Climate Change? Nahhh ...

In other words, no way Jose.

 

This post really did age like a fucking champ. Nice pull, @SnarkShark.

 

12 years is a long time. It's not like anyone suggested it would never happen again.

But, if you recall, the predictions after the hurricanes from 12-15 years ago, we were told that more hurricanes, and more powerful hurricanes were coming our way.

Even Harvey wasn't really a remarkable storm. What was remarkable was how a couple of high pressure systems boxed it in over Houston:

Why is Harvey so stuck in place over Texas?
Hurricanes are circular structures with winds that spiral counterclockwise, but they are steered by larger wind patterns in the greater atmosphere that push them in one direction. 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. “The systems have equal strength and are cancelling each other out,” leaving Harvey stranded, Masters says. “It’s highly unusual to have two highs on either side of a hurricane of equal strength.” The only other time Masters recalls that happening to a huge storm system was Hurricane Mitch in 1998, which struck Central America and killed an estimated 7,000 people in Honduras.

Hurricane Harvey: Why Is It So Extreme?

 

Those 12 years included Sandy, one of the most devastating weather events in American history.

 

Must have been a spike in ocean temperature in the 1920s and 30s. The 50s and 60s, and 1980s as well.

List of the most intense tropical cyclones - Wikipedia

 

I'm sure all the climate experts around here are aware that the science (!) w.r.t. tropical cyclones and AGW is that these storms seem likely to become: A) slightly less frequent; but B) slightly more intense.

 

Irma seems pretty intense.

 

Right. Which is why the point YF passive-aggressively made with those links was nonsense.

 

I just can't stand the "oh, but look, it's cold outside" mentality, which is in the same sphere as YF'a links.

The world is getting warmer unnaturally fast. I don't think anyone knows how that's going to affect/effect/impact the world and our existence going forward, but that petty attitude is insulting.

 

Hurricanes are just angrier since November.

 

Fair enough, but I'm not too impressed with the "Harvey* is what climate change looks like" lines, either.

*Or "Insert Named Storm"

 

Igor, Tomas (Cat 2), Irene, Sandy, Ingrid (Cat 1), Joaquin, Matthew and Otto all Atlantic Hurricanes from 2010 until now, plus Tropical Storm Erika. All retired names. Matthew (Cat 5) Killed 600+ people. That's 6 Cat 3 or better in 7 years.

• Hurricane Patricia October 20, 2015 – October 24, 2015-This was a powerful storm in the Eastern Pacific, which became the strongest hurricane ever recorded in the Western Hemisphere. Intensifying to a Category Five Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale thanks in large part to the extremely warm waters of the Eastern Pacific resulting from an El Nino, Patricia had maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour with gusts well over 200 miles per hour while its minimum central pressure dipped to 872 millibars, or approximately 25.75 inches of Hg (Mercury). The strongest storm prior to that was Hurricane Wilma in the Atlantic in October 2005, which had a lowest pressure of 882 millibars, or 26.05 inches of Hg. The storm eventually came ashore in the sparsely populated region of Southwestern Mexico and left six people dead, and caused some $325 million dollars in damage.