[*] Willa is unusually strong for a storm this late in the season.
Didn't Patricia (which was even more ludicrously strong) form and explosively intensify about this time of the season in about the same place as Willa? I'm just kinda wondering if that particular patch of ocean just gets perfect for rapid intensification right about now.
Patricia was in 2015, but it was in the same general area.
Exceptionally favorable environmental conditions fueled explosive intensification on October 22. A well-defined eye developed within an intense central dense overcast and Patricia grew from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours—a near-record pace. On October 23, the hurricane achieved its record peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 215 mph (345 km/h)
Late on October 23, dramatic weakening ensued and Patricia made landfall near Cuixmala, Jalisco, with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h). This made it the strongest landfalling hurricane on record along the Pacific coast of Mexico.
Wait a hurricane had 215 mph sustained winds in 2015? Why don't I remember this? That is utterly ludicrous.
You don't remember it because it didn't do much. It was tiny and hit a remote area
Yeah, Patricia could've been a lot worse. If it had hit Puerto Vallarta it would've been really bad, that part of the coast is a big tourism destination.
The president wants to remind us all that he still doesn't realize that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Oh, and that he's also stupid, racist, and wrong about everything.
The people of Puerto Rico are wonderful but the inept politicians are trying to use the massive and ridiculously high amounts of hurricane/disaster funding to pay off other obligations. The U.S. will NOT bail out long outstanding & unpaid obligations with hurricane relief money!
The president wants to remind us all that he still doesn't realize that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Oh, and that he's also stupid, racist, and wrong about everything.
The people of Puerto Rico are wonderful but the inept politicians are trying to use the massive and ridiculously high amounts of hurricane/disaster funding to pay off other obligations. The U.S. will NOT bail out long outstanding & unpaid obligations with hurricane relief money!
The shitting on PR is of course infuriating, but stating that disaster relief funding is at 'ridiculous' levels has troubling implications. Pulling that $10 million from FEMA to put towards ICE is just for starters, I guess.
The president wants to remind us all that he still doesn't realize that Puerto Rico is part of the United States. Oh, and that he's also stupid, racist, and wrong about everything.
The people of Puerto Rico are wonderful but the inept politicians are trying to use the massive and ridiculously high amounts of hurricane/disaster funding to pay off other obligations. The U.S. will NOT bail out long outstanding & unpaid obligations with hurricane relief money!
The shitting on PR is of course infuriating, but stating that disaster relief funding is at 'ridiculous' levels has troubling implications. Pulling that $10 million from FEMA to put towards ICE is just for starters, I guess.
The Taylor oil spill is still surging after all this time; dumping what's believed to be tens of thousands of gallons into the Gulf per day since 2004. By some estimates, the chronic leak could soon be larger, cumulatively, than the Deepwater disaster, which dumped up to 176.4 million gallons (or 4.2 million barrels) of oil into the Gulf.
In September, the Department of Justice submitted an independent study into the nature and volume of the spill that claims previous evaluations of the damage, submitted by the platform's owner Taylor Energy Co. and compiled by the Coast Guard, significantly underestimated the amount of oil being let loose. According to the filing, the Taylor spill is spewing anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of oil a day.
As for how much oil has been leaked since the beginning of the spill, it's hard to say. An estimate from SkyTruth, a satellite watchdog organization, put the total at 855,000 to 4 million gallons by the end of 2017. If you do the math from the DOJ's filing, the number comes out astronomically higher: More than 153 million gallons over 14 years.
The Taylor spill started when an oil platform belonging to Taylor Energy was damaged and sank during a mudslide caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. However, it wasn't until 2010, after the BP oil spill, that people really started to notice something was wrong. According to local activists, the warnings didn't come from the Coast Guard, the government, or any oil company. They came from people around the Gulf community who simply saw it with their own eyes.
Marylee Orr is the executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN). She says in 2010, people conducting aerial surveillance near the BP oil spill started to notice another shape, a shadow of an oil slick adjacent to the main spill that didn't seem to match up.
"They said it couldn't have been coming from the BP spill, and sure enough, it wasn't," she told CNN. "It was coming from the Taylor Well."
Orr says it was difficult for the community to get answers as to what was happening with the spill. Local organizations, including LEAN, began conducting flyovers of the area, compiling data and pressuring Taylor Energy for answers.
"We had to do a lot of research ourselves to find out about it," she says. "How long is it? How wide is it? These are the things we struggled with. I feel like our organization, and other folks and other organizations, made it an issue."
"In 2010, nobody really knew. And maybe no one would know now, if there weren't citizens and non-profit organizations who were just trying to be good stewards," she says.
I just do not have the words to express the feelings I have at the moment.
