OK. First, what happened. A very large Cat 1 hurricane moved north, riding and gaining energy from the Gulf Stream waters. Waters that are 2 degrees warmer than they were a century ago. There was a blocking high over Greenland that steered the storm into the North East.
At this same time, there were two cold storms, one coming from the west, one from the north. And then there was a full moon, with very high tides.
Now a Tropical storm gets it's energy from the warm water. But a land cylclonic storm gets it's energy from temperature differential. The blending of the three storms as Sandy came onshore created a monster storm, a tropical storm with a blizzard on it's western margin.
While the warming of the ocean undoubtedly contributed to the size and duration of Sandy, the other factors were really quite independent of global warming. Storms have come from the west and north before and blended, creating a larger storm. Full moons routinely have high tides. For all four factors to come together as they did, just a real bad run of luck. Kind of like throwing 4 snake eyes in a row.
The real joker in this is that fact that this Cat 1 hurricane had the lowest pressure reading of any ever recorded that far north. The meteorologists are going to be studying that for a long time.
Yes, global warming had a minor role in this storm, but the primary factor was just plain lousy luck.
That is a correct analysis and the only 2 things I want to add or elaborate on are 1.):
Waters that are 2 degrees warmer than they were a century ago.
and 2.) The storm surge
To 1.) As You already pointed out Sandy was amplified by the cold front which moved in from Canada. That`s the cold front I`ve been sitting under since September and beginning October we already had snow....since about 10 years winter in
Central Canada has been starting a bit sooner and hanging in a bit longer...(which is not the case for Eastern Canada) Environment Canada points out that happens when the Atlantic decadal cycle and the Pacific decadal cycle is such that the Pacific decadal cycle is at a low while the Atlantic decadal cycle is at a high as far as average water temperatures are concerned.
Sandy could have been much worse had it carried more moisture but thank God it did not as the tail end of Sandy showed.
Air shrinks only at a rate of 1/273 rd. per degree temperature drop if it`s dry. But for every mole H2O vapor 22.4 liters of water vapor collapse to a volume of only 18 cubic centimeters...that is a "shrinkage" factor of 1244 and determines how powerful such a storm can be.
I was watching Sandy on the Weather Channel because the sensationalism on the other news channels disgusted me, knowing what people in the affected area are going through. I wish I had recorded the data which very clearly showed how "dry" Sandy was when compared to Katrina or the other Hurricanes.
2.) New York`s Long Island geographic orientation is another "snake eye" which has been rolled in this unfortunate series of events.
Sandy`s eye was in the worst possible track which resulted that the counter clockwise winds around the eye just happened to blow into the
Long Island Sound.
If Sandy`s eye had been positioned just a bit farther North it would have counteracted the high tide.
But it was not. That did not matter to Michael Moore who was given the opportunity by CNN the next day to make cynical comments like "get used to it there is more to come"....in the context of climate change and if the Republicans win this election. I`m glad to see that people who write in this forum are a lot more concerned about their fellow Americans in the affected area rather than trying to score points like Michael Moore. When CNN announced that Michael Moore was going to be interviewed I was wondering if he`ld be asked about the latest hate video "MoveOn.org" he helped to produce:
Michael Moore's Latest Hate Filled Video Rant | WaznmentobeWaznmentobe
But knew that this was not going to happen,...not on CNN or MSNBC etc.
What is all the buzz about "voter suppression" anyway?
I can`t understand it. In Canada there is no way that anybody could drop a ballot into the box without the proper I.D. and nobody here calls that "voter suppression" when people who don`t have proof of citizenship can`t vote.
