Tag Archives: extreme weather

Super-Storm Sandy: One Year Later

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One year ago today, Super-storm Sandy slammed the New York City tri-state area.  Despite being downgraded from hurricane status just prior to landfall, Sandy was the second costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.

Coming ashore with tropical storm-force winds at high tide, Sandy caused a record 13.88-foot storm surge.  It flooded many low-lying areas, including parts of the NYC subway system.  Damaging or destroying more than 650,000 homes, the massive storm displaced thousands of people for months.  According to NOAA, Sandy claimed the lives of 159 people and caused approximately $65 billion in property damage.  The storm also knocked out power to 8.5 million people for multiple days – including most of Manhattan south of 34th Street.

Sandy’s flooding storm surge also highlighted the dangers posed by rising sea levels.  In the wake of the storm, many government agencies – at all levels – began re-evaluating their strategies for dealing with future natural disasters.  The National Hurricane Center changed its policy for issuing warnings on post-tropical storms and is developing a new storm surge warming system. New York City’s Office of Emergency Management re-drew its hurricane evacuation zones. And, the National Flood Insurance Program, operated by FEMA, began implementing new policy rates for homes and businesses in flood prone areas.

While the arduous process of rebuilding is ongoing, progress has been made across the region.  Recovery levels vary by location.

A Cyclone and Typhoon Batter India and Japan

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Hurricanes can develop all over the world, but they are referred to by different names – cyclones or typhoons – in different regions. This past week, two separate storms slammed India and Japan.

In India, Cyclone Phailin barreled across the Bay of Bengal and made landfall in the state of Orissa on Saturday.  Packing winds of 131-mph, it was the equivalent of a category-4 hurricane. Local officials say the storm’s flooding rains and strong winds destroyed tens of thousands of homes and claimed the lives of at least twenty-seven people.  The government’s pre-storm evacuation of nearly one million people, however, is credited with keeping the number of fatalities from being much higher. Sadly, a cyclone that hit the same area fourteen years ago left approximately ten thousand people dead.

On Wednesday, Typhoon Wipha rumbled along the coast of Japan near Tokyo. With sustained winds of 78-mph, it was the equivalent of a category-1 hurricane.  This storm’s torrential rain caused rivers to overflow and triggered deadly mudslides. One of the hardest hit areas was Izu Oshima, an island about seventy-five miles south of the capital, where a record 32.44 inches of rain fell in one twenty-four period.  Officials say this powerful storm destroyed more than three hundred homes and caused the deaths of at least seventeen people. According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, Wipha was the eighth typhoon of 2013.

Back in the United States, the Atlantic hurricane season remains fairly quiet.

IPCC Report: Humans Causing Climate Change

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first part of its fifth assessment report (AR5) on Friday.  It clearly states that climate change is real and human activities are the main drivers.

Authored by hundreds of scientists from around the world, the report says, “It is extremely likely (95% confidence) that human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-twentieth century.” This is stronger language than the panels’ previous report in 2007, which said human activities that emit greenhouse gases were “very likely” (90% confidence) causing the atmosphere to warm. As a consensus report with data gathered from thousands of peer-reviewed published research papers, the wording is very conservative.  Even so, the change of phrasing reflects a significant improvement in scientific understanding and increasing certainty on the issue.

According to the report, global average temperatures have increased 1.5°F between 1880 and 2012. Offering four different scenarios for the future, based on varying controls of greenhouse gas emissions, the panel projects an additional rise in global temperatures ranging from 0.5°F to 8.6°F.  They say the worst impacts of climate change will only be avoided if warming is limited to 3.6°F above pre-industrial levels.  To do this, the report endorses a carbon budget for the atmosphere – an absolute ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions – of one trillion tons.  Globally, we have already released one-half of that amount and energy demand is growing.

The report also found that global average sea level has risen 7.5 inches since 1901. As the world’s oceans thermally expand and land ice continues to melt, the panel expects sea levels to rise another 10 to 38 inches by the end of the century.

