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Hurricanes Are Moving More Slowly, Which Means More Damage (npr.org)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Hurricanes are moving more slowly over both land and water, and that's bad news for communities in their path. In the past 70 years, tropical cyclones around the world have slowed down 10 percent, and in some regions of the world, the change has been even more significant, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. That means storms are spending more time hanging out, battering buildings with wind and dropping more rain. "The slowdown over land is what's really going to effect people," says James Kossin, the author of the study and a tropical cyclone specialist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He points to Hurricane Harvey's effect on Houston as an example of what slower storms can mean for cities. "Hurricane Harvey last year was a real outlier in terms of the amount of rain it dropped," he explains. "And the amount of rain it dropped was due, almost entirely, to the fact that it moved so slowly."
Alas no. The major issue with evacuations is predicting the path. Hurricanes going slower doesn't mean they're less likely to change path 12 hours before impact.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Even with a slower hurricane, it can be impossible to evacuate people. Houston had a hurricane a number of years ago where people were still locked in traffic when it hit. Harvey, they didn't even bother with an evac notice because it would have just been impossible to get everyone out, so the mayor decided that sheltering in place would be better.
The major issue with evacuations is that there really are no good ways to empty out cities and coastal areas always have cities.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Oh boy, are you wrong.
https://www.wired.com/story/hu...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world...
You are welcome on my lawn.
there was no way to accurately track and measure hurricane velocity 70 years ago. through the 60s there were sporadically weather satellites each of which did not last very long. in the 70s and beyond, yes I'll believe claims of hurricane tracking/velocity
I've noticed in recent years that weather forecasting has greatly increased its false alarms.
This is a result of changes in Journalism. 25 years ago we had far fewer sources of information, so they could afford to stick to the real forecast. Today, there are more cable channels, and many more online weather and news sources. So they have to sensationalize to attract an audience, and generate clicks and link sharing.
but doesn't that also mean you have more time to evacuate people to get out of the path
In somewhere like Puerto Rico you don't have anywhere to evacuate the people to. Wealthy people could fly out to Florida in advance, but many in PR just had nowhere to go.