Veevee on
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38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
They had this on NPR today. Apparently a mudslide buries the broken pipes and it’s incredibly difficult and dangerous to excavate down to the pipes. They didn’t initially think it was leaking after they sealed a third of the pipes they could find.
ChimeraMonster girl with a snek tail and five eyesBad puns, that's how eye roll. Registered Userregular
So the Northern Mariana Islands no longer exist... at least I assume they do not since they just got buzz-sawed by Super Typhoon Yutu which has a central pressure of 899mb and sustained winds of nearly 180 mph with gusts ~200mph. Guess now Trump has another totally destroyed American territory to ignore.
Jesus. Prayers for those on the island as thats probably all that will keep them safe at this point if it took a direct hit from that storm. I hope they had some safe place to go but I am not sure how many buildings are rated for 180-200 mph winds.
East Island, a remote spit of gravel and sand that sat atop a coral reef, has vanished after having this misfortune to come into contact with Hurricane Walaka, an intense storm that surged past Hawaii earlier this month.
Scientists have confirmed the disappearance of the 11-acre island after comparing satellite images of the surrounding French Frigate Shoals, part of an enormous protected marine area in the north-western Hawaiian Islands.
“I uttered a swear word. I had a ‘holy cow!’ moment, somewhat in disbelief that it had disappeared,” said Chip Fletcher, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Hawaii. Fletcher and his colleagues were in the process of researching East Island through drone videos and taking samples of sand and corals to ascertain the age of the island and gauge its future prospects in the face of climate change.
“The island was probably one to two thousand years old and we were only there in July, so for it to be lost right now is pretty bad luck,” Fletcher said.
“We wanted to monitor the island so we are disappointed it has gone, but on the other hand we have learned these islands are far more at risk than we thought. I thought the island would be around for a decade or two longer, but it’s far more fragile than I appreciated. The top, middle and bottom of it has gone.”
East Island was, at about half a mile long and 400ft wide, the second largest island in the the French Frigate Shoals, an atoll in the far western reaches of the Hawaiian archipelago. Until 1952, it hosted a US Coast Guard radar station.
Despite its size, the island played an important role for wildlife, including the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, a species that numbers just 1,400 individuals, with many of the seals raising their young on East Island. Green sea turtles, which are also threatened, and seabirds such as albatrosses, which often had their young preyed upon by circling tiger sharks, also depended on the island.
East Island, a remote spit of gravel and sand that sat atop a coral reef, has vanished after having this misfortune to come into contact with Hurricane Walaka, an intense storm that surged past Hawaii earlier this month.
Scientists have confirmed the disappearance of the 11-acre island after comparing satellite images of the surrounding French Frigate Shoals, part of an enormous protected marine area in the north-western Hawaiian Islands.
“I uttered a swear word. I had a ‘holy cow!’ moment, somewhat in disbelief that it had disappeared,” said Chip Fletcher, a professor of earth sciences at the University of Hawaii. Fletcher and his colleagues were in the process of researching East Island through drone videos and taking samples of sand and corals to ascertain the age of the island and gauge its future prospects in the face of climate change.
“The island was probably one to two thousand years old and we were only there in July, so for it to be lost right now is pretty bad luck,” Fletcher said.
“We wanted to monitor the island so we are disappointed it has gone, but on the other hand we have learned these islands are far more at risk than we thought. I thought the island would be around for a decade or two longer, but it’s far more fragile than I appreciated. The top, middle and bottom of it has gone.”
East Island was, at about half a mile long and 400ft wide, the second largest island in the the French Frigate Shoals, an atoll in the far western reaches of the Hawaiian archipelago. Until 1952, it hosted a US Coast Guard radar station.
Despite its size, the island played an important role for wildlife, including the critically endangered Hawaiian monk seal, a species that numbers just 1,400 individuals, with many of the seals raising their young on East Island. Green sea turtles, which are also threatened, and seabirds such as albatrosses, which often had their young preyed upon by circling tiger sharks, also depended on the island.
Well in general as long as the ocean washes the beaches back into shape the seals and turtles probably would be fine with it. They are not hanging out on land to eat just as a dry place to get busy with it and have their young.
The good news is that most of the seal and turtle populations left before the storm, as per seasonal migrations and whatnot.
The bad news is that isn't really great for them when they return, probably.
If Sir Richard Attenborough has taught me anything recently, it's that the ocean is basically that black goo from Prometheus. Drop a whale carcass on the ocean floor, or a sufficiently large clump of floating debris in the open ocean, and a biological oasis will form out of nowhere.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
If smashing the Northern Mariana Islands and causing damage that will take months if not years to repair wasn't enough, Super Typhoon Yutu is now headed for the Philippines. Not just any place in the Philippines either, but the exact same region that got devastated by Super Typhoon Mangkhut less than two months ago.
