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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."
More damage where they hit, but doesn't that also mean you have more time to evacuate people to get out of the path. In theory a slower moving hurricane may mean more damage but should it not mean less human fatalities? At least in places that have the financial ability to move people out the path.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
After 70 years, I expect to be moving slower too.
Very slow storms can cause devastation by increased rainfall, as Harvey did, but because hurricane damage increases exponentially with wind speed: ...faster storms get increasingly dangerous more quickly with the extra wind speed that the leading quarter gets from hurricane speed added to ground speed than any "savings" from decreased time to pass by. The great New York hurricane of 1938 was only a Category 2 when it struck Long Island, but was moving unusually fast because of being squeezed between two adjacent weather systems that shot it forward like a watermelon seed. The summed wind velocity at the point of landfall made it as destructive as a Category 5.
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/t...
We noticed already. But thanks for pointing that out.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
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
Even when they talk about stuff like black holes or the extinction of the human race they bring up the good it can do but Global warming is 100% evil.
In short, no, global warming does not do anything good. The situation that has permitted humanity to flourish on this planet is extremely precarious, and disrupting it is not positive.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
If a countries food production goes up because frozen tundra becomes more productive, that's bad?
That's not how it works. No study has yet been produced which shows that total farm land will increase. Some have suggested that some lands which are not currently arable will become so, but more lands which are currently useful will become less so and the balance is negative.
Wake up to yourself.
The best part of waking up is drinkypoo in your cup!
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"