this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2024
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Hurricane Betsy — the second storm of the year — hit New Orleans on September 9, 1965. Katrina — the 11th storm — hit New Orleans August 29th, 2005. And now we apparently have Category 5 storms forming in late June/early July.
Every hurricane season (and hurricane) is different, obviously, and that’s one city’s experience but it makes me wonder if there will even be a distinct “hurricane season” in a few decades.
Not just early July. A full 16 days earlier than the previous record from 2005. The record before that was Allen(so the first hurricane of the season) all the way back in August 5 of 1980.
They also used to be rare, and are getting less so. Since 1924, only 39 are known. Since 1960, there have been 30. 8 of those(so ~20%) are since 2016.
Iirc they're talking about adding more category levels too because 5 just doesn't cut it anymore.
Hey, I like your optimism, assuming we'll still be here in a few decades.
Ironically, New Orleans might be OK because we have elaborate flood control systems and have always dealt with flooding. Vulnerable places like the Netherlands and New Orleans are what we all assume will end up flooded. (And we will.)
But we’re built for it. A river delta floods sometimes anyway. I’m honestly more worried about places where snowmelt creates small streams now but in the future, will just create terrible floods every Spring and then draught immediately after.
To me, the scary part isn’t having water in the streets. It’s climate change. We had an issue recently where there wasn’t enough fresh water draining into the Mississippi to push the salt water back. It ultimately never reached NOLA but it reached plenty of people downriver. And because of a drought in the Midwest.