In less catastrophic news I guess a nor'easter is happening this weekend too.
The Taylor oil spill is still surging after all this time; dumping what's believed to be tens of thousands of gallons into the Gulf per day since 2004. By some estimates, the chronic leak could soon be larger, cumulatively, than the Deepwater disaster, which dumped up to 176.4 million gallons (or 4.2 million barrels) of oil into the Gulf.
In September, the Department of Justice submitted an independent study into the nature and volume of the spill that claims previous evaluations of the damage, submitted by the platform's owner Taylor Energy Co. and compiled by the Coast Guard, significantly underestimated the amount of oil being let loose. According to the filing, the Taylor spill is spewing anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of oil a day.
As for how much oil has been leaked since the beginning of the spill, it's hard to say. An estimate from SkyTruth, a satellite watchdog organization, put the total at 855,000 to 4 million gallons by the end of 2017. If you do the math from the DOJ's filing, the number comes out astronomically higher: More than 153 million gallons over 14 years.
The Taylor spill started when an oil platform belonging to Taylor Energy was damaged and sank during a mudslide caused by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. However, it wasn't until 2010, after the BP oil spill, that people really started to notice something was wrong. According to local activists, the warnings didn't come from the Coast Guard, the government, or any oil company. They came from people around the Gulf community who simply saw it with their own eyes.
Marylee Orr is the executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN). She says in 2010, people conducting aerial surveillance near the BP oil spill started to notice another shape, a shadow of an oil slick adjacent to the main spill that didn't seem to match up.
"They said it couldn't have been coming from the BP spill, and sure enough, it wasn't," she told CNN. "It was coming from the Taylor Well."
Orr says it was difficult for the community to get answers as to what was happening with the spill. Local organizations, including LEAN, began conducting flyovers of the area, compiling data and pressuring Taylor Energy for answers.
"We had to do a lot of research ourselves to find out about it," she says. "How long is it? How wide is it? These are the things we struggled with. I feel like our organization, and other folks and other organizations, made it an issue."
"In 2010, nobody really knew. And maybe no one would know now, if there weren't citizens and non-profit organizations who were just trying to be good stewards," she says.
I just do not have the words to express the feelings I have at the moment.
I wonder how much methane gets released into the atmosphere from a leak like that. You'd have methane coming out of the well like it usually does, and then bacteria breaking down the heavier oil hydrocarbons into methane.
Edit: I read about it a bit, looks like all the methane gets eaten and turned into CO2 by other bacteria while still dissolved in the ocean. Which is not as bad as it could be, but still pretty bad.
Jephery on
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"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
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Giggles_FunsworthBlight on DiscourseBay Area SprawlRegistered Userregular
If smashing the Northern Mariana Islands and causing damage that will take months if not years to repair wasn't enough, Super Typhoon Yutu is now headed for the Philippines. Not just any place in the Philippines either, but the exact same region that got devastated by Super Typhoon Mangkhut less than two months ago.
In less catastrophic news I guess a nor'easter is happening this weekend too.
That little dagger of clouds trailing along underneath it drifted though here this morning. The rainfall was as intense as the outer bands of Michael.
isn't this expected for whatever nino they're in though
AAAAA!!! PLAAAYGUUU!!!!
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
75% of Venice (Italy) just flooded. Combination of strong winds at high tide. There's supposed to be a project to project the city from these floods but of course it hasn't been done due to corruption delays. Seems like a lot of cities are competing to be the first to be lost by the rising seas.
It will still be a popular tourist attraction for scuba divers. So much so that in the future large amounts of amateur divers will end up dead inside the sunken buildings.
Venice has always been a question of when poseidon will eat it not if.
There was a long period where the thought was that, of course, Italy would create some engineering marvel to save the city. I remember watching a documentary on the efforts.
Nobody really expected a combination of increased global warming meeting an unprecedented collapse in national competence throughout the West.
Yeah, I don't think money is well spent trying to save Venice. I'd argue it's in the spot where, it's going to get eaten by the sea probably well before we as a a species can engineer our way out of this mess or engineer a way to protect sites like that. Like the sea has been trying to eat that city since it's conception.
Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a story about this. (seems to be a legitimate free online version as far as I can tell)
In the middle of the fish market, Ludovico Salerno, one of Carlo’s best friends, had his stalls of scuba gear. Carlo’s two Japanese customers were there. He greeted them and handed his tanks to Salerno, who began refilling them from his machine. They conversed in quick, slangy Italian while the tanks filled. When they were done, Carlo paid him and led the Japanese back to his boat. They got in and stowed their backpacks under the canvas decking, while Carlo pulled the scuba tanks on board.
