I hope all you folks in Sandy's path are in a safe place. She is a monster!

Originally Posted by B Butler

Here's another spin on things, Is Hurricane Sandy a 'Superstorm'? The author knows a bit more about this sort of thing than I do, and came up with more historical examples, though not all involve hurricanes.

She is essentially the 1991 Perfect Storm on steroids, occurring at exactly the same time of the year, too.

Mr. Butler,

I don't know about New Jersey, but Long Island/NYC gets hit a lot and that's not that far away.

~Chas'88

Originally Posted by Chas'88

Mr. Butler,

I don't know about New Jersey, but Long Island/NYC gets hit a lot and that's not that far away.

~Chas'88

Be careful, Chas, you guys are gonna get drenched by this sucker!

Crossposted on the What of a natural disaster takes center stange in the 4T thread.

Western South Carolina is recieving the back side of hurricane Sandy. The temperature never got over 50 degrees fairenheight today.We also had heavy winds all day. Our higher elevations will experience an October first frost for, depending on location, only the second or third time in the 130 plus years that offical records have been kept.
And this storm is off of the coast of New Jersey- over 400 miles to our northeast.


This thing is a monster.

WABC is reporting that the storm surge went two feet over the storm wall at the Battery near the World Trade Center. Thus, there will be subway tunnel flooding. I understand there are many flavors of utility tunnel underneath the city, and can't begin to guess how much of a mess it will be.

Here, as of midnight, the clouds are breaking just south of Boston and the full moon is shining. Power hasn't flickered a bit. My niece working on Cape Cod is reporting power out, but it seems Massachusetts will be pretty much OK.

Originally Posted by B Butler

WABC is reporting that the storm surge went two feet over the storm wall at the Battery near the World Trade Center. Thus, there will be subway tunnel flooding. I understand there are many flavors of utility tunnel underneath the city, and can't begin to guess how much of a mess it will be.

Here, as of midnight, the clouds are breaking just south of Boston and the full moon is shining. Power hasn't flickered a bit. My niece working on Cape Cod is reporting power out, but it seems Massachusetts will be pretty much OK.

Glad you still have power, Bob.

Study: Global warming is driving increased frequency of extreme wet or dry summer weather in southeast, so droughts and deluges are likely to get worse

Drought and deluge — Hell and High Water — we ain’t seen nothing yet!

By analyzing six decades of U.S. and European weather and climate data, the Duke-led team found that the center of the NASH intensified by 0.9 geopotential meters a decade on average from 1948 to 2007. (Geopotential meters are used to measure how high above sea level a pressure system extends; the greater the height, the greater the intensity.The team’s analysis found that as the NASH intensified, its area enlarged, bringing the high’s weather-making western ridge closer to the continental United States by 1.22 longitudinal degrees a decade.

“This is not a natural variation like El Nino,” says lead author Wenhong Li, assistant professor of earth and ocean sciences at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. “We thoroughly investigated possible natural causes, including the Atlantic Multivariate Oscillation (AMO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which may affect highs, but found no links.

“Our analysis strongly suggests that the changes in the NASH are mainly due to anthropogenic warming,” she says.

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/201...ges/?mobile=nc

Take a look at the environmental scorecard, and then realize that there is something you can do. Vote on Nov.6 to evict the worst congress in history. And tell all your friends.

http://www.lcv.org/scorecard/scorecardweb.pdf

From a renowned environmentalist:

billmckibben Who could have predicted what a hurricane would do this to NY? Except maybe, you know, NASA scientists motherjones.com/environment/20…

The fossil fuel industry has spent over $150 million to influence this year’s election. Last week, Chevron made the single biggest corporate political donation since the Citizens United decision. This industry warps our democracy just as it pollutes our atmosphere.

Don't worry, guys, Brownie is all over it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2044971.html

Mother Nature may be forcing the candidates to talk about what they have avoided in all of the debates; climate change. And it might force us to look at our lifestyles in regards to oil dependence.


Sandy Roars in Face of Climate Silence

Dr. Tom Mitchell, head of climate change program at the Overseas Development Institute(ODI) in the UK, writes:

Hurricane Sandy has put climate change on the election agenda even if the candidates didn’t want it. The important thing now is what happens next. Tackling climate change must become a focus of the next administration, just as healthcare was for Obama’s first term. Continuing a fossil fuel focus and ducking international leadership on climate change is effectively a slow motion robbery of the future. [...]

The evidence suggests the U.S. public has already woken up to the need for a change—70 percent now believe the climate is changing and a greater percentage than before want a switch to clean energy. Ignoring numbers like that may be rather more difficult now for both campaigns.

