#extreme meteorology

[reasonsforhope]

As relentless rains pounded LA, the city’s “sponge” infrastructure helped gather 8.6 billion gallons of water—enough to sustain over 100,000 households for a year.

Earlier this month, the future fell on Los Angeles. A long band of moisture in the sky, known as an atmospheric river, dumped 9 inches of rain on the city over three days—over half of what the city typically gets in a year. It’s the kind of extreme rainfall that’ll get ever more extreme as the planet warms.

The city’s water managers, though, were ready and waiting. Like other urban areas around the world, in recent years LA has been transforming into a “sponge city,” replacing impermeable surfaces, like concrete, with permeable ones, like dirt and plants. It has also built out “spreading grounds,” where water accumulates and soaks into the earth.

With traditional dams and all that newfangled spongy infrastructure, between February 4 and 7 the metropolis captured 8.6 billion gallons of stormwater, enough to provide water to 106,000 households for a year. For the rainy season in total, LA has accumulated 14.7 billion gallons.

Long reliant on snowmelt and river water piped in from afar, LA is on a quest to produce as much water as it can locally. “There's going to be a lot more rain and a lot less snow, which is going to alter the way we capture snowmelt and the aqueduct water,” says Art Castro, manager of watershed management at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Dams and spreading grounds are the workhorses of local stormwater capture for either flood protection or water supply.”

Centuries of urban-planning dogma dictates using gutters, sewers, and other infrastructure to funnel rainwater out of a metropolis as quickly as possible to prevent flooding. Given the increasingly catastrophic urban flooding seen around the world, though, that clearly isn’t working anymore, so now planners are finding clever ways to capture stormwater, treating it as an asset instead of a liability. “The problem of urban hydrology is caused by a thousand small cuts,” says Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute at UC Berkeley. “No one driveway or roof in and of itself causes massive alteration of the hydrologic cycle. But combine millions of them in one area and it does. Maybe we can solve that problem with a thousand Band-Aids.”

Or in this case, sponges. The trick to making a city more absorbent is to add more gardens and other green spaces that allow water to percolate into underlying aquifers—porous subterranean materials that can hold water—which a city can then draw from in times of need. Engineers are also greening up medians and roadside areas to soak up the water that’d normally rush off streets, into sewers, and eventually out to sea...

To exploit all that free water falling from the sky, the LADWP has carved out big patches of brown in the concrete jungle. Stormwater is piped into these spreading grounds and accumulates in dirt basins. That allows it to slowly soak into the underlying aquifer, which acts as a sort of natural underground tank that can hold 28 billion gallons of water.

During a storm, the city is also gathering water in dams, some of which it diverts into the spreading grounds. “After the storm comes by, and it's a bright sunny day, you’ll still see water being released into a channel and diverted into the spreading grounds,” says Castro. That way, water moves from a reservoir where it’s exposed to sunlight and evaporation, into an aquifer where it’s banked safely underground.

On a smaller scale, LADWP has been experimenting with turning parks into mini spreading grounds, diverting stormwater there to soak into subterranean cisterns or chambers. It’s also deploying green spaces along roadways, which have the additional benefit of mitigating flooding in a neighborhood: The less concrete and the more dirt and plants, the more the built environment can soak up stormwater like the actual environment naturally does.

As an added benefit, deploying more of these green spaces, along with urban gardens, improves the mental health of residents. Plants here also “sweat,” cooling the area and beating back the urban heat island effect—the tendency for concrete to absorb solar energy and slowly release it at night. By reducing summer temperatures, you improve the physical health of residents. “The more trees, the more shade, the less heat island effect,” says Castro. “Sometimes when it’s 90 degrees in the middle of summer, it could get up to 110 underneath a bus stop.”

LA’s far from alone in going spongy. Pittsburgh is also deploying more rain gardens, and where they absolutely must have a hard surface—sidewalks, parking lots, etc.—they’re using special concrete bricks that allow water to seep through. And a growing number of municipalities are scrutinizing properties and charging owners fees if they have excessive impermeable surfaces like pavement, thus incentivizing the switch to permeable surfaces like plots of native plants or urban gardens for producing more food locally.

So the old way of stormwater management isn’t just increasingly dangerous and ineffective as the planet warms and storms get more intense—it stands in the way of a more beautiful, less sweltering, more sustainable urban landscape. LA, of all places, is showing the world there’s a better way.

-via Wired, February 19, 2024

[stealth-science]

There was a nice looking tornado on the north side of town today.

[thechembow]

The Tornado War is On!

June 6, 2024 - The Human Frequency

This includes hurricanes too. Learn how you can stop severe weather in your area and be part of the geo-restoration solution.

