The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😉
Main Topic: Watching Hurricane Ida Day Four…A Climate Crisis Day We Will Hold In Infamy
Dear Diary. I’ve been dreading this day ever since when forecasting I saw Katrina affect New Orleans as a forecaster in 2005, asking the question, what if a CAT4 or CAT5 hurricane made a direct hit on New Orleans? Well, ironically on Katrina’s infamous sixteenth anniversary, we are about to find out. Not many people know that just the western eyewall of Katrina just grazed New Orleans, so there was the potential for far worse systems to affect that city:
As of this writing Ida is officially a strong CAT4 with sustained winds of 150 mph, but reconnaissance information we are looking at may bump the system to a dreaded CAT5 status shortly. To be brief, literally much of southeast Louisiana is about to be wiped off the map regardless whether or not Ida gets upgraded to a CAT5. Some coastal locations will become uninhabitable. It’s going to take many months before the city of New Orleans itself recovers from wind damage well in excess of 100 mph. Will the improved levees hold? That’s a big question we will try to answer today.
I was tempted to write the following on Twitter, but I was afraid that I’d get knocked off that social media platform:
Sorry Louisiana. Sunday’s Hurricane Ida disaster show is sponsored by our good friends at Amoco, Exxon, Chevron, and British Petroleum. Our second Covid19 show is brought to you by our pundit friends at Fox News. Enjoy the fright fest this week.
Also, here are four very important notes:
Today we will do more of the same, sifting through many messages to be posted on today’s diary for posterity on this awful climate crisis historic day.
Here are more notes on the Ida. (As usual, the most important latest articles and notes will be at the top of this list, which I will frequently update as Sunday progresses.):
Here is an “ET” report from Saturday:
Here is more climate and weather news from Sunday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”