Climate

The flood maps don’t factor in sea level rise or changes in extreme weather, and many are years out of date. In Mexico Beach, 'minimal-risk' homes were swept away.

insideclimatenews.org - by James Bruggers - November 1, 2018

The official map laid it out for more than 200 homes within the community of Mexico Beach, Florida: the federal government had characterized their flooding risks as minimal, despite their near-beachfront locations.

That meant for them there were no requirements to buy flood insurance, and local residents say many did not.

When Hurricane Michael and its 155-mile-per-hour winds slammed into the town on Oct. 10, with a storm surge of perhaps 19 feet, the result was devastation. An analysis by coastal geologists from Western Carolina University has found that 70 percent of the homes were demolished. Another 10 percent were severely damaged.

A Sept. 7, 2017, satellite image from NOAA shows the eye of Hurricane Irma, left, just north of the island of Hispaniola, with Hurricane Jose, right, in the Atlantic Ocean. Six major hurricanes formed in the Atlantic in 2017, including Harvey, Irma and Maria.  (Photo: AP)

CLICK HERE - STUDY - Dominant effect of relative tropical Atlantic warming on major hurricane occurrence

usatoday.com - by Doyle Rice - September 27, 2018

The catastrophic 2017 hurricane season – which included such monsters as Harvey, Irma and Maria – was fueled in part by unusually warm ocean water, a new study suggests.

And because of human-caused global warming, the study said similar favorable conditions for fierce hurricanes will be present in the years and decades to come . . .

 . . . "We show that the increase in 2017 major hurricanes was not primarily caused by La Niña conditions in the Pacific Ocean, but mainly by pronounced warm sea surface conditions in the tropical North Atlantic," the study said.

The annual king tides are rising in South Florida, causing some flooding in coastal areas.  By Joey Flechas

miamiherald.com - by David Smiley - June 9, 2017

 . . . In order to save Shorecrest, where million-dollar homeowners mingle with middle-class families and blue-collar renters, government officials across the region are now asking whether it ought to be redesigned rather than simply reinforced. Where climate change poster child Miami Beach is investing $500 million in pumps, streets and sea walls in order to fight for every inch of dry land, municipalities on the mainland are exploring what some communities would look like if they were made to accommodate rising seas rather than simply fight them.

One idea likely to be both controversial and expensive: demolishing properties and returning developed areas back to nature.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

A Princeton glaciologist says a set of mega-engineering projects may be able to stabilize the world’s most dangerous glaciers.

CLICK HERE - West Antarctic Ice Sheet Collapse – The Fall and Rise of a Paradigm

theatlantic.com - by Robinson Meyer - January 11, 2018

 . . . What if scientists could prevent one catastrophic symptom of climate change—a rapid rise in global sea level, for instance—without messing again with the weather?

Michael Wolovick, a glaciology postdoc at Princeton University, believes it may be possible.

For the past two years, Wolovick has studied whether a set of targeted geo-engineering projects could hold off the worst sea-level rise for centuries, giving people time to adapt to climate change and possibly reverse it.

(CLICK HERE - READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)