31
Oct 12

Science Wednesday – Storms on Steroids

Sandy was a real wench and her impact is still very much being felt along the Eastern Seaboard. One thing that has been brought up a few times is what impact Global Warming  or Climate Change played in Sandy’s creation or strength.

Now, I’m a big lefty, but I also tend to be a little cautious when drawing straight lines between a specific weather event and Climate Change.  Big storms have happened for as long as there has been weather. The first hurricane recorded along the East Coast was back in 1502!

So, with that in mind I was interested to see this little clip about how Global Warming is like… get ready for it… steroids in baseball.

So, did Climate Change cause Sandy? Probably not. Did it contribute to it?  Probably.

How much?  Maybe 10%, according to this snippet:

But, he added, human-induced global warming has been raising the overall temperature of the surface ocean, by about one degree Fahrenheit since the 1970s. So global warming very likely contributed a notable fraction of the energy on which the storm thrived — perhaps as much as 10 percent, he said.

Of course, these storms do impact bonefishing and bonefish and the places they live, the people who live there, the people who depend on those fisheries. Hurricanes have been known to kill mangroves and reefs. Increasing intensity, maybe even frequency… well… could be a bit rougher ride in the years to come.


27
Oct 12

Sandy Leaves Caribbean

Sandy may well be remembered more for what it is about to do along the East Coast, dubbed a Franken Storm, ready to wreck havoc with tropical rains AND snow. Still, I think the storm will be remembered in Cuba, where it seems to have created the most damage, save for maybe in Haiti, a country so poor and unable to cope that any storm would likely kill some Haitians. Sounds like the official tally in Cuba was 11 dead, with 43 dead across the Caribbean.

Thinking about Cuba, I can’t imagine that the damage caused will actually get repaired. The country had a dilapidated feel to it with a definite sense that if something new fell off, it certainly wasn’t going to get fixed any time soon.

Reports thus far from the Bahamas have been pretty good. Heard good news from Andros South and Benry Smith, both from Andros, and Black Fly from Abaco. Seems like the Bahamas has made it through the worst of it pretty well.

If you have reports, please share.

Cuba’s infrastructure further wrecked.


25
Oct 12

Sandy, looking like bad news

I live in the Bay Area. That means a few things. First, I’m enjoying watching baseball these days. Secondly, I get to occasionally wonder if there is going to be an 8.0 earthquake while I’m driving across the Bay on my way to and from work.  Earthquakes are really the main natural disaster here… that and some insect that could destroy our wine producing grapes.

Out there in the Caribbean though they have hurricanes. Sooner or later and there is going to be one coming your way and right now Hurricane Sandy is pointing pretty squarely at New Providence, Eluthera, Abaco, Grand Bahama and Exuma, among others (really almost all of the Bahamas could be impacted).

The storm surge could be 4-7 FEET.

Stay safe everyone.

Well… that doesn’t look good.