10/7/2023 0 Comments Hot meteorologist hurricane harvey![]() government’s recent Climate Science Special Report - painstakingly assembled by 13 federal agencies from the work of thousands of scientists around the world and then leaked to the New York Times for fear of censorship by the Trump Administration - the authors were clear: There’s so much happening today in this view from NOAA’s new weather satellite, GOES-R. Never before have two hurricanes of that strength existed simultaneously, much less assaulted the same piece of land. At one point on Friday, Irma and Jose both had estimated winds of 150 mph - strong enough to pulverize even well-built houses. But this is also the first time in history that the Atlantic has seen back-to-back-to-back hurricanes of Category 4 or higher. If it heads back toward land, Florida is a possible destination. Some weather models now show Jose could make a loop in the middle of the Atlantic this week. ![]() And a third storm, Jose, also reached Category 4 strength, prompting a complete evacuation of the tiny Caribbean island of Barbuda - just four days after it was almost completely destroyed by Irma. Irma, one of the strongest hurricanes ever recorded on Earth, hopscotched through the Caribbean, making landfall on half a dozen islands at peak strength. Harvey, a Category 4 hurricane at landfall, oriented itself perfectly as it developed to maximize the rainmaking power of an overheated Gulf of Mexico. Of course, bad luck also played a role in the last two weeks. Collectively, they’re a klaxon siren that something is very, very wrong. On September 1, the day a petrochemical plant outside Houston exploded amid Harvey’s floodwaters, San Francisco recorded its warmest day in history - a blistering 106-degrees Fahrenheit - hotter than oft-scorching Tucson, Arizona.Įach of these events, individually, have a connection to the warming atmosphere. Devastating floods across India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Nigeria in recent weeks collectively killed hundreds more than Harvey has and Irma likely will, combined.Ī massive complex of wildfires is burning millions of acres across the North American West, with a smoke plume stretching coast-to-coast. The effects of this new phase in our new climate reality reach far beyond the southeastern United States. To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Now they lay, at least partially, in ruins. Houston and South Florida have long been considered two of our most vulnerable regions, carved out of swamps in some of the most storm-prone parts of the Earth. A warmer, more violent atmosphere - heated up by our collective desire to ignore the fact that we live on a planet where such devastation is possible - juiced Harvey and Irma’s destruction. Make no mistake: These storms weren’t natural. could rack up hundreds of billions of dollars in losses. And now there’s Irma, which has wreaked havoc across the entirety of Florida, America’s most vulnerable state. In just two weeks, the U.S. We’ve already seen one worst-case scenario in Texas: For the moment, Hurricane Harvey stands as the most costly natural disaster in U.S. And if you’re like me, you can’t help but think: Holy shit, it’s here.īack-to-back hurricane catastrophes have plunged the United States into a state of national crisis. ![]() If you’re like me, you can’t stop yourself from watching the weather these days.
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