“We are ready to voyage at Torcello?” one asked, and the other smiled and repeated the question. Their names were Hamada and Taku. They had made a few jokes concerning the latter name’s similarity to Carlo’s own, but Taku was the one with less Italian, so the sallies hadn’t gone on for long. They had hired him four days before, at Salerno’s stall.
“Yes,” Carlo said. He rowed out of the Piazza and up back canals past Campo Santa Maria Formosa, which was nearly as crowded as the Piazza. Beyond that the canals were empty, and only an occasional roof-house marred the look of flooded tranquility.
“That part of city Venice here not many people live,” Hamada observed. “Not houses on houses.”
“That’s true,” Carlo replied. As he rowed past San Zanipolo and the hospital, he explained, “It’s too close to the hospital here, where many diseases were contained. Sicknesses, you know.”
“Ah, the hospital!” Hamada nodded, as did Taku. “We have swam hospital in our Venice voyage previous to that one here. Salvage many fine statues from lowest rooms.”
“Stone lions,” Taku added. “Many stone lions with wings in room below 2040 waterline.”
Venice has always been a question of when poseidon will eat it not if.
There was a long period where the thought was that, of course, Italy would create some engineering marvel to save the city. I remember watching a documentary on the efforts.
Nobody really expected a combination of increased global warming meeting an unprecedented collapse in national competence throughout the West.
It was always pretty pie in the sky of what they would have to do to save it but now I don't think there is any reasonable way to save the bulk of it. With the changes to the climate and rising sea levels its on the clock and the clock is running out rapidly.
How much damage will the sea water do to various parts of the city? Like I know sea water is pretty rough on metal but what about the stone and concrete of some of the more famous structures? Because diving down to see it is probably a real thing for future generations.
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Patricia was in 2015, but it was in the same general area.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Patricia
It landed at 150 and was in Mexico. Though I remember it
You don't remember it because it didn't do much. It was tiny and hit a remote area
Yeah, Patricia could've been a lot worse. If it had hit Puerto Vallarta it would've been really bad, that part of the coast is a big tourism destination.
The shitting on PR is of course infuriating, but stating that disaster relief funding is at 'ridiculous' levels has troubling implications. Pulling that $10 million from FEMA to put towards ICE is just for starters, I guess.
I'm sure this is not an unfamiliar sight to your average Monstrum tempestas, but holy fucking fuck is that an eye opening look at a storm.
They should embed that video in EAS evacuation messages.
A single, not particularly large university in North Carolina had $140 million in damages from Florence. Natural disasters are expensive.
I just do not have the words to express the feelings I have at the moment.
Besides, it just costs too damned much to fix all that damage.
#YOMAGAO
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/oct/24/hawaiian-island-erased-by-powerful-hurricane
Steam | XBL
:sad:
The bad news is that isn't really great for them when they return, probably.
If Sir Richard Attenborough has taught me anything recently, it's that the ocean is basically that black goo from Prometheus. Drop a whale carcass on the ocean floor, or a sufficiently large clump of floating debris in the open ocean, and a biological oasis will form out of nowhere.
In less catastrophic news I guess a nor'easter is happening this weekend too.
I wonder how much methane gets released into the atmosphere from a leak like that. You'd have methane coming out of the well like it usually does, and then bacteria breaking down the heavier oil hydrocarbons into methane.
Edit: I read about it a bit, looks like all the methane gets eaten and turned into CO2 by other bacteria while still dissolved in the ocean. Which is not as bad as it could be, but still pretty bad.
"Orkses never lose a battle. If we win we win, if we die we die fightin so it don't count. If we runs for it we don't die neither, cos we can come back for annuver go, see!".
That little dagger of clouds trailing along underneath it drifted though here this morning. The rainfall was as intense as the outer bands of Michael.
Happy November, California.
Well the rainy season doesn't really start until December, but long term yeah Cali's probably screwed
You'll always have 2016!
Like that's a city on a clock. Putting money into keeping it dry seems almost irresponsible, or would be if it wasn't such a tourism revenue machine.
Also, you know, a hugely important historical site.
There was a long period where the thought was that, of course, Italy would create some engineering marvel to save the city. I remember watching a documentary on the efforts.
Nobody really expected a combination of increased global warming meeting an unprecedented collapse in national competence throughout the West.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
It was always pretty pie in the sky of what they would have to do to save it but now I don't think there is any reasonable way to save the bulk of it. With the changes to the climate and rising sea levels its on the clock and the clock is running out rapidly.
PSN:Furlion
I miss the rain.
PSN: ShogunGunshow
Origin: ShogunGunshow