Hurricane Helene and storms of the future

[just-jim]

.
Watching DW News tonite on PBS. Typhoon ‘Yagi’ hit Thailand recently.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/flooding-sea ... 02473.html

DW reports some areas received 1.5 METERS of rain - that is nearly 60” of rain.
.

[Rideback]

The CAT system gives a wind speed designation but as we've seen from just this season's storms, even the lower designated storms carry such tremendous amounts of water and move slower than even the memorable storms of the past, they are doing unprecedented damage.

Living in the Methow, we're about the same distance inland as Asheville is and it's hard to imagine what the volume of 3-4 feet of rain from one storm would do to the valley. We may not get hurricanes, yet, but that's not to say an atmospheric river couldn't give us a giant headache.

[mister_coffee]

That future is here in September of 2024:

https://x.com/volcaholic1/status/183890 ... 74image%3D

[mister_coffee]

Interesting that Asheville was touted as a "climate haven" not so long ago. The truth is in a destabilized climate there is no such thing as a climate haven.

One wonders what will happen to the US economy when the property insurance market implodes.

I also understand that meteorologists are considering adding a "Category 6" to the hurricane scale...

[PAL]

So they are stuck. I know that some, here, that lost their homes to fire, could choose to rebuild and have the insurance cover most of the cost, or not rebuild and go elsewhere and they would get less $ than if they rebuilt. So the system encourages people to keep rebuilding in the same spot over and over. That will not be sustainable.

[mister_coffee]

We might be pausing but you know how you hear that people say they plan on rebuilding, in the same spot! They are in denial.
I do feel for them. They have lost almost everything.
"The Heat Will Kill You First". Fantastic book and scary. Non-fiction.

They really do not have a choice. Most of the time homeowner's insurance will only pay out if you rebuild in the same location. Since most people carry a mortgage on their home they don't even see the money and really have no choice but to either rebuild or default on the home loan. And good luck moving someplace else and getting a home loan (or even be able to rent) if you do that.

[PAL]

We might be pausing but you know how you hear that people say they plan on rebuilding, in the same spot! They are in denial.
I do feel for them. They have lost almost everything.
"The Heat Will Kill You First". Fantastic book and scary. Non-fiction.

[mister_coffee]

Right, there was a Facebook post that said sometime there may be a weather, climate event that will be catastrophic that it will give people pause.
If that happens, it could be especially too late to do anything about it. Me, pessimist, I already think it is too late.

I think that we are far past weather or climate events "that will give people pause".

The Summer 2003 European Heat Wave killed more than 70,000 people and was arguably the hottest summer in over 500 years. That sure as heck gave me pause. We have now had over two decades of extraordinary weather events.

[Rideback]

https://apnews.com/article/rainfall-hel ... YJNLAojE7w

Enough rainfall to fill Lake Tahoe arrived with Hurricane Helene.

[PAL]

Right, there was a Facebook post that said sometime there may be a weather, climate event that will be catastrophic that it will give people pause.
If that happens, it could be especially too late to do anything about it. Me, pessimist, I already think it is too late.

[mister_coffee]

... Some small cities have moved to higher ground in the past. ...

Asheville, NC has been thoroughly trashed by flooding from Helen. Its elevation is slightly higher than Winthrop. And it is literally hundreds of miles from any salt water.

If we have to move to higher ground than that we have a Really Big Problem.

[Rideback]

There is no place to build that is a haven from climate change. That's the point.
And the Reps who just last week refused to part with funding for FEMA and disasters are now trying to escape reality by blaming Biden.
https://jabberwocking.com/disaster-reli ... 40_HHGLMSg

[PAL]

Thanks for the post. It may be becoming too late to do anything about these storms. It isn't too late for people to not keep bebuilding in these areas. However, the homeowners can't afford to relocate necessarily. Wonder if there could be some kind of climate relocation type of funding. Some small cities have moved to higher ground in the past. I believe in the Dakotas.
But it would entail astomomical costs.

[Rideback]

The perfect storm(s) developed that dropped unimaginable amounts of water from Florida up thru N Carolina.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... e-rainfall?
fbclid=IwY2xjawFpU3NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUO4AuSZjZVS2_IQFjPFdQqpYcThD52vf5HVfZeyf2Fd6gM9lZN-3U1vxg_aem_D077J5NP3Mkj7flIJ883Zg

'Hurricane Helene’s death toll has surpassed 150 as searchers use helicopters to get past washed-out bridges and hike through wilderness to reach isolated homes.

Crews were still trudging through knee-deep muck and debris in the wake of the deadly category 4 storm that dumped more than 40tn gallons of rain on the southern US after it crashed ashore in Florida on Thursday.

The amount of rainfall is enough to fill Lake Tahoe – with its depth of 1,645ft and surface area of 191 sq miles – or 60m Olympic-sized swimming pools. It could also fill the Dallas Cowboys’ 80,000-seat stadium 51,000 times over.

“That’s an astronomical amount of precipitation,” said Ed Clark, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s water center in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, according to the Associated Press.

“I have not seen something in my 25 years of working at the weather service that is this geographically large of an extent and the sheer volume of water that fell from the sky.”

Clark said the estimate of 40tn gallons was, if anything, conservative. Also, if that amount of water had fallen in the parched western states, it would have been enough to fill Lake Powell and Lake Mead twice over, he said.'