From Live Science
An extremely dangerous storm is slicing toward northwestern Alaska and is expected to bring blizzard conditions and hurricane-strength winds to the state’s west coast. The storm, which formed from a mix of air masses over an area of ocean prone to spinning up strong storms, could be bigger than anything ever seen in the 49th state, the National Weather Service warned.
…
The storm is the product of warm air in the Pacific Ocean tapping into the cold air off Siberia, picking up speed in a jet stream near there and then intensifying as it moved into the Bering Sea – “a place where storms typically intensify,” Brader told OurAmazingPlanet.
The weird storm has an unusually long fetch length, which is the length of the wind blowing in a single direction over water. In this case it’s maybe 1,000 miles (1,600 km), Brader said.
To envision what a long fetch length will do, think about blowing wind with your mouth over a bowl of water; the water piles up at the opposite end. The same thing happens over the ocean. The stronger and longer the fetch length, the bigger the waves it will create.
The winds from the current storm will push high waves ashore and create widespread coastal flooding and severe erosion of the coastline, the NWS warns. Sea levels could rise as much as 10 feet (3 meters) above normal in the Norton Sound and along the Bering Strait coast.
We all know that everything is attributable to global climate warming change disruption, so two points to the first commentor who can post a source attributing the storm or resulting flooding to our old friend…
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Here’s another. Not quite a direct association, but close:
“The current crisis may reflect the controversial changes associated with climate change.”
http://www.huliq.com/3257/storm-approaching-western-alaska-deemed-life-threatening
I wonder where this storm is headed after it hits Alaska?
I will state the obvious. There is no anthropogenic mechanism that explains this storm. The warm water colliding with cold air is the direct result of left over El Nino warm water that has migrated North, as it always does. The cold Arctic air is a duh statement. El Nino’s, arctic air temps and arctic pressure systems have not been mechanistically connected to anthropogenic causes. And neither have extreme weather events. Period. No researched and peer reviewed article has been published proposing a plausible anthropogenic mechanism. Not one. Any media article that appears to state such nonsense competes with snake oil sales pitches of the past.
This has gotten to the point that I am beginning to believe this current high degree of global warming religiosity competes quite well with that of the dark ages. Let us work, hope, and pray that we escape its grip on the more feeble and gullible minded folk.
1) AGW has warmed the oceans, therefore providing higher levels of evaporation, leading to more water vapour in the air.
2) AGW has also caused more warming in the tropics than the the poles. This leads to a higher temperature differential between the tropics and the poles, and therefore much stronger storms are generated.
3)These stronger storms (from the stronger temerature delta) combined with more water vapour in the air results in mega storms like these.
4) What makes this worse, is that the AGW warming of the oceans has caused a slight expansion of the oceas. This thermal expansion of the oceans makes the tidal surge much bigger and more devostating.
5) To make things even worse, carbon aerosols (soot) from China have masked these effects and caused a temporary slow down in warming over the past few years. But capitalism, corporate greed, Halliburton and Oil cartels (and George Bush of course) created the GFC which has caused a global financial downturn which has lead to much lower industrial activity in China over the past few years. This industrial downturn has greatly reduced soot/aerosol emissions in China, resulting in the reduction of the “soot” cooling, and a resumption of the warmening.
Only our faith and devotion to the enlightened ones (Gore, Obama, Hansen) can save us….
Must be an early arrival of one of Hansen’s granchildrens’ storms.
Mark Serreze says:
“The Bering Sea has and always will have these strong storms. What is different now is their potential destructiveness as you lose the sea ice cover,” he added.
Notice the “as you lose” part, meaning the ice loss is ongoing and implying that it will of course continue. Notice also, the choice of “what is different now”. Different from when? I suppose he means from 40 years ago, but he seems to be implying that sea ice cover has never been this low before.
Warmenistas know that by their choice of words, the Believers will get their message.
Matt says:
November 9, 2011 at 3:09 am
Has “slicing” got a special meaning with view to how a storm is approaching, e.g. angle/speed, or is this just another way to say “it’s coming”?
You have to use the correct media phraseology. When the storm reaches the shore line it will slam the coast and be packing hundred mile an hour winds. Perhaps Anthony can recall when this set of phrases became de-rigeur.
@ggm
The problem with your explanation 2) is that the postulated tropical temperature increase has not materialised. The tropics are not warmer than they were before, say 50 years ago. Places like Darwin are cooler, in fact. The warming (guessed by GISS to be in the Arctic) decreases the very effect you claim has been increasing. Points 3, 4 and 5? Fail. The Chinese aerosol idea is total bunk. Don’t repeat it. It is a desperate diversionary ploy by warmists to explain the inexplicable: global cooling in the presence of more and more magic gas.
@Gary Young Mount
“Even if sea ice was at normal levels, there wouldn’t be much sea ice in that area this time of year anyway.”
Agreed. It does not seem to have occurred to the ‘ice protection theory’ people that a) ice floats providing no meaningful protection at all and b) having your house hit by a 5 ft thick ice floe is not better than having it hit by a tsunami.
Your post, ggm, would be even better if you include mechanisms. How’s this one?
