Harvey Caused by Climate Change?

Climate change sets up the conditions for various weather incidents. So I would say in some respect it contributes to them. Can humans change the cycle, not enough to matter over the next 100 years.

 

Unprecedented? Are you saying there were no cat. 4 hurricanes before the industrial revolution?

As far as cost goes, I'm willing to bet Andrew far surpasses the cost of Harvey if you adjust for inflation.

 

I posted this ealier. Maybe you missed it. Notice the high dollar hurricanes of the 21st century. Billions and billions. We'll see where Harvey comes in - I've heard it will surpass all.

Numbers adjusted for inflation 2010
1. Katrina (LA/MS/AL/SE FL) 2005 3 $105,840,000,000
2. Sandy (CT/DE/MA/MD/ME/NC/NH/NJ/NY/PA/RI) 2012 2 $60,000,000,000
3. Andrew (SE FL/SE LA) 1992 5 $45,561,000,000
4. Ike (TX/LA/MS) 2008 2 $27,790,000,000
5. Wilma (FL) 2005 3 $20,587,000,000
6. Ivan (FL/AL) 2004 3 $19,832,000,000
7. Charley (FL) 2004 4 $15,820,000,000
8. Irene (NC/VA/MD/DE/NJ/NY/CT/VT/NH/ME) 2011 1 $15,800,000,000

 

I missed the caption at the top.

BTW, Sandy wasn't serious storm by any measure. Where it hit simply wasn't built to withstand even a relatively minor hurricane.

Could you imagine a tropical storm hitting LA? The dollar amounts for damage would make Harvey look insignificant.

 

Intensity is measured by category. What made this hurricane a problem is slow movement allowing rain to fall on an area that floods. Climate change has nothing to do with it, in fact the US has gotten cooler.

 

Prior to it hitting one of the weather guys was saying the model that had it heading northwest would not happen because of the high pressure to the northwest of where it would hit.


“In Harvey’s case, a big high-pressure system over the southeastern U.S. is trying to push the storm in one direction, but a big high pressure system over the southwestern U.S. is trying to push the storm in the opposite direction.” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-harvey-why-is-it-so-extreme/


Sounds more of a case of really bad timing.

 

Certainly there were other factors. However, I don't think Harvey would have been as bad, if not for AGW. The Gulf temperature was very warm, and yes, much of this is because it's summer, but some of it was also from AGW. Also, the increased air temperature makes it readily absorb more water. So it's Double Jeopardy in Houston.

 

Damage is a piss poor metric to measure "worst" by. The 1900 Galvastan hurricane killed 8K people. Harvey 50 so far.

 

You could be right, I don’t pay attention to Gulf temps, being on the East coast (see the ocean from the front door), now we have to worry about Irma, and the weather guy said the Atlantic is pretty warm for that one.