Whether you call it ‘Bruce Lee’ or ‘Godzilla,’ this El Nino will pack a historic punch

[yuiyoshida]

In this June 1998 file photo, a Caltrans bulldozer terraces a sliding hillside below the condemned home above Pacific Coast Highway near Las Flores Canyon Road in Malibu, California. The home and at least one other at the top of the slide was scheduled for demolition. Federal meteorologists said Thursday that the current El Nino is already the second-strongest on record for this time of year and could go down as one of the most potent weather changers of the past 65 years. | AP

Federal experts: Whether you call it ‘Bruce Lee’ or ‘Godzilla,’ this El Nino will pack a historic punch

WASHINGTON – The current El Nino, nicknamed Bruce Lee, is already the second-strongest on record for this time of year and could be one of the most potent weather changers of the past 65 years, federal meteorologists say.

But California and other drought-struck areas better not count on El Nino rescuing them like in a Bruce Lee action movie, experts say.

“A big El Nino guarantees nothing,” said Mike Halper, deputy director of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center. “At this point there’s no cause for rejoicing that El Nino is here to save the day.”

Every few years, the winds shift and the water in the Pacific Ocean gets warmer than usual. The resulting El Nino changes weather worldwide, mostly affecting the United States in winter.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/08/14/world/federal-experts-el-nino-pack-historic-punch-whether-call-bruce-lee-godzilla/#.Vc2clX0VjMr

[Uncle Joe]

1. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, yuiyoshida.

[frylock]

2. I hope the slope out behind my place holds up..

there was a collapse a few houses down several years ago that the city repaired earlier this year.

[Brother Buzz]

3. Hopfully, this El Niño will not pack the historic punch of the Noachian 1861-62 storm

California Megaflood: Lessons from a Forgotten Catastrophe
A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months, and it could happen again



Geologic evidence shows that truly massive floods, caused by rainfall alone, have occurred in California every 100 to 200 years. Such floods are likely caused by atmospheric rivers: narrow bands of water vapor about a mile above the ocean that extend for thousands of kilometers.

The atmospheric river storms featured in a January 2013 article in Scientific American that I co-wrote with Michael Dettinger, The Coming Megafloods, are responsible for most of the largest historical floods in many western states. The only megaflood to strike the American West in recent history occurred during the winter of 1861-62. California bore the brunt of the damage. This disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives. The costs were devastating: one quarter of California’s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy.

Today, the same regions that were submerged in 1861-62 are home to California’s fastest-growing cities. Although this flood is all but forgotten, important lessons from this catastrophe can be learned. Much of the insight can be gleaned from harrowing accounts in diary entries, letters and newspaper articles, as well as the book Up and Down California in 1860-1864, written by William Brewer, who surveyed the new state’s natural resources with state geologist Josiah Whitney.

In 1861, farmers and ranchers were praying for rain after two exceptionally dry decades. In December their prayers were answered with a vengeance, as a series of monstrous Pacific storms slammed—one after another—into the West coast of North America, from Mexico to Canada. The storms produced the most violent flooding residents had ever seen, before or since.

<more>

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe/