Hurricane “price tags” can reveal the cost of global warming
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Climate researchers say the idea of putting a “climate price” on an individual storm can help people understand how global warming directly affects them. This is especially true in places like North Carolina, where coastal development continues to rise despite the deteriorating severity of hurricanes due to climate change, said Hans Paerl, a professor of marine and environmental sciences at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte. “Coastal watersheds are taking on the weight of flooding, and rising sea levels are exacerbating the water problem,” he says. “It brings water inland.”
Paer reviewed historical records of floods and rains since the late 1800s and the catastrophic floods caused by hurricanes have increased dramatically over the past 20 years, according to a 2019 study published in the journal. Natural Scientific Reports. The study concluded that there has been a change in historical weather patterns that bring more rain to the coastal region in each storm.
There have been these floods and rains in recent years washed pig waste To streams close to North Carolina pig farms, damaging coastal ecosystems and valuable commercial fisheries. Paerl, who has lived in Beaufort, North Carolina, for the past 40 years, said that the worst floods have prevented people from moving around. “Real estate is on the rise. People still want to build houses here. ”
Coastal residents should also have no hurricanes to deal with the flood problems associated with climate change. The so-called deluges that occur when the sky is clear disturb floods“They’re rising in cities like Miami, too.” Norfolk, Virginia; and Charleston, South Carolina an examination published in March. These researchers found that nearly half of the 40 coastal gauges operated by NOAA measured more flood days in the 19th century. Since the middle of the century, due to the higher tide intervals. Cities built on estuaries showed the largest tidal changes as a result of rising sea levels, along with dredging operations, deepening port ports for ships.
As the number and intensity of tropical storms in the Atlantic Ocean have increased in recent years, NOAA officials were forced into April recalculate average statistical hurricane season “normally”. The new normal is 14 tropical storms, compared to the previous year’s average. 12. This adjusted figure includes seven storms that eventually become strong enough to be classified as hurricanes. (When the winds of a tropical storm reach 74 miles per hour, it is called a Category 1 hurricane. From there, hurricanes advance to Category 5, depending on whether they collect winds of 157 mph). Sapphire-Simpson hurricane wind scale.)
Last year was a record season for the Atlantic, with 30 tropical storms, 13 of which turned into hurricanes. NOAA officials will announce 2021 forecasts on Thursday, but in the meantime, the company will announce commercial weather DTN, which provides data to airlines, farms, trucking companies and other weather-dependent industries, predicts another season above average with 20 tropical storms, nine hurricanes and four major hurricanes with a Category 3 or higher force, says Renny Vandeweg. , vice president of the company’s weather operation.
“We believe the east coast of the United States has more landfall threats this year, and by 2020, there were more in the western Gulf of Mexico,” says Vandeweg. “We think it’s more off the coast of Florida this year, up from Carolina and then up from the northeastern U.S..”
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