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Climate-changed air patterns push more wind storms toward coasts warns a new study. [1]

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Date: 2023-04-11  

Miami Beach Rowing Club is the first rowing club in Florida to receive the designation of Paralympic Sport Club from the United States Olympic Committee.

Twin studies have revealed dangers to major cities such as Miami, N’Awlins, and Houston as sea level rise has alarmed scientists regarding how much peril the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico and the SE coasts, particularly Florida, are in.

The American Meteorology Society study (behind a paywall) found a dramatic acceleration of sea levels during 2010-2022 and its impact on storm surges. Southeastern and Gulf of Mexico coastlines have seen an eye-popping rise of five inches ( a ½ inch rise in water levels yearly) since 2010.

See Lefty’s diary on sea level rise.

x Here are all the hurricanes that reached Category 5 status over the Gulf of Mexico since 2005. IR loops at peak intensities.



Katrina, Rita, Michael and now Ian. pic.twitter.com/DOLVWhTJQY — Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) April 3, 2023

A study says climate change may push more hurricanes toward US coasts

Changes in air patterns as the world warms will likely push more and nastier hurricanes up against the United States' east and Gulf coasts, especially in Florida, a new study said. While other studies have projected how human-caused climate change will probably alter the frequency, strength and moisture of tropical storms, the study in Friday's journal Science Advances focuses on the crucial aspect of where hurricanes are going. It's all about projected changes in steering currents, said study lead author Karthik Balaguru, a Pacific Northwest National Laboratory climate scientist. “Along every coast they're kind of pushing the storms closer to the U.S.,” Balaguru said. The steering currents move from south to north along the Gulf of Mexico; on the East Coast, the normal west-to-east steering is lessened considerably and can be more east-to-west, he said. Overall, in a worst-case warming scenario, the number of times a storm hits parts of the U.S. coast in general will probably increase by one-third by the end of the century, the study said, based on sophisticated climate and hurricane simulations, including a system researchers developed.

There are dangerous threats to America’s financial system from rising sea levels and heavy rainfall.

From EOS:

A 2023 study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change has drawn attention to a massive real estate bubble in the U.S. — property that is overvalued by $121-$237 billion because of current flood risk. And that may be an underestimate. A 2022 study by actuarial and consulting firm Milliman put a much higher price tag on this bubble — $520 billion, with almost 3.5 million homeowners facing a decrease in property value greater than 10% if flood risk were priced correctly. For comparison, the U.S. government spent $431 billion via the Troubled Asset Relief Program to help people recover from the 2008 housing crisis. In an interview last week with cnbc.com, one of the few skeptics who recognized the housing market was on the brink of collapse in 2007 — Dave Burt, CEO of investment research firm DeltaTerra Capital — agreed that a huge U.S. housing bubble existed because of unpriced flood risk. “We think of this repricing issue as maybe a quarter of the size and magnitude of the [global financial crisis] in aggregate, but of course very, very damaging within those exposed communities,” he said. Increased flooding from climate change is worsening this overvalued property bubble. And such estimates don’t account for the effects of climate change-intensified wildfires, drought, and extreme heat. For example, the surge in catastrophic wildfires in California in recent years has contributed to a major affordable-housing and insurance crisis in the state. Lack of water in dry states with water availability issues, like Arizona and California, has also created increased risk of property overvaluation. In addition, a rise in extreme heat from a warming climate combined with a growing urban heat island effect is likely to make living in hot cities like Phoenix and Miami undesirable for an increasing number of people in coming decades, potentially depressing property values there. SNIP In part because of worsening climate change impacts, home insurers are already pulling out of the most at-risk areas, which has led to an insurance crisis in three states — Florida, Louisiana, and California. This insurance crisis threatens to make property ownership too expensive for millions, posing a serious threat to the economically critical real estate industry. Homebuyers who can’t afford insurance can’t get a mortgage, and in those fire and flood zones where insurance rates skyrocket, many owners will try to sell, potentially triggering panic selling and a housing market collapse like the crisis of 2008.

x Climatologists have been warning of sea level rise for three decades and now we're shocked to hear that low lying coastal areas are threatened? There's cyclical positive feedback loop that will not stop sea level rise until the next century. #ClimateCrisis https://t.co/QHsFbbP1OE — charlie pereira (@charlietuna720) April 11, 2023

It keeps getting worse: Florida property insurance rates set to jump up to 60%

Meanwhile, private carriers have gone before the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation requesting rate increases up to 60%. “The containment system has failed on rates, and rates are going through the roof, and they are all justified rate increases, especially Hurricane Ian and what is going on in the reinsurance space,” says Brandes. Reinsurance, the insurance that insurance carriers buy to protect themselves from high claims, has been a major concern for years, with carriers going into receivership as they struggle with costs. In May, the Florida Legislature set aside $2 billion to help cover reinsurance, adding another $1 billion in December. The state has also passed several laws to limit the ability of homeowners to sue for claims while also curtailing the assignment of benefits and one-way attorney’s fees. The plan from state leaders was to create an environment where large private carriers, who have all but abandoned the state, would return. That has not happened.

Ron DeSantis and his GQP legislature have done squat about the insurance crisis.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/11/2163295/-Sea-level-accelerates-in-Gulf-and-East-Coast-air-patterns-change-more-wind-storms-toward-coasts

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