Our website: https://www.thechembow.com

All orgonite pendants for people and pets are buy one get one 50% off all June! Treat yourself and a friend to beautiful EMF protection on the go. Discount applied at checkout.

[verybadfairy]

Am I sick in the head?

There's this storm chaser

I follow;

I think he prefers hurricanes

over people.

I like the way he laughs.

His laugh tastes like that summer

my apartment caught fire.

All my storms,

how I want them worse.

My heart is the same fucking

shattered glass.

🍒 Jack Nox Warner 🍒

[tornadoquest]

Tornado Quest Top Science Links For June 1 - 8, 2024 #science #weather #climate #tornado #hurricane #drought #okwx

Greetings everybody! Thanks so much for stopping by. This has been an above average year to date for tornado activity so we’ll continue with our overview of tornado safety. With the Atlantic hurricane season now officially upon us, I’ve got a review of this years hurricane outlook and a link on hurricane safety. Don’t miss our weekly look at the latest US Drought Monitor update. There’s plenty of…

[vrlivechannel]

GUJARAT GARMI  :  હાય...ગરમી.. બપોરે 12થી 4 શૈક્ષણિક કાર્ય બંધ રાખવાનો નિર્ણય

GUJARAT GARMI  :  ગુજરાતમાં ઉનાળાએ રૌદ્ર સ્વરૂપ ધારણ કરી લીધું છે. છેલ્લા કેટલાક દિવસથી ગરમીએ સમગ્ર ગુજરાતમાં હાહાકાર મચાવી દીધો છે. આકાશમાંથી આગની જ્વાળાઓ વરસી રહી છે. ત્યારે અસહ્ય ગરમીના કારણે લોકો ત્રાહિ મામ્ પોકારી ગયા છે. ગુજરાતમાં ગરમી 45 ડિગ્રીએ પહોંચી ગઈ છે. આગામી પાંચ દિવસ માટે હવામાન વિભાગે એલર્ટ જાહેર કર્યું છે, સાથે કામ વગર બહાર ન નીકળવાની સલાહ પણ આવી છે. હવામાન વિભાગ પ્રમાણે, આગામી…

[worldmetday]

How to keep the 1.5° goal alive? 

The WMO State of Global Climate report reminds everyone of the urgency to tackle the climate crisis. Everywhere in the world, people are already suffering from the negative impact of climate change. Rising temperatures, extreme weather, ocean heat and acidification, ice and glacier retreat affects human health, economies and ecosystems. Science shows that negative impacts are increasing and some changes risk being irreversible. 

Climate action is essential to sustainable development, including good health, access to water and sanitation and freedom from poverty and hunger. There is no avenue for human development without prioritizing climate action. The Paris Agreement on climate change laid the ground to design robust climate action through the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and the ratcheting mechanism that obliges governments to review and enhance their goals every five years.

Everyone agrees on the need to abide by the lower 1.5° target of the Paris ambitions.

Can we still reach it and under which conditions?

How is it that despite scientific evidences and a wealth of climate data, public policies are not going faster and wider?

What is expected from the different actors – including the public, corporate and financial sector?

How do young people have a say in increasing climate ambition and contribute to moving the needle?

Read here the speakers' bios.

[miss-mj]

"Chaser of the Tempest"

Lyrics: Melissa J. Daniels

In the silence of the eye, where the wild winds have died,

Your echo lingers, a ghost in the overcast skies.

With your tempest soul and the storm-chaser's pride,

You left in a whirl, no time for goodbyes.

The science of the heavens, in your blue eyes it burned,

A pursuit of the furious, where few ever dared to turn.

In the clutches of the spiral, fate was cruelly turned,

Now I'm sifting through the wreckage, with the lessons that I've learned.

You read the charts like poetry, a language all your own,

The siren call of tornadoes, through every seed you'd sown.

A magnetic field around you, into the gale you were thrown,

Your intelligence, your drive, through every storm you've flown.

Chaser of the tempest, seeker of the wind's raw might,

You found beauty in the chaos, in the terror of the night.

Now you're just a whisper in the fury and the light,

Chaser of the tempest, lost in the eternal flight.

They tell your tales with reverence, they speak your name with awe,

A pioneer, a maverick, the greatest they ever saw.

With every crack of thunder, I'm reminded of the flaw,

That took you from the living, by the tornado's hungry maw.

You left a trail of wonder, in the science of the skies,

A legacy of knowledge, where your immortal spirit lies.

But in this quiet room, where your shadow never dies,

I'm haunted by the love that in your blue eyes crystallized.

Chaser of the tempest, seeker of the wind's raw might,

You found beauty in the chaos, in the terror of the night.

Now you're just a memory in the storm's relentless flight,

Chaser of the tempest, swallowed by the widest sight.

All the accolades and honors, they hang upon the wall,

But they're just empty tributes, they don't mean anything at all.

