It's a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly

Danbones

Danbones

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What indeed could cause an invisible six foot tall white rabbit?
 
C

Curious Cdn

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Danbones said:
What indeed could cause an invisible six foot tall white rabbit?
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"From old celtic mythology; A fairy spirit in animal form, always very large. The Pooka appears here and there, now and then, to this one and that one. A benign but mischievous creature. Very fond of rum pots, crack pots, and how are you Mr. Danbones?"
 
DaSleeper

DaSleeper

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Jinentonix

Jinentonix

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More tenuous, but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies (both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change. We recently published a paper in the academic journal Scientific Reports on this phenomenon.
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That's because they are stupid. This is far from unprecedented. About 2000 years ago a major hurricane hit the German north coast. The storm hung in place for days and pelted the entire region with flooding levels of rain. Even non-coastal areas unaffected by storm surge were flooded. A hurricane in the early 1700s completely flooded a British coastal town leaving half of it permanently under water. Those are far from the only two incidents.
But hey, agendas have no place for facts and reality.
 
taxslave

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mentalfloss said:
I doubt anyone here wants to actually learn anything, but it's fun to watch the deniers either way



It's a fact: climate change made Hurricane Harvey more deadly

What can we say about the role of climate change in the unprecedented disaster that is unfolding in Houston with Hurricane Harvey? There are certain climate change-related factors that we can, with great confidence, say worsened the flooding.

Sea level rise attributable to climate change – some of which is due to coastal subsidence caused by human disturbance such as oil drilling – is more than half a foot (15cm) over the past few decades (see here for a decent discussion). That means the storm surge was half a foot higher than it would have been just decades ago, meaning far more flooding and destruction.

In addition to that, sea surface temperatures in the region have risen about 0.5C (close to 1F) over the past few decades from roughly 30C (86F) to 30.5C (87F), which contributed to the very warm sea surface temperatures (30.5-31C, or 87-88F).

There is a simple thermodynamic relationship known as the Clausius-Clapeyron equation that tells us there is a roughly 3% increase in average atmospheric moisture content for each 0.5C of warming. Sea surface temperatures in the area where Harvey intensified were 0.5-1C warmer than current-day average temperatures, which translates to 1-1.5C warmer than “average” temperatures a few decades ago. That means 3-5% more moisture in the atmosphere.

That large amount of moisture creates the potential for much greater rainfalls and greater flooding. The combination of coastal flooding and heavy rainfall is responsible for the devastating flooding that Houston is experiencing.

Not only are the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico unusually warm right now, but there is a deep layer of warm water that Harvey was able to feed upon when it intensified at near record pace as it neared the coast. Human-caused warming is penetrating down into the ocean. It’s creating deeper layers of warm water in the Gulf and elsewhere.

Harvey was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming, which means stronger winds, more wind damage and a larger storm surge. (As an example of how this works, we have shown that climate change has led to a dramatic increase in storm surge risk in New York City, making devastating events like Hurricane Sandy more likely.)

Finally, the more tenuous but potentially relevant climate factors: part of what has made Harvey such a devastating storm is the way it has stalled near the coast. It continues to pummel Houston and surrounding regions with a seemingly endless deluge, which will likely top out at nearly 4ft (1.22m) of rainfall over a days-long period before it is done.

The stalling is due to very weak prevailing winds, which are failing to steer the storm off to sea, allowing it to spin around and wobble back and forth. This pattern, in turn, is associated with a greatly expanded subtropical high pressure system over much of the US at the moment, with the jet stream pushed well to the north. This pattern of subtropical expansion is predicted in model simulations of human-caused climate change.

More tenuous, but possibly relevant still, is the fact that very persistent, nearly “stationary” summer weather patterns of this sort, where weather anomalies (both high-pressure dry hot regions and low-pressure stormy/rainy regions) stay locked in place for many days at a time, appears to be favoured by human-caused climate change. We recently published a paper in the academic journal Scientific Reports on this phenomenon.

In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey (that is an ill-posed question), we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/28/climate-change-hurricane-harvey-more-deadly
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Your stupid is showing again.

Danbones said:
What indeed could cause an invisible six foot tall white rabbit?
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Good drugs. Like we used to get in the 60s.
 
Danbones

Danbones

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The idiot democratic mayor canning the evacuation for political reasons sure made the hurricane more deadly, in spite of the scientists warning of the bad weather...

Especially when other mayors did issue that order.
 
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Bar Sinister

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There have been hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico before. Harvey may have been just as devastating with or without climate change. What is certain, however, is that building a massive city on the coast of a body of water that encourages hurricanes without any sort of real flood protection is simply asking for trouble.
 
petros

petros

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As Texas continues to recover from Hurricane Harvey, many are linking the severity of the storm with man-made climate change.

Most scientists say global warming is increasing the intensity of storms.

While in Houston there are concerns that rapid urban development came at the cost of flood defences.

Al Jazeera's Andy Gallacher reports from Houston, Texas.
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Great score!
 
petros

petros

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I hope it snows in the northern states this winter to stave off global warming induced hurricanes in the Gulf.
 
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