Climate Change & The Hurricane Hitting New York
 

Watching Ed Shulz on MSNBC yesterday and he started up about how "climate change" had caused this to happen in New York.

I wondered about that...Shulz was insinuating that this is something new that is happening because of climate change.
But it turns out that it happened a LOT in the past and actually happens less now...so much less that most people don't even realize how many hurricanes have hit New York.
Here's a list of them just from 1950 to 1974:
1950–74
1954 — Hurricane Hazel - wind gust of 113 mph at Battery Park, highest ever recorded in New York City.
August 31, 1954 — Hurricane Carol makes landfall on Long Island and produces wind gusts of 120 miles per hour (190 km/h) on Montauk Point.[3] On eastern Long Island near where Carol made landfall, a pressure of 960 mbar is recorded.[28] Winds on the island gust to 120 mph (195 km/h). The hurricane's storm surge covers the Montauk Highway in Montauk, effectively isolating eastern Long Island for a period of time. Due to the compact nature of the storm, most of Long Island is largely unaffected by the hurricane.[28] Specific damage totals for New York are unknown, although the storm in its entirety causes $460 million (1954 USD) in damage.[28]
September 10, 1954 — Hurricane Edna tracks to the east of Long Island producing 9 inches (230 mm) of rain.[3] Prior to the storm, New York City orders an emergency standby for the majority of its hospitals, and subways.[29]
August 13, 1955 — Hurricane Connie produces 13.24 inches (370 mm) of rain in Southeast New York, although damage is unknown.[30]
September 28, 1956 — Hurricane Flossy tracks to the south of Long Island, brushing it with light rainfall.[31]
October 1, 1959 — The remnants of Hurricane Gracie track into Central New York and drops up to 6 inches (150 mm) of rain.[32]
September 11, 1960 — Hurricane Donna makes landfall on Long Island as a Category 2 hurricane. Sustained winds of 100 mph (160 km/h) on eastern Long Island and 70 mph (110 km/h) winds on western Long Island are reported, and tides are 6 feet (2 m) above normal along most of the coast. Strong waves also cause beach erosion and several homes along the shore to be destroyed. Due to well-executed warnings, damages are extremely low, and it is reported that no deaths result from the storm.[33]
September 21, 1961 — Hurricane Esther causes $3 million (1961 USD, $20 million 2007 USD) in damage in Suffolk County as it tracks to the east of Long Island. Coastal areas of Long Island were flooded, as well as storm surge and wind gusts of 108 mph (173 km/h), which causes 260,000 homes to be left without power.[34]
October 8, 1962 — Hurricane Daisy tracks east of New England, producing light rainfall in extreme eastern portions of Upstate New York.[35]
September 23, 1964 — Beach erosion and moderate wind gusts are reported on Long Island as Hurricane Gladys tracks a couple hundred miles south of New York.[36]
October 19, 1964 — Light rainfall is reported as Hurricane Isbell tracks off the coast.[37]
September 10, 1969 — Rainfall up to 3 inches (75 mm) is reported on Long Island and in portions of Southeastern New York associated with Hurricane Gerda.[38]
August 28, 1971 — Tropical Storm Doria produces up to 8 inches (200 mm) of rain in New York City and Upstate New York causing moderate to severe flooding and floods subways in New York City.[39][40]
June 22, 1972 — Hurricane Agnes makes landfall near New York City and produces up to 12 inches (300 mm) of rain in Southeastern New York State and much of Western New York, with locally higher amounts. Storm tides of 3.1 feet (1 m) and wind gusts of 55 miles per hour (89 km/h) occur in New York City, and severe river flooding causes six deaths.[41]
September 4, 1972 — Tropical Storm Carrie produces light rainfall on the eastern end of Long Island.[42]

nice font.

I read this the other day.

1960's: 50 Weather Events
Last 5 years: 150 Weather Events

It was something like that.

http://cdn.videos.bloomberg.com/xkeT...MDoxOm1qO387Kn

:smilie_we

ADG

It's a conspiracy.

My family has been in the tri-state area(PA, NJ, NY) since they stepped off the fucking boat on to Ellis Island in 1917. Nobody - not even my 92 year old great uncle - has seen anything like this, ever.

They must not have been looking to hard. Here are the facts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ork_hurricanes

What do you think I'm making this shit up?

Ask anyone on this board from Jersey or New York if they, or their parents, or their grandparents, or their fucking great grandparents, have ever seen anything like this. There hasn't been a hurricane this catastrophic since time immemorial.


Yeah, notice the increase? Notice that there's been more hurricanes in the last decade then there was in the entire 19th century?

Here's the problem: Climate change is likely happening. That's fine and great. So it's either manmade or it's not. If it's manmade, then what? The gasses in the atmosphere are already there. We can certainly do our best to keep it from being made WORSE, but especially with all the greenhouse gasses trapped in tundra that can melt and release them into the atmosphere, most efforts will probably result in a waste of money for nothing.

And...what if it's NOT really manmade (or if man is maybe contributing 5-10% of it)? Our planet, just like any other planet, star or any mass in the universe, CHANGES OVER TIME. It goes through cycles and changes, the sun goes through cycles and changes - it happens.

The point of this? None of this focus on climate change is actually SOLVING THE REAL PROBLEM. What is the real problem? Well if climate change is likely happening...what is actually being done to help us humans and animals survive get through it easier? Nothing. All the global warming/climate change people are doing is trying to stop it. If it can't be stopped, then they're kissing everyone's asses goodbye.

Or hey - if the greenhouse gasses being in atmosphere is leading to this global warming/climate change, rather than take on the thus far futile efforts to stop us from emitting more of it, figure out how to get the shit out of the atmosphere. There's a thought.

Reality check: Who believes Hurricane Sandy was/was not caused by global warming?

:2 cents:

I understand the point you're trying to make -- but what happened to all of the northeast hurricane activity between 1972 and now?

This is unreal how some think, if that storm took a right turn and hit nothing would people still be talking about all this shit? Hell no, how many huge storms were there that never did anything? A bunch but because one happens to hit NY it changes it all LOL

No, but it's human nature to only see what is happening in our own lives.
I was born and raised in Florida. Born in 1961. The year before I was born Hurricane Donna came in and just tore Florida up. But I never saw any kind of "bad" hurricane all through my childhood (I lived near Tampa).

I was in my 20's before any kind of big storm hit again. So if you had asked me when I was 19 about hurricanes in Fla. I would have told you that they never really happened.

Yet if you look historically..they happen all the time.

Yes, a lot of hurricanes hit NY or NJ, and you list has lots of them. Hurricane Floyd in 1999 is a great example - two deaths, and less than $20 million in damage. Hurricane Sandy has killed what - one hundred and seventy people? - and caused billions of dollars in damage. Huge difference.

we need mickey mouse here

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._Mouse.svg.png

Did they move somewhere else during Agnes, Isabelle and countless other storms? I was in Isabelle and my parents still talk about Agnes.

To be clear .. a 'hurricane' did not hit NYC.. I very nasty storm did.. yes it sucks and everyone is in a devastating time - including a lot of family members - but it is was not a hurricane

without climate change we will be still in ice age

You gotta be kidding me... I remember Isabel. I specifically remember one of my relatives who works down the casinos going in to work the morning after. I don't remember huge sections of the boardwalk being ripped up and deposited in people's living rooms. I don't remember the pier amusement parks being washed into the ocean and entire shore towns being destroyed and an entire New York City borough being devastated and etc. etc. Isabel was a fucking sunshower compared to this.

This was the worst storm to hit New York and New Jersey in at least the last hundred years. This is not my opinion; this is a fact.


All of that is beside the point anyway. Was this storm a direct effect of climate change? I don't know, I'm not a fucking climatologist. But to me it seems like the weather patterns have been getting increasingly more erratic and extreme.

I just looked up Hurricane Isabel.
It's wiki page says it was the most destructive, deadliest, and costliest hurricane of 2003

At one point it had 165 mph winds. Luckily for New York it had died down a lot before it hit that area.

But it still left six million people on the East Coast with no power.

Just watching the news showing Staten Island...that place is leveled. :(

I don't know what those people are going to do. No homes, no electricity, no gas...they are freezing to death. And it's not even winter time yet...

It's not that the Hurricane was caused by Climate Change / Global Warming, but it made it a little worse.

What caused the damage is :

- High winds:
- Warmer water (Climate change)
- Further North than average (Climate Change)
- High Tide thanks to the position of the moon at the time.
- Low-lying towns and communities, inadequate protection, etc.

Climate Change is a serious problem but to be completely honest and fair, the damage caused by Sandy can't be 100% blamed on CC in my opinion.

I know, it's really something. Then again, look at Japan : Earthquake PLUS Tsunami PLUS 3 Nuclear Meltdowns (or was it 4?). Just sickening.

Another Fisher Price Thread :2 cents: