Local Sea Level Rises On US East Coast As High As 1"/Year; Slowing Gulf Stream "Pushing" Water West

[hatrack]

EDIT

What Norfolk gets is that while sea level is rising globally at about a tenth of an inch per year, cities along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States — including Norfolk; Baltimore; Charleston, South Carolina; and Miami, among others — have suffered “sunny day” flooding from seas rising far faster than the global average. One study published last year shows that from 2011 to 2015, sea level rose up to 5 inches — an inch per year — in some locales from North Carolina to Florida. Given growing concerns over the flooding, scientists are now working to unravel the mystery of why some parts of the globe are experiencing so-called “sunny day” flooding that had not been expected for decades under conventional sea level rise projections.

Along the southeastern coast of the U.S., researchers have zeroed in on three factors that have made this shoreline a regional hot spot of sea level rise. They include a slowing Gulf Stream, shifts in a major North Atlantic weather pattern, and the effects of El Niño climate cycles.

“These coastal areas are more vulnerable than they realize to short-term rapid acceleration of sea level rise,” says Andrea Dutton, a University of Florida geologist who studies the history of sea level fluctuations. “If they’re hanging their hat on sea level rise projections looking at the potential over decades, they need to refocus and think about the potential for short-term variability in that rate.”

EDIT

Beginning in 2012, he (Ed. - NOAA Oceanographer William Sweet) published a series of papers matching long-term slowing of the Gulf Stream with increased sea level rise. The Gulf Stream — about 60 miles wide, a half-mile deep, and generally flowing 100 to 200 miles off the U.S. East Coast — transports warm water from the Gulf of Mexico into the North Atlantic, all the way to Western Europe. A rapidly flowing Gulf Stream in effect whisks water away from the eastern U.S. seaboard. Using satellite altimetry, Ezer has found that the sea-surface elevation across the width of the Gulf Stream has a slope. On the coastal side, sea level can be 3, 4, or 5 feet lower than on the east side. When the current is stronger, the slope is steeper, aided by the Earth’s rotation. But when the Gulf Stream flow slows, that slope decreases, pushing more water up against the land, causing flooding during high tides.

EDIT

https://e360.yale.edu/features/flooding-hot-spots-why-seas-are-rising-faster-on-the-u.s.-east-coast

[underpants]

1. Yep. Parts of Norfolk now flood in heavy rains

That never used to happen. Tangier Island in the Bay will be gone in a few years.

[shanny]

2. Sea level can be 3-5 FEET higher on the eastern side

of the Stream!!?! That's