Using very conservative assumptions about how much sea level is rising, City of Seattle planners project that within the next 40 years, storm surges and high tides will flood new areas of Seattle. While the sea level is expected to rise six inches, that coupled with an extreme event could raise the water by three to four feet. Continue reading Eyeing Floods of 2050, Seattle Prepares to Hike its Skirt
There’s an indication from models that the storm track may push northward 50 to 100 miles, so the supersoaker would be then aimed at our Canadian compatriots. That would please local football fans but KOMO still has one to two inches penciled in for Seattle. Continue reading Seattle, Facing Rainy Weekend, Tries to Remember How This Works
“A VERY serious storm is going to hit the Northwest during the next two days,” warns UW meteorologist Cliff Mass, “one that will cause flooding and coastal wind damage. And the urban areas are going to experience a deluge.”
Weather models are showing the mountains will get five to ten inches of rain, while “Seattle will get nearly 4-5 inches if this forecast verifies,” says Mass. Continue reading “With hey, ho, the 60-mph wind and the 4 to 5 inches of rain”
As Mass explains, the huge numbers are partly because areas have snow at all in late June. If you’ve been complaining about the lack of warm weather, you might want to temper your enthusiasm–a strong streak of sun would likely cause substantial flooding at this point. (That leads Mass to a historical digression about the value of dams in regulating meltwater flow, and the great Vanport, Oregon, flood of 1948.) Continue reading Our Snowpack is INSANE!
Ironically, though he commands an audience other scientists only dream of–you’ve likely seen Peter Ward on PBS, or might even have seen him unsettling the audience at TED–the exposure has mainly given Ward insight into the Cassandra effect. If your view of a calamity is sufficiently horrific, it gets described as a “dystopian vision,” which makes it sound like a literary threat. A year after publication of The Flooded Earth, he sees a “complete lack of action, a complete lack of conversation” on the realities of climate change. Continue reading Will We Drown in Climate Change Denial?
