California Winter Superstorm Warning

ACt · 01-17-2011, 03:48 PM

So, you know how people in California go on about the lovely, warm, sunny weather they are used to getting. Well... this:

Quote:

A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive "superstorm" that could flood a quarter of the state's homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.

It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California's geological history shows such "superstorms" have happened in the past, and should be added to the long list of natural disasters to worry about in the Golden State.

The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes. Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.

The risk is gathering momentum now, scientists say, due to rising temperatures in the atmosphere, which has generally made weather patterns more volatile.

The scientists built a model that showed a storm could last for more than 40 days and dump 10 feet of water on the state. The storm would be goaded on by an "atmospheric river" that would move water "at the same rate as 50 Mississippis discharging water into the Gulf of Mexico," according to the AP. Winds could reach 125 miles per hour, and landslides could compound the damage, the report notes.

Such a superstorm is hypothetical but not improbable, climate researchers warn. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes," Geological Survey scientist Lucy Jones said in a press release.

Federal and state emergency management officials convened a conference about emergency preparations for possible superstorms last week.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...ter-superstorm

Heh. Now, I'll believe meteorologists as far as I can throw them, and this could easily just form, turn south, hitting Mexico causing $500 in damage and a shortage of tortillas, but interesting none-the-less. Go weather, eh?

Full report from those crazy scientists found here and be sure to read some of the comments that range from the "Biblical apocalypse" to "God killing all the liberals and faggots". Gee, you Americans sure know how to put the ignorance and hate into cool science.

ACt · 01-17-2011, 03:53 PM

Heh - just noticed that because of the potential "40 days" of rain, the are already dubbing it in the official report "ARkStorm". Oh, wow.

01-17-2011, 03:53 PM	#2
ACt Heart Wizard Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Halls of Irreverence Posts: 3,249 Thanks: 5,321 Thanked 18,674 Times in 4,842 Posts	Re: California Winter Superstorm Warning Heh - just noticed that because of the potential "40 days" of rain, the are already dubbing it in the official report "ARkStorm". Oh, wow.

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