Despite the fact that last decade was the warmest on record and extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and intense, climate change still has its skeptics.   One of their fundamental arguments is the decrease in the rate of warming over the past fifteen years. While acknowledging the slowdown, the IPCC emphasizes the fact that short-term records are sensitive to natural variability and do not represent a long-term climate trend. A thirty-year data set is the minimum rule of thumb for dealing with climate and the long-term trend shows overall warming.  In fact, the report states, “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia.”

Formed by the United Nations in 1988, the IPCC assesses climate change and its impacts on society.  It consists of three working groups that publish reports every five to six years.  This most recent document was issued by Working Group I, which focuses on the science of climate change.  Working Groups II and III deal with adaptation and mitigation, respectively. Their reports are due out early next year.  When put together, they form the scientific basis for all U.N. negotiations on global climate treaties.

IPCC_AR5_temps

Graph Credit: IPCC

Two Tropical Storms Cause Flood Disaster in Mexico

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The hurricane season in the U.S. has been fairly slow this year – at least so far.  Mexico, our neighbor to the south, however, has not been so lucky.

Hit from both sides, Mexico was slammed by two separate tropical storms this week.   Manuel moved in from the Pacific and Ingrid came ashore from the Gulf.  Both storms brought torrential rain that caused widespread flooding, landslides, and power outages.  Impacting millions of people across the country, this one-two punch of extreme weather claimed the lives of at least one hundred people and displaced thousands more. 

One of the hardest hit areas was Acapulco on the west coast, where 7.43 inches of rain is reported to have fallen in one twenty-four hour period.  The flooding was so severe in this popular resort town that it turned roads into raging muddy rivers and carried crocodiles into the city.  With the only highway out of town destroyed in a landslide and the airport submerged in waist deep water,  locals along with nearly forty-thousand tourists have been stranded there for days.  

According to the Mexican National Weather Service, the last time Mexico was hit by two tropical storms within a span of twenty-four hours was back in 1958.

Colorado Flood Disaster

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Relentless rain unleashed catastrophic flooding across Colorado’s Front Range this past week. While flash floods are not uncommon in the area, officials say the magnitude and duration of this event makes it one of the worst disasters in the state’s history.

According to meteorologists, the cause of this widespread and destructive flooding was a stalled low-pressure system that funneled moisture into the region from both the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean.  Forced upward by the local topography – the Rocky Mountains – this moist air condensed into rain clouds. Without upper level winds to move the system along, rain just kept falling locally. In Boulder County, one of the hardest hit areas, 18 inches of rain fell in one week.  They normally receive 20 inches for the entire year.

Impacting seventeen counties across the state, raging floodwaters turned roads into rivers obliterating thousands of homes and claiming the lives of at least eight people.  Local officials say hundreds of miles of roadways and dozens of bridges were damaged or destroyed.  This has left anyone living in small mountain towns stranded and cut off from basic services like power, communications, and clean water.

This devastating deluge follows a summer marked by drought and wildfires across the state.

Widest Tornado on Record Strikes El Reno, Oklahoma

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A massive twister struck the town of El Reno, OK on Friday.  Measuring 2.6 miles across, it was the widest tornado ever recorded.

According the National Weather Service, the winds of this violent storm reached as high as 295 mph.  On the ground for forty minutes, it traveled more than sixteen miles. This powerful twister and the flooding rains associated with it claimed the lives of nineteen people, including three storm chasers.

Initially classified as an EF-3, the NWS upgraded this storm to an EF-5 – the highest ranking on the Enhanced Fujita Scale – after evaluating the damage. This was the second EF-5 tornado to strike Oklahoma in less than two weeks.  The other leveled the nearby city of Moore.

Since 1950, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center, sixty EF-5/F-5 tornadoes have struck the United States.  Eight of these touched down in Oklahoma.

