Today's "news" brings a whole host of articles blaming Global Warming for hurricane Harvey. What nonsense! I've written before that Harvey is the first major hurricane to strike the USA in 12 years. That is a record period without such strikes. We were told by the Gore in his movie that this sort of storm would become commonplace, but instead this is the first in 12 years. Obviously, that storyline is ridiculous, so today we have a new one. We are being told that the intensity of Harvey and the serious flooding is due to global warming. Again, this is total nonsense. Harvey was a strong storm, but it lost its strength quickly once it hit land. At the moment, it has top winds of only 45 miles per hour. The problem with Harvey had little to do with its strength and came almost entirely from its path. Usually, hurricanes move in one general direction at something like 10 to 15 miles per hour once they hit land. That means that for the area hit with the brunt of the storm, that bulk of it is over within 10 hours or so. Because of the lineup of other weather in the region, however, Harvey has stalled over the Texas coast and is predicted to stay there for another 2-3 days. The winds have died down, but the heavy rains continue. This brings floods. They are floods caused by the location of a ridge of high pressure that is blocking the path of Harvey, something that has nothing to do with Global Warming.
This was much the same case with Sandy five years ago. Sandy wasn't even a hurricane when it came ashore in New Jersey. (That's why they called it "superstorm" Sandy rather than hurricane Sandy.) The problem for the Northeast, however, was that as Sandy approached up the coast, there was another low pressure area coming from the west. This second low was a non-tropical sort of storm. As Sandy approached, the two storms merged into one large one that meant much more rain, longer strong winds and a bigger storm surge. On top of that, Sandy came in on a path unlike any hurricane had taken for almost 80 years. It was aimed perfectly to do maximum damage across New York City and the land along the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Remember, Sandy came ashore in southern New Jersey, but the worst damage was more than a hundred miles north of that point. It was a bad storm, but it had nothing to do with Global Warming.
Sadly, it seems that so many people feel compelled to blame everything on Global Warming. It's beyond ridiculous.
This was much the same case with Sandy five years ago. Sandy wasn't even a hurricane when it came ashore in New Jersey. (That's why they called it "superstorm" Sandy rather than hurricane Sandy.) The problem for the Northeast, however, was that as Sandy approached up the coast, there was another low pressure area coming from the west. This second low was a non-tropical sort of storm. As Sandy approached, the two storms merged into one large one that meant much more rain, longer strong winds and a bigger storm surge. On top of that, Sandy came in on a path unlike any hurricane had taken for almost 80 years. It was aimed perfectly to do maximum damage across New York City and the land along the eastern end of Long Island Sound. Remember, Sandy came ashore in southern New Jersey, but the worst damage was more than a hundred miles north of that point. It was a bad storm, but it had nothing to do with Global Warming.
Sadly, it seems that so many people feel compelled to blame everything on Global Warming. It's beyond ridiculous.
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