For every clap of thunder, for every rainfall,

Is just another moment, that I miss your siren call.

Chaser of the tempest, seeker of the wind's raw might,

You found beauty in the chaos, in the terror of the night.

Now I search the heavens for your distant guiding light,

Chaser of the tempest, in the blackness out of sight.

In the heart of the vortex, where you met your solemn end,

I find my solace knowing, with the winds you still ascend.

Forever you will chase them, my love, my comet's trend,

Chaser of the tempest, until the very end.

☆For Carl Young

[emergencymanagementnews]

The Bureau of Meteorology has just released its outlook for the coming season, detailing the risk of tropical cyclones, floods, heatwaves, fires and storms.

[tauruswiftie]

working on a writing project that needs a lot of worldbuilding and supplementary reading abt history is so fun bc it basically eliminates boredom. no internet? ok gonna zone out n think abt my characters. procrastinating? time to read about venetian ships from the early middle ages so that one (1) scene can be more accurate. need a book rec? cool i can just read something from the time period(s) that inspired my setting(s). it’s so awesome truly

[breslicht]

Kite Loop Greniu

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Rains, destruction and deaths in the south of Brazil demand a new term to define a climate catastrophe

Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced in Rio Grande do Sul floods

On April 27, MetSul, a meteorology agency, posted on X (former Twitter) a warning about a cold front, heavy rain, gales, and hail, and risks of severe weather in parts of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state. This is the same state that endured three climate disasters in 2023 alone, with 80 people confirmed dead and many cities hit.

The following day, the agency posted another alert: ”Serious risk of floods in southern Brazil because of excessive to extreme rain. It has already rained 200 mm [8 inches] in some areas and projections indicate much more water coming. 2023 scenes of flooded cities will be repeated.”

Two days later, they began to post about overflowing creeks, rising river levels, and flooding while The National Institute of Meteorology (Inmet) put the entire state under alert, showing a varying scale from yellow to red, the latter being the larger portion. On April 30, the local government confirmed eight dead and 21 people disappeared.

Ever since the publication of this story on May 7, the worst natural disaster in the history of Rio Grande do Sul has registered 100 dead, 128 disappeared, and over 1.4 million people affected. Sums that seem still underreported when one sees the images of entire cities underwater.

Among the 497 cities in the state, 414 were hit so far. And, as you read it, there is a chance people are still waiting on roofs for rescue, trapped in houses and buildings surrounded by water. Others are still looking for victims of landslides; and many are without access to clean water, power, or ways of coming and going from their cities, with bridges missing and roads destroyed. The rain is moving south and is forecasted to return to other cities already impacted.

Continue reading.

[reasonsforhope]

Since the 1960s, the world has seen a spike in the number of natural disasters, largely due to rising sea levels and an ever gradually increasing global surface temperature.

The good news? We’re getting better at helping each other when disasters strike.

According to a recent study from Our World In Data, the global toll from natural disasters has dramatically dropped in the last century.

“Low-frequency, high-impact events such as earthquakes and tsunamis are not preventable, but such high losses of human life are,” wrote lead authors Hannah Ritchie and Pablo Rosado.

To conduct their research, Ritchie and Rosado gathered data from all geophysical, meteorological, and climate-related disasters since 1900. That includes earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, drought, wildfires, severe storms, and mass floods. 

In the early-to-mid 20th century, the average annual death toll from disasters was very high, often climbing to over a million. 

For example, the study cites that in 1931, 2.7 million people died from the Yangtze–Huai River floods. In 1943, 1.9 million died from the Bangladeshi famine of 1943. Even low-frequency events had extreme death tolls. 

“In recent decades we have seen a substantial decline in deaths,” Ritchie and Rosado observed. “Even in peak years with high-impact events, the death toll has not exceeded 500,000 since the mid-1960s.”

Why has the global death toll from disasters dropped? 

There are a number of factors at play in the improvement of disaster aid, but the leading component is that human beings are getting better at predicting and preparing for natural disasters. 

“We know from historical data that the world has seen a significant reduction in disaster deaths through earlier prediction, more resilient infrastructure, emergency preparedness, and response systems,” Ritchie and Rosado explained in their study. 

On April 6, [2024],a 7.2 magnitude earthquake rocked the city of Hualien in Taiwan. Days later, as search and rescue continues, the death toll currently rests at 16. 

Experts have praised Taiwan for their speedy response and recovery, and attributed the low death toll to the measures that Taiwan implemented after an earthquake of similar strength hit the city 25 years earlier. Sadly, on that day in 1999, 2,400 people died and 11,000 were injured. 

In an interview with Al Jazeera, Wang Yu — assistant professor at National Taiwan University — said that event, known as the Chi-Chi earthquake, revolutionized the way Taiwan approached natural disasters. 