Devastating Tornado in Oklahoma

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Barreling through the Oklahoma City area on Monday afternoon, a powerful tornado leveled the suburb of Moore, OK.  It claimed the lives of twenty-four people and injured hundreds of others.

The National Weather Service has rated this deadly twister as an EF-5.  That is the highest ranking on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.  On the ground for forty minutes, with winds in excess of 200 mph, this powerful storm cut a path of destruction seventeen miles long and more than a mile wide.

Located in the heart of tornado alley, this community is no stranger to severe weather events.  Moore was in the path of the infamous tornado of May 3, 1999 that set the record for the fastest wind speed ever recorded, 318 mph.

As it has in the past, this town is planning to rebuild.  The price of which, according to current insurance estimates, is expected to exceed two billion dollars.

A field of debris from Monday's EF-5 Tornado in Moore, OK.

A field of debris from Monday’s EF-5 Tornado in Moore, OK.

Image Credit: Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office/ABC

Deadly Tornado Outbreak in Texas

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A swarm of tornadoes barreled across northeastern Texas on Wednesday evening.  These powerful storms caused widespread damage and claimed the lives of at least six people.

The National Weather Service, in its preliminary assessment, reported that sixteen twisters touched down near the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, one of the largest metropolitan areas in this country.  The strongest storm in this outbreak was rated an EF-4, the second highest ranking on Enhanced Fujita Scale. With winds ranging from 166 to 200 mph, it devastated the town of Granbury, TX. Another hard hit area was Cleburne, TX, where an EF-3 storm is reported to have cut a path one-mile wide through part of the city.

Tornadoes, nature’s most violent storms, are generated by severe thunderstorm activity.  That said, not all thunderstorms produce twisters.  They need something to set the lower atmosphere into a twisting motion.  In this case, that was warm, humid air moving north from the Gulf of Mexico that collided with hot, dry air blowing in from the west.

Texas Tornado

Texas Tornado

Image Credit: WHNT

Two Tornadoes Touchdown in NYC

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Severe weather battered much of the northeastern United States this weekend.  Here in New York City, strong thunderstorms spawned two confirmed tornadoes.

The first twister touched down in Breezy Point, Queens.  With wind speeds of 70 mph, it was rated an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.  Minutes later, a more powerful EF-1 storm tore through the neighborhood of Canarsie, Brooklyn.  Winds blowing at 110 mph ripped branches from trees and damaged numerous homes.  Luckily, no fatalities have been reported.

Tornadoes are rare in New York City, but they can form anywhere given the proper conditions.  This weekend, an intense cold front overtook the city’s existing warm, humid air mass, which created an atmosphere unstable enough to power these violent storms.

Hurricane Isaac

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Hurricane Isaac, the ninth named storm of this Atlantic Hurricane Season, made landfall in Louisiana late Wednesday.  Despite its humble category–one status, this storm severely battered the Gulf Coast for several days.

Measuring nearly 250 miles in size, Isaac was a massive storm.  It produced strong winds and high storm surge that caused power outages and significant property damage throughout the region. Moving slowly – at approximately 5 mph – Isaac also brought unrelenting heavy rain, which lead to widespread flooding. According to the NWS, rainfall totals for this storm, so far, range from 10 to 20 inches across the area. The communities of Plaquemines Parish, LA and Slidell, LA were particularly hard hit by rising water.  In Mississippi and Alabama, several hurricane-induced tornadoes have also been reported.

Downgraded to a tropical depression, the remnants of Isaac are now moving inland.  Forecasts predict this enormous system will bring drenching rainfall to the drought stricken regions of the mid-west and southern plains.   Unfortunately, however, this storm could bring too much rain too quickly to the parched land and possibly cause flash flooding in some areas.

Similar to last year’s Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Isaac demonstrates that even low-category hurricanes can pack a serious punch.

Hurricane Isaac, 2012

Image Credit: NOAA