Hurricane Season Coming
It came early this year. Early in May, a slinky pinwheel low off the Carolina coast developed into the 2007 season's first tropical (really subtropical) storm, Andrea. The season seems to be saying "More, More, More", like the song sung by a real Andrea. So will it be a bad season?
Perhaps. I expected a bad year like 2004 and 2005 last year, because of a conjunction of global warming (warming the seas) and a natural hurricane cycle. It started early. But it was a big flop. Only nine storms. One of them did flood Richmond, Virginia's Battery Park (Ernesto), but other than that, they all went fish or hit where it didn't matter. What happened? From what I can tell, Un Niño occurred, deflecting the storms from the US East Coast. Indeed, at one time, hurricane after hurricane was coming off the African coast, but when they reached mid-Atlantic, they all went north and out of the way. I take it this was because El Niño blocked it.
I've heard El Niño has subsided. This means the bad storms may be coming back. I am especially concerned about Gulf hurricanes hitting the rigs and refineries again, causing the price of gasoline to soar to $4.50/gallon or higher. I hope this does not occur.
In other ways, the weather has been strange. January weather was as warm as mid-spring, and then the cold of February set in, but for us (in Virginia) it did not produce any snowstorms. The warmth came back in March, with 90 degrees late in the month, followed a week or so later (April 9) by the season's biggest snowstorm, an inch which melted by noon. This is also what happened last year, but it was earlier then. Maps of the polar regions showed that the ice and snow in April retreated slower than in previous years. Once again we have monster tornadoes approaching the size of hurricanes destroying entire towns in their wake. And then we have that strange storm Andrea, which produced little rain but a lot of wind in Florida, creating fire damage instead of water damage.
This is global climate change, folks. The ice will melt. The weather will be strange. Hurricanes will come, even in the South Atlantic. Tornadoes will blast towns all the way to Oz. But this will all be ephemeral. When peak oil sets in, that will put a damper on global warming.
Perhaps. I expected a bad year like 2004 and 2005 last year, because of a conjunction of global warming (warming the seas) and a natural hurricane cycle. It started early. But it was a big flop. Only nine storms. One of them did flood Richmond, Virginia's Battery Park (Ernesto), but other than that, they all went fish or hit where it didn't matter. What happened? From what I can tell, Un Niño occurred, deflecting the storms from the US East Coast. Indeed, at one time, hurricane after hurricane was coming off the African coast, but when they reached mid-Atlantic, they all went north and out of the way. I take it this was because El Niño blocked it.
I've heard El Niño has subsided. This means the bad storms may be coming back. I am especially concerned about Gulf hurricanes hitting the rigs and refineries again, causing the price of gasoline to soar to $4.50/gallon or higher. I hope this does not occur.
In other ways, the weather has been strange. January weather was as warm as mid-spring, and then the cold of February set in, but for us (in Virginia) it did not produce any snowstorms. The warmth came back in March, with 90 degrees late in the month, followed a week or so later (April 9) by the season's biggest snowstorm, an inch which melted by noon. This is also what happened last year, but it was earlier then. Maps of the polar regions showed that the ice and snow in April retreated slower than in previous years. Once again we have monster tornadoes approaching the size of hurricanes destroying entire towns in their wake. And then we have that strange storm Andrea, which produced little rain but a lot of wind in Florida, creating fire damage instead of water damage.
This is global climate change, folks. The ice will melt. The weather will be strange. Hurricanes will come, even in the South Atlantic. Tornadoes will blast towns all the way to Oz. But this will all be ephemeral. When peak oil sets in, that will put a damper on global warming.
posted by Jim at 6:36 PM
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