Destructive Storms Like Hurricane Ian Are Becoming Annual Events
Moving up the East Coast, the storm will make a second landfall near Charleston, NC around midday on Friday
There are no shortage of videos online showing the horrific damage done to many Florida towns and cities by Hurricane Ian. The time-lapse videos below show how quickly the water surged inland.
As of Thursday evening, roughly 2.3 million Floridians were without power. Hurricane Ian is reportedly the fifth-strongest recorded hurricane to hit the United States. Powerfully destructive (and rapidly intensifying and unpredictable) storms like this one are happening more often and will soon become almost commonplace.
The Washington Post reports:
Since 2017, an unprecedented number of storms rated Category 4 or stronger have lashed the U.S. shoreline: Harvey, Irma, Maria, Michael, Laura, Ida and now Ian. They all qualify as “rapid intensification events,” when a storm’s wind speeds increase by at least 35 mph within 24 hours.
These kinds of storms have increased in number in recent decades. Sixteen of the 20 hurricanes over the past two seasons in the Atlantic basin have undergone rapid intensification. . . .
A few factors help account for the shift, including the warming waters — fueled by climate change — that give hurricanes more energy to release through crushing winds and pounding waves. Climate scientists suspect the slow movement of storms like Ian also stems from global warming, giving them a greater opportunity to strengthen and destroy as long as day-to-day conditions remain ripe. . . .
Generally, ocean waters must be above 79 degrees Fahrenheit for a hurricane to develop and persist. In recent decades, the ocean has warmed at record rates because of human-emitted greenhouse gases, making this threshold easier to reach. As Ian was moving away from Cuba, sea surface temperatures were approaching 86 degrees.
I’ve seen dozens of tweets from various groups that are posting photos of rescued dogs and cats, hoping to reunite them with their owners.
Oh, look . . . the vile reprehensible shitbag that calls itself Ron DeSantis suddenly is asking for a whole lot of socialism.