Coastal Storms | Extreme Weather

February 26, 2024

Hurricane Ian damage in Florida, September 2022 (courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

Hurricanes are intensifying more rapidly – and the most vulnerable communities are hit hardest – the Guardian

Excerpt:
Hurricanes are more frequently escalating quickly, and the places they destroy may be those disadvantaged by racist housing policy

More on Coastal Storms | Extreme Weather . . .

The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation acts as a conveyor belt of ocean water from Florida to Greenland. Along the journey north, water near the surface absorbs greenhouse gases, which sink down as the water cools near Greenland. In this way, the ocean effectively buries the gases deep below the surface (Courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, caption by Ellen T. Gray)

Scientists warn that a crucial ocean current could collapse, altering global weather – the Los Angeles Times

Scientists warn that a crucial ocean current could collapse, altering global weather…The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, is a system of ocean currents that circulate water in the Atlantic Ocean like a conveyor belt, helping to redistribute heat and regulate global and regional climates. New research, however, warns that the AMOC is weakening under a warming climate, and could potentially suffer a dangerous and abrupt collapse with worldwide consequences…

In early September 2019, a loose chain of tropical cyclones lined up across the Western Hemisphere.(by Joshua Stevens, using GOES 16 imagery courtesy of NOAA and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). Caption by Kathryn Hansen, courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory,)

Category 6-level hurricanes are already here, a new study says – Grist Magazine

In the real world, Category 5 is synonymous with the biggest and baddest storms. But some U.S. scientists are making the case that it no longer captures the intensity of recent hurricanes. A paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences lays out a framework for extending the current hurricane-rating system…with a new category for storms that have winds topping 192 miles per hour. According to the study, the world has already seen storms that would qualify as Category 6s…

"The Earth in 2100" Edited NASA visualization of climate change (specifically temperature) will probably look like by the year 2100 (by Stuart Rankin CC BY-NC 2.0 DEED via Flickr).

Earth Just Had the Hottest 12-Month Span in Recorded History – Scientific American

As this past October came to a close, it marked the hottest 12-month period ever recorded, a new analysis finds. This stark milestone is the latest in a string of superlatives to emerge this year that show how much carbon pollution has warmed the planet—and how that trend is accelerating. It also comes just weeks before international negotiators are set to meet and hash out issues around achieving the Paris climate accord’s fundamental goal: limiting global warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures…

The damaged metal fencing and railings along Beach Drive illustrate the power unleashed by Thursday’s storm as visitors take in the scene Friday morning © Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel

Climate crisis costing $16m an hour in extreme weather damage, study estimates – the Guardian

The damage caused by the climate crisis through extreme weather has cost $16m (£13m) an hour for the past 20 years, according to a new estimate.

Storms, floods, heatwaves and droughts have taken many lives and destroyed swathes of property in recent decades, with global heating making the events more frequent and intense. The study is the first to calculate a global figure for the increased costs directly attributable to human-caused global heating…

Image at top: Air Temperature at the Surface, 2pm October 6, 2023: Temperature across the planet has great variation in time and space. This imagery shows the predicted air temperature (at 2 meters). Pink and orange areas are hot; yellow areas are mild; and a distinct transition to blue occurs at the freezing point (Courtesy of NOAA - generated by CoastalCare.org via View Global Data Explorer website, Public Domain).

September shattered global heat record — and by a record margin – the Washington Post

Temperatures around the world last month were at levels closer to normal for July according to separate data analyses by European and Japanese climate scientists.

September’s average temperature was nearly 1 degree Celsius (1.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above 1991-2020 levels — or about 1.7 to 1.8 degrees Celsius (3.1 to 3.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal from before industrialization and the widespread use of fossil fuels…