Author: rapidclimatechange_tfkjps

OVER-HEATED JET STREAM PROPELS YOU TO EUROPE FASTER!

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SIMULTANIOUS CLIMATE SHOCKS OF THE CHART DISCLAIMER THING:

Here I insert the standard disclaimer: None of these conditions and events in isolation would prove global warming, but the fact that they are taking place simultaneously at unprecedented speeds and scale is impossible to dismiss.

As you consider that 2023 set another global record for warmest year in roughly a hundred thousands of years, as ocean temperatures run off the charts, as the North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before hurricane season, as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground, as CO2 levels crash through 425 ppm, as methane increases 15+ ppm yearly, as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns, as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from toxin newly released from permafrost, as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought and historic water crises, as global river shipping is in jeopardized, as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent, as a million acres and thousands of cattle are torched in the Texas Panhandle, as Greenland actually turns green with new vegetation, as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires, as the Amazon is on the brink of no return, as glaciers in every mountain range melt away, as species of every kind migrate toward the poles….it’s hard not to see an alarming pattern. The variations from both long term and short term cycles is statistically stunning.

* Ground speed means the planes exceeded 761 MPH in terms of distance traveled.

 

NOW! For the first time global warming lets you break the sound barrier at no extra charge.

Over the course of the past few years, I’ve noted several articles about extreme clear air turbulence (CAT) bouncing commercial jets around in mid-flight. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, several recent cases have involved abrupt drops of as many as 18,000 feet (that would be 3 miles). There have been injuries to flight attendants and passengers, some serious. There are also economic costs associated with these incidents, including long term airframe stress and even actual physical damage.
Clear air turbulence is not new to airline travel, but the significant increase in intensity and frequency over the past decades is. Not surprisingly, the phenomenon is scientifically attributed to disruption of high elevation wind patterns by the relentless warming associated with climate change. More specifically, the rough ride is caused by elevated wind shear — sudden changes in wind speed and direction — at altitudes above 15,000 feet. According to University of Reading’s Professor of Atmospheric Science Paul Williams, jet stream severe turbulence has increased by 15% since satellite measurement began in 1979. The most significant increases in wind shear were severe at +55% and moderate at +37%.
This trend was extensively documented again in a report by the Advanced Earth and Space Sciences, published last year. The report concluded that the uptick in wind shear was consistent with expectations of climate change.
This week we have a new story reporting a variation on that theme that would seem to focus on a related facet of air turbulence: In late February, commercial flights over the North Atlantic were pushed to speeds hundreds of MPH faster than normal, in some cases exceeding the speed of sound* in terms of ground speed. Upper atmosphere winds reached 265 mph, providing a powerful tailwind that scooted flights on their way for “better than on time performance.”
The US National Weather Service reported a Virgin Atlantic flight from Washington to London that was thrust to nearly 800mph. (Typical commercial planes average around 600 mph.)
These aberrant events are likewise attributed to massive changes wrought