Tag Archives: atlantic ocean

The Atlantic hurricane season just started. It’s already breaking records.

As you read this, the third named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which officially started on June 1, is churning its way across southern Mexico. Meteorologists expect it to soon head northward, where it could gather strength over the warm, open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. It’s unlikely that Cristobal will turn into a full-blown hurricane, but experts say it’s likely that the storm will slam into the Gulf Coast late this weekend or early next week.

Cristobal developed winds greater than 39miles per hour, the minimum for a named storm, on Tuesday — one day after the official start of the hurricane season. If that feels a bit early for the third named storm of the season to rear its head, that’s because it is. For the past six years straight, a named tropical storm has appeared in May, days or weeks ahead of the official start date. But the Atlantic doesn’t usually spawn so many powerful storms so fast: This is the first time the third named storm of the Atlantic season has arrived so early.

In 2019, the third named storm of the season arrived on August 20. That’s due in part to the fact that last year had an El Niño, a wind pattern that blows warm air into the Pacific Ocean and sucks cold water into the Atlantic, helping to suppress storms there. This year looks like it could develop into a La Niña year, when the opposite weather pattern occurs, creating conditions for more hurricanes to develop in the Atlantic Ocean. Ocean water warmed by rising global temperatures (read: climate change) in the tropical Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea also contributes to the likelihood of an unusually active hurricane season. The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration’s annual hurricane forecast predicts between 13 and 19 named storms including six to 10 hurricanes (compared to the average six).

“In modern history, this is unusual from the standpoint that you typically see the third storm in August,” Dan Kottlowski, AccuWeather’s lead hurricane expert, told Grist. Warm water, he said, is the main culprit. “You only have to take the temperature up maybe a half a degree Celsius for it to be more optimal for storm development.” Kottlowski said ocean surface temperatures in the Atlantic have risen since 1995, something he attributes in part to the way the ocean naturally cycles water but is also tied to rising global temperatures in recent years.

Right now, Kottlowski expects Cristobal to move through the western portion of the Yucatán over the next day or so, move off the west coast of the Yucatán, and then track toward the center of the Gulf, making landfall somewhere along the Louisiana coast late Sunday. While it’s more likely that Cristobal will make landfall as a strong tropical storm than a hurricane, Kottlowski says flooding will be widespread. “It’s very possible storm surge values could be well above three feet, perhaps as high as six feet, from this storm,” he said. “That will be enough to inundate a good part of the coastal area of Louisiana.” Flooding could penetrate deep into the state, he said, hitting areas that were flooded last year during Hurricane Barry.

When hurricanes hit coastal states frequently affected by extreme weather, communities of color and low-income neighborhoods — often situated in low-lying areas with aging infrastructure — suffer most. Louisiana is no exception. After Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast in 2005, black residents of New Orleans and the surrounding areas were far more likely than whites to say they experienced 7 out of 10 hurricane-related hardships.

John Morales, a weather reporter and meteorologist for NBC6 in Miami who frequently highlights the connection between hurricanes and climate change for his viewers, says he is troubled by recent research that shows a statistically significant increase in the proportion of tropical storms that become major hurricanes globally. “We do know that out of the hurricanes that are forming, a greater percentage of these are becoming category 3, 4, and 5,” Morales said. He recalls the 28-storm 2005 hurricane season, when forecasters ran out of names for storms and had to start pulling letters from the Greek alphabet. “By the end of that hurricane season I was exhausted,” he said. “To think that, right now, we might be dealing with 20 storms, that is a significantly active hurricane season — it’s going to be really exhausting.”

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The Atlantic hurricane season just started. It’s already breaking records.

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Trump reversed a plastic water bottle ban in national parks.

The fossil fuel industry has largely applauded the administration’s assault on environmental policy, like green-lighting controversial pipelines. Oh, and don’t forget that Trump “canceled” the Paris Climate Agreement.

Now, Politico Pro reports that some industry insiders say the Trump administration’s hasty environmental rule–scrapping has gone too far — and they’re getting worried about what might happen if disaster strikes.

“Every industry wants regulations that make sense,” Brian Youngberg, an energy analyst, told Politico. Trashing too many rules could lead to an environmental catastrophe, and might prompt even stricter regulations down the road.

Imagine a major disaster occurred — say, one akin to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. People might not look kindly upon President Trump’s executive order in April that reversed Obama-era restrictions on offshore drilling. Trump’s move abolished key safety improvements and opened up environmentally sensitive areas in the Gulf, the Arctic, and the Atlantic Ocean to potential oil drilling.

If a disaster were to happen, an anonymous source at an oil and gas company told Politico, “[W]e’d be painted with it as an entire industry.”

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Trump reversed a plastic water bottle ban in national parks.

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We’re about to name a sad swirling sack of clouds Tropical Storm Don, which is apt.

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We’re about to name a sad swirling sack of clouds Tropical Storm Don, which is apt.

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Obama could still permanently protect the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. Here’s how.