Re: warmed oceans. A molecule has been discovered in the soup of ocean salt water that absorbs LW infrared quickly and makes it heavier, thus sinking below the thermocline rapidly. These molecules sink to the bottom of the ocean, loaded with heat (which is what makes them heavier). The warmed molecules eventually find their way back to the ocean top layers (via the overturning circulation) and add heat to El Nino’s, resulting in hotter ones.
That oughta do ya.
;>))
Here’s what a combination of strong winds and “protective ice” did in my neck of the woods a few years ago.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=37462
http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2009/03/strong_winds_push_ice_into_bea.html
pat says:
November 9, 2011 at 3:44 am
Joni Seager is an activist and scholar in feminist geography
Feminists have a different geography to the rest of us? Does that mean they live on a different planet, or just draw it differently?
A different planet i think!
The isobars indicate a pressure at the center of about 930 hPa. That’s beyond extreme…
@Spinifers November 9, 2011 at 5:03 am
The occurrence you are remembering was a megatsunami in Lituya Bay, most likely.
A landslip occurred near the end of the bay, and put out an incredible wall of water. Similar events occur around Hawaii on a fairly regular basis (though of a long interval).
Ice can be a severe problem, particularly when driven by high winds/water
http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/weathermatrix/story/18409/another-ice-surge-sends-chunks-flying-into-homes.asp
We didn’t have these epic storms before teevee and the internet.
This could give some great heavy duty foul weather sailing experience.
RE: ggm
**2) AGW has also caused more warming in the tropics than the the poles. This leads to a higher temperature differential between the tropics and the poles, and therefore much stronger storms are generated.**
You forgot the *sarc*.
But the above statement seems to be a reverse as may AGW proponents have stated that the poles are warming faster.
Paul says:
November 9, 2011 at 5:29 am
Spinifers: that was a 1958 earthquake that caused millions of tons of rock to sheer off and fall in a small bay. The 1720 ft wall of water removed soil down to the bedrock (6 ft diameter trees were removed 1720 ft above the bay.)
Also: anything over 100 ft isn’t a wave, it’s a slap.
One of the science channels had a program on mega tsunamis and included this. They interviewed the guy who happen to be in the bay at anchor to get away from a storm and spend the night. He said he and his son rode out the wave at times to levels of 450 ft. He made this calucation based on the amount of anchor chain he had that played out.
What a ride. Whatyra Bay or some such name.
Good show and worth watching.
Jer0me says:
November 9, 2011 at 5:30 am
“pat says:
November 9, 2011 at 3:44 am
Joni Seager is an activist and scholar in feminist geography
Feminists have a different geography to the rest of us? Does that mean they live on a different planet, or just draw it differently?”
It’s an attempt to restore balance between Yin and Yang. All geographical features are portrayed in a way that emphasizes the importance of spaces such as the hollow space that makes a bowl.
🙂
“could be bigger than anything ever seen in the 49th state,” Ever is long time do they ever as in never ever, or ever as since the 49th state was a state?
RE: My point and a half for providing the first global warming link:
I have discussed this at length with James Hansen, Michael Mann and the UEA. They have suggested that if you could delay giving me the points for a couple of months they would then be worth 24.7 points.
Reply: We can make this accommodation, but we will need a coal train, hockey stick and unsecured server in return… JTF
Alaska’s storms are closely linked to the Aleutian Low atmospheric pressure system http://apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/classes/met430/lopest/pres3/aleutian.htm
In the North Pacific, shifts from one multidecadal PDO regime to another are associated with the corresponding shifts in the strength of the Aleutian Low.
http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/foci/publications/2007/rodi0572.pdf
henrychanceHenry chance says:
November 9, 2011 at 6:46 am
“We didn’t have these epic storms before teevee and the internet.
This could give some great heavy duty foul weather sailing experience.”
And since Al Gore invented the internet its all Gore’s fault. Finally something that isn’t Bush’s fault.
I hope there aren’t any swimming Polar Bears in that area.
This post title makes me want to sing “Storm… To Alaska!!!” loudly.
(to the tune of North to Alaska!)
I hope the Crab fisherman are all tucked up safe an’ sound in a good anchorage…. Wouldn’t wanna be buggerizing around in that weather hauling traps. Blow a dog off a chain it would. 😉
Found this new news piece on that Kivalina village mentioned in the /progressive/group/think piece:
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/kivalina-attempts-contain-storm-panic
So this “poster town for global warming” is on a silty small barrier island, barely above the current sea level, which on geological timescales come and go in the blink of an eye, but the recent juxtaposition of low sea ice with fall storms has increased the human-noticeable rate of erosion… Which lead to them concluding it must be the fault of anthropogenic global warming of which the natural recourse is suing “Exxon Mobil and other top carbon polluters” for causing the ongoing destruction of their island.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the (C)AGW debate, it’s that anything climate-related can be made to sound plausible when there’s enough money to be gained by convincingly claiming it. I wonder how much the lawyers are charging to pursue the case. Heck, I’m wondering who is paying the lawyers, as it’s highly doubtful those villagers could afford suing “Big Oil” by themselves.
A very strong storm (then estimated as a “200-yr” storm) hit the region in the fall of 1963 doing a lot of damage to the U.S. research camp located in Barrow and prompted some interesting studies and recommendations in the literature about how local development should proceed in the face of a warming climate.
We reviewed this in our (2007) World Climate Report article “Settling on an unstable Alaskan shore: A warning unheeded.”
-Chip