Hurricane Sandy as 'super storm': Is climate change a factor?

[limpyhobbler]

As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the Eastern seaboard — laden with predictions of drenching rains, fierce winds, snow and extensive damage — some scientists are pointing out ways that climate change might be influencing hurricanes.

No single weather event, be it drought, snowfall or hurricane, is caused by climate change, climatologists say. Rather, climate change amplifies the intensity or duration of extreme weather, akin to “putting hurricanes on steroids,” writes Amanda Staudt, a climate scientist for the National Wildlife Federation, an environmental advocacy group.

“The answer to the oft-asked question of whether an event is caused by climate change is that it is the wrong question,” writes Kevin E. Trenberth, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “All weather events are affected by climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be.”

Hurricane Sandy poses several threats. Vast and slow-moving, it is expected to pour drenching rains and unleash powerful winds in the Northeast over a protracted period, perhaps several days.
...

complete: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hurricane-sandy-heads-to-northeast-20121027,0,3886956.story

[a geek named Bob]

1. I figure this is mother nature's way of saying

#$%ING PAY ATTENTION!!!

[NoMoreWarNow]

2. yes-- thanks

I have a feeling that people who didn't understand climate change before, will soon get a much better and more direct understanding of it.

[HereSince1628]

3. A couple of weeks ago the Europeans were concerned about swings in the jet stream

that seem to influence European weather when arctic sea-ice levels are low.

I was wondering if the high pressure block prevent an eastward recurve for Sandy was related to such a swing in the jet stream

[tarheelsunc]

4. No way! It's God's way of saying gays and abortions are BAD!!!

I think all of the strange natural disasters that have occurred over the past 10 years are proof that global warming is real and is harming our environment.

[nebenaube]

5. ahem...

[Quixote1818]

6. Each big storm alone does not mean its climate change but an increased number

over the years which is what we have been seeing, clearly means there is more energy out there.

This one has several things that are making it worse:

1. It's colliding with another strom coming in from the West which will make it much stronger.
2. It's hitting at high tide
3. It's slow moving
4. It's hitting BosWash (Boston to Washington D.C.) where 45 Million people live

[limpyhobbler]

8. thanks This is pretty close to what I was thinking.

[deaniac21]

7. It is in every hurricane.

[Auntie Bush]

9. It's very rare to get severe hurricanes this late in the year. It may be due to the warming of the

Atlantic Ocean. Global warming will effect water temp. and route of Gulf stream. I would think that would make the season for hurricanes longer and cause them to be fiercer. That is a scary thought. Too bad right wingers can't understand the concept.

[limpyhobbler]

11. It is scary. I hope everybody is going to be safe through this.

[Tikki]

12. Do you think anyone will finally figure it out when there is a Christmas Hurricane?

Tikki

[GliderGuider]

10. Did Climate Change Help Create ‘Frankenstorm’?

Here is one of the best analogies I've read about this, courtesy of Joe Romm at ThinkProgress:

Did Climate Change Help Create ‘Frankenstorm’?

Like a baseball player on steroids, our climate system is breaking records at an unnatural pace. And like a baseball player on steroids, it’s the wrong question to ask whether a given home run is “caused” by steroids.

He goes on to say:

As Kevin Trenberth, former head of the Climate Analysis Section at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, has written, all superstorms “are affected by climate change”:

The air is on average warmer and moister than it was prior to about 1970 and in turn has likely led to a 5–10 % effect on precipitation and storms that is greatly amplified in extremes. The warm moist air is readily advected onto land and caught up in weather systems as part of the hydrological cycle, where it contributes to more intense precipitation events that are widely observed to be occurring.

The climate change link may be more than just more precipitation. A 2010 study found “Global warming is the main cause of a significant intensification in the North Atlantic Subtropical High.” Climate Central’s Andrew Freedman explains a possible influence:

Recent studies have shown that blocking patterns have appeared with greater frequency and intensity in recent years….

While it is not unusual to have a high pressure area near Greenland, its intensity is striking for this time of year. As Jason Samenow of the Capital Weather Gang wrote on Wednesday, the North Atlantic Oscillation, which helps measure this blocking flow, “is forecast to be three standard deviations from the average — meaning this is an exceptional situation.”

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/10/26/1097391/climate-change-frankenstorm-beyond-strange-unprecedented-bizarre/

[limpyhobbler]

13. Thanks that was a pretty good analogy.

Sometimes too much science can make my eyes glaze over so it helps to have some good analogies like baseball players on steroids.