“There were lots of lessons we learned, including the improvement of building codes, understanding earthquake warning signs, the development and implementation of earthquake early warning (EEW) systems and earthquake education,” said Wang. 

Those same sensors and monitoring systems allowed authorities to create “shakemaps” during Hualien’s latest earthquake, which helped them direct rescue teams to the regions that were hit the hardest. 

This, in conjunction with stronger building codes, regular earthquake drills, and public education campaigns, played a huge role in reducing the number of deaths from the event. 

And Taiwan’s safeguards on April 6 are just one example of recent measures against disasters. Similar models in strengthening prediction, preparedness, and recovery time have been employed around the world when it comes to rescuing victims of floods, wildfires, tornados, and so on. 

What else can we learn from this study?

When concluding the findings from their study, Ritchie and Rosado emphasized the importance of increasing safety measures for everyone.

Currently, there is still a divide between populations with high gross national income and populations living in extreme poverty.

Even low-income countries that infrequently have natural disasters have a much higher death rate  because they are vulnerable to collapse, displacement, and disrepair. 

“Those at low incomes are often the most vulnerable to disaster events; improving living standards, infrastructure, and response systems in these regions will be key to preventing deaths from natural disasters in the coming decades,” surmised Ritchie and Rosado.

“Overall development, poverty alleviation, and knowledge-sharing of how to increase resilience to natural disasters will therefore be key to reducing the toll of disasters in the decades to come."

-via GoodGoodGood, April 11, 2024

[tornadoquest]

Tornado Quest Top Science Links For May 18 - 26, 2023 #science #weather #climate #climatechange #astronomy #drought #misinformation

Tornado Quest micro-podcast for May 18 – 26, 2023 Hello to one and all. I’m glad you stopped by. Starting with this post, the Tornado Quest Top Science Links update will now be every Friday afternoon, central USA time. The website has been reworked into a more streamlined, cleaner format that will make it easier for you to find the information and updates you need. I will continue this week with…

[rajeshahuja]

Burning planet: why are the world’s heatwaves getting more intense?

Burning planet: why are the world’s heatwaves getting more intense?

  This article titled “Burning planet: why are the world’s heatwaves getting more intense? ” was written by Fiona Harvey, Ashifa Kassam in Madrid, Nina Lakhani in Phoenix, and Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi, for The Observer on Saturday 18th June 2022 16.26 UTC When the temperature readings started to come through from Antarctic weather stations in early March, scientists at first thought there…

[anarchywoofwoof]

yesterday, november 18 2023 was the first day in recorded history where the global 2m surface temperature exceeded 2 degrees Celsius above the 1850-1900 baseline.

the 1850-1900 period serves as a baseline for the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) primarily because it represents the pre-industrial era, just before the widespread industrialization that began in the late 19th century.

this era is important for understanding the effects of climate change because it provides a relatively stable reference point for the earth's climate system before human activities - particularly the burning of fossil fuels - began to significantly alter the composition of earth's atmosphere. therefore, this period offers some of the earliest reliable meteorological data, allowing scientists to establish a baseline climate against which current and future changes can be compared.

the last time it was close to this hot was +1.99°C above the baseline, on Feb. 28, 2016 during hottest part of El Nino

yesterday, the value was +2.01°C before the hottest part of El Nino.

the 2°C threshold is widely regarded as a critical limit beyond which climate change impacts become increasingly severe and potentially irreversible. this includes increasing extreme weather events, over time a 40~ foot sea-level rise, and massive loss of biodiversity. some of which we are seeing take place before our eyes right now, every single day. all of these headlines are from this year alone:

Ocean scientists concerned over uptick of whale deaths on Northeast coasts

Penguin Chicks Are Dying Off as Antarctic Sea Ice Disappears

More than 10 billion snow crabs starved to death off the coast of Alaska. But why?

Texas oysters in dire straits

Tens of Thousands of Dead Fish Wash Ashore on Gulf Coast in Texas

Drone footage shows millions of dead fish blanket river

Mass death of Amazonian dolphins prompts fears for vulnerable species

‘Crisis period': Dead or dying marine mammals increasingly washing up on SoCal beaches

bear in mind that this is because we're already seeing a near-average of 1.5°c warming this year. this was not expected until the year 2050. like.. it's happening now.

the 1.5°c warming threshold, which is often discussed alongside the 2°c threshold, holds its own significance in the context of climate change and the efforts to mitigate its impacts. this threshold was brought into prominence by the paris agreement, which aimed to limit global warming to well below 2°c, preferably to 1.5°c, compared to pre-industrial levels.

we have effectively blown past this barricade and are barreling toward another. the capitalist train is leaving the tracks and taking us with it.