Coastal
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Ferocious storms can churn up a lot of coastal terrain, and sometimes very strange things are found, like buried forests from the asteroid that caused the end of the age of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Another of these events occurred in New Zealand with Cyclone Gabrielle, which hit the North Island along with Vanuatu…
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After every extreme weather event, scientists study the effects of the event to see what they can learn from the consequences of that event. One of the lessons learned after Hurricane Idalia shows how “living shoreline” projects provide more protection to ocean fronts than other methods of protection from high waves and storm surge. Living…
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My tropical meteorology scientist colleagues have been watching the sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean lately and have been stunned at how warm they are compared to normal. In some areas, the temperatures are at more than 4 standard deviations away from average conditions, which is just mind-blowing in how unusual this is. That…
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In the Southeast, we know that El Nino and La Nina greatly affect our climate conditions, especially in the winter months when farmers are preparing for the next growing season. One of the important questions about the changing climate is whether or not the frequency and intensity of El Nino and La Nina (collectively called…
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Building along Southeast coastlines is a risky business at any time due to the threats of hurricane storm surges, but rising sea levels provide a new threat to many areas. Here is a recent story from Vox.com about Miami’s building boom in recent years and how they are planning to cope with the rising sea…
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Here are some stories on climate and agriculture in the news that I found interesting. Maybe you will too. Some of these may be paywalled. Modern Farmer: ‘A Silent Killer’: How Saltwater Intrusion is Overtaking Coastal Farmland in the US Washington Post: Maui’s neglected grasslands caused Lahaina fire to grow with deadly speed Los Angeles…
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Anyone who is worried about the potential for rapid development of tropical storms coming onshore in the Southeast should be very concerned about the current incredibly high sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico this week. The map below shows that parts of the Gulf have temperatures above 90 F (32 C in this…