Scientists recently concluded that the drought was made 20 times more likely by climate change and it seems the U.S. public agree. So the message for the politicians is as clear as it can be—more oil and gas equals more extreme weather and other climate change impacts, all of which equal greater economic losses.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/10/30-9

For leadership, we may have to look beyond our borders, to the Danes or the Germans: They have taken their blinders off. They have looked around, taken stock of who owns most of the oil and gas in the world, carefully reviewed what Japan is suffering in the wake of Fukushima’s multiple nuclear meltdowns, and both countries have said: We are committed to going both fossil-fuel-free and nuclear-free. These countries are committed to true energy independence — not the short-lived kind that results from trading one poisonous addiction for another. It is a long slog. It does not involve instant gratification the way storm heroics do. It involves tinkering with different policies — such as Germany’s feed-in tariff and Denmark’s multi-decadal experimentation with wind. It involves committing hundreds of billions of dollars to solving a problem that will ultimately save these countries hundreds of billions of dollars, along with millions of lives. There are few heroes in these national dramas. There are plenty of ordinary people, including women, thinking intergenerationally, thinking of their children, their grandchildren, and of children on the other side of the planet, understanding that the energy commitments we make today affect the Frankenstorms our children will suffer tomorrow.

Originally Posted by Aramea

Don't worry, guys, Brownie is all over it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...n_2044971.html

That's hilarious!

Originally Posted by Deb C

From a renowned environmentalist:

billmckibben Who could have predicted what a hurricane would do this to NY? Except maybe, you know, NASA scientists motherjones.com/environment/20…

Exactly right.

And given the environmental scorecard, it's not hard at all to predict which party would do something about it if elected next week, and which party would do nothing except make it much much worse. Now, that's political science.

Originally Posted by Eric the Green

Exactly right.

And given the environmental scorecard, it's not hard at all to predict which party would do something about it if elected next week, and which party would do nothing except make it much much worse. Now, that's political science.

Love the way you sneak that *political* science into the discussion.

CNN asks, Is Sandy a taste of things to come?

The above article connects the dots pretty well, providing an overview of why we might expect more super storms hitting more vulnerable coasts.

In particular it is more explicit on why 'post tropical cyclones' such as Sandy are more apt to be encountered in a world where the arctic is warming. A strong difference in temperatures between the Arctic and the tropics results in a high energy, fast and straight jet stream. As the Arctic warms, the jet stream becomes slower and wanders more between north and south, pulling more cooler arctic air south than was common in the past. It is a southern loop in the jet stream inserting cool air into a hurricane that creates monster storms like Sandy or the 1991 Perfect Storm.

The article seems to be pushing damage control, building higher sea walls and creating wetlands, but isn't actively favoring reduced carbon emissions. The editors seem to think that it is not time yet to push unpopular ideas.

Then there are other forces allegedly behind the new trend in super storms... 'Heroic' Iran, 'resistive' Syria behind Sandy, pro-Assad group claims

Originally Posted by The Heroic Iranian and Syrian regemes

"Sources confirmed to us that Hurricane Sandy that is slamming the U.S. was set off by highly advanced technologies developed by the heroic Iranian regime that supports the resistance, with coordination of our resistive Syrian regime," pro-government group News Network of the Syrian Armed Forces said in a Facebook posting. "This is the punishment for whoever dares to attack Syria's (Bashar) al-Assad and threaten peace and stability."

It's good to know that the Republicans don't have a total monopoly on Big Lies and creative reality.

Originally Posted by B Butler

In particular it is more explicit on why 'post tropical cyclones' such as Sandy are more apt to be encountered in a world where the arctic is warming. A strong difference in temperatures between the Arctic and the tropics results in a high energy, fast and straight jet stream. As the Arctic warms, the jet stream becomes slower and wanders more between north and south, pulling more cooler arctic air south than was common in the past. It is a southern loop in the jet stream inserting cool air into a hurricane that creates monster storms like Sandy or the 1991 Perfect Storm.

The article seems to be pushing damage control, building higher sea walls and creating wetlands, but isn't actively favoring reduced carbon emissions. The editors seem to think that it is not time yet to push unpopular ideas.

Bill McKibben has a really great site that addresses renewale energy and what's best for the environment, and ultimately planet earth.

Here's one of his articles:

Learning from the Pacific Islands as they Lead the Renewable Race

http://www.350.org/en/about/blogs/le...renewable-race

I'm wondering if we should have our New Jersey seawall policy work the way the CO2 policy does. Each water front property owner is responsible for his own piece of the wall? If one lives a block or more further back from the water, economic contributions are optional? If one property owner's segment of sea wall obstructs the view or otherwise diminishes the value of adjacent property, one needs permission from the neighbors to build?

Perhaps we will end up inventing new terms...for wierd storms.

Originally Posted by TimWalker

Perhaps we will end up inventing new terms...for wierd storms.

Yeah. "Freak occurrences - never happen again" until they become common. Then, after than, "Aah, just the same old same old."

To go with the math Eric posted:

US: 13.2% annual solar jobs growth
BY: JONATHAN GIFFORD

Figures released today, by the Solar Foundation, show that while job growth remains slow in much of the U.S. economy, the solar industry continues to shine – with 13.2% annual growth in the last year. The figures were measured in a census measuring employment growth in solar between September 2011 and September 2012.


Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/deta...#ixzz2BOhyuJqf

Originally Posted by B Butler

Then there are other forces allegedly behind the new trend in super storms... 'Heroic' Iran, 'resistive' Syria behind Sandy, pro-Assad group claims



It's good to know that the Republicans don't have a total monopoly on Big Lies and creative reality.

..and I thought North Korea had all the Lord Haw-Haw types today.