Environmentalists are cheering the Obama administration’s new five-year plan for offshore drilling, with some major reservations.

The plan, released on Friday, puts most of most of the Arctic Ocean off-limits to oil and gas drilling for the next five years — but climate hawks wanted it to go further, protecting all of the Arctic. And now, with a very different president about to assume office, green groups are calling on President Obama to make those protections permanent.

The Department of Interior’s plan blocks the sale of new leases for offshore drilling in sensitive areas of the Arctic, including the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off Alaska, and in waters along the Atlantic coast. But it allows for some limited leasing in the Cook Inlet off Alaska.

Although the plan is supposed to govern offshore leasing until 2022, it could be unraveled by President-elect Donald Trump, who promised a dramatic expansion of oil and gas drilling during his campaign. Under a Trump administration, the Interior Department could revise its five-year plan and open these areas to extraction within a few years.

That gives added urgency to hopes that President Obama will protect the Atlantic and Arctic coasts from drilling for good through an executive action. Experts argue that the risks of offshore drilling are too high and that to prevent catastrophic climate change some significant reserves of oil and gas will have to stay in the ground.

Environmental advocates say they plan on stepping up pressure on the White House to act in the weeks ahead.

“With Trump threatening to return to the days of ‘drill, baby, drill,’ President Obama should be doing everything in his power to secure our public lands and waters, climate, and communities from the significant and irreversible dangers of fossil fuel development,” says Marissa Knodel, climate change campaigner at Friends of the Earth, via email.

Putting off-shore areas off-limits to drilling is not the same as naming a national monument, but it’s similar in that it uses a presidential power outside the normal rule-making process. To repeal permanent protection, Congress would need to change the underlying law, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, or pass stand-alone legislation.

“The president has clear executive authority to provide the Arctic and Atlantic coasts the permanent protection that they richly deserve, that the public would support, and that the climate science says is necessary,” says Franz Matzner, director of the Beyond Oil Initiative at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “That’s something a host of voices across the country are still calling for.”

Obama has already demonstrated that he can be moved to keep fossil fuels in the ground. Stopping leasing in Chukchi and Beaufort was a response to strong grassroots lobbying earlier this year. Obama also stopped the Keystone XL oil pipeline in response to activists’ campaigns.

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Obama could still permanently protect the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans. Here’s how.

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Methane Is Discovered Seeping From Seafloor Off East Coast, Scientists Say

Scientists said the discovery, off the United States coast where the continental shelf meets the deeper Atlantic Ocean, was unexpected, but had been going on for at least 1,000 years. Originally from:   Methane Is Discovered Seeping From Seafloor Off East Coast, Scientists Say ; ;Related ArticlesNational Briefing | West: Drought Said to Claim Trillions of GallonsKarachi Journal: Fishermen Cross an Imperceptible Line Into Enemy WatersStrong Earthquake Shakes Bay Area in California ;

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Methane Is Discovered Seeping From Seafloor Off East Coast, Scientists Say

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Dot Earth Blog: New Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate Shifts

A new study finds Atlantic Ocean warming is a powerful driver of a host of recent world-spanning climate and ocean patterns. Read this article:   Dot Earth Blog: New Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate Shifts ; ;Related ArticlesNew Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate ShiftsEconomic View: Shattering Myths to Help the ClimateDot Earth Blog: How Conservation and Groundwater Management Can Gird California for a Drier Era ;

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Dot Earth Blog: New Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate Shifts

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New Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate Shifts

A new study finds Atlantic Ocean warming is a powerful driver of a host of recent world-spanning climate and ocean patterns. Link:  New Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate Shifts ; ;Related ArticlesHow Conservation and Groundwater Management Can Gird California for a Drier EraHeading Down East for a SpellU.S. Coal Exports Eroding Domestic Greenhouse Gains ;

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New Study Sees Atlantic Warming Behind a Host of Recent Climate Shifts

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Dot Earth Blog: First Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season

Forecasters predict that Hurricane Humberto will end the 2013 hurricane drought. Link to article: Dot Earth Blog: First Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season Related Articles Dot Earth Blog: A Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season Dot Earth Blog: From the Fire Hose: Warming Slowdown, Deep-Ocean Waves, Canadian Crude Inferno Economic Scene: Counting the Cost of Fixing the Future

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Dot Earth Blog: First Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season

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Dot Earth Blog: A Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season

Forecasters predict that Hurricane Humberto will end the 2013 hurricane drought. Original link:   Dot Earth Blog: A Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season ; ;Related ArticlesResearch Cites Role of Warming in ExtremesDot Earth Blog: Can Storytelling Be Factual and Effective?Dot Earth Blog: Assessing the Role of Global Warming in Extreme Weather of 2012 ;

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Dot Earth Blog: A Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season

Posted in alo, Citadel, eco-friendly, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, solar, solar power, The Atlantic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Dot Earth Blog: A Hurricane Brews After Silent First Half to the Atlantic Storm Season