last few years when global sea surface temperatures have been at record levels," said Michael Mann, a climate scientist and director of Penn State University's Earth System Science Center.

"Human-caused climate change is visibly intensifying hurricanes and increasing the damage they are doing," he added.

Recent research shows that climate change is triggering more intense tropical storms that produce more rainfall and flooding. While global warming doesn't necessarily increase the number of hurricanes, it does make those storms stronger and more deadly, according to National Climate Assessment reports.

Now, hurricanes are increasingly stalling when they make landfall, wreaking havoc on targeted areas. Exactly how the stalling storms are connected with global warming is still an area of debate among scientists.

The pace of tropical storms making landfall has slowed during the last few decades, which has lead to greater rainfall and flooding in affected areas, according to a 2018 study by Jim Kossin of the University of Wisconsin. A 2019 study by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, also showed that North Atlantic hurricanes have been moving slower and stalling more over the past seven decades.

"Dorian stalling is consistent with the long-term trend driven by climate change," said Jeff Nesbit, executive director of Climate Nexus and author of "This Is the Way the World Ends."

"But scientists will have to analyze whether the particular weather patterns holding Dorian in place are consistent with dynamics driven by climate change."

In 2017 Hurricane Harvey flooded parts of Houston with 60 inches of rainfall after the storm stalled out when it hit land. Hurricane Florence stalled in 2018, inundating parts of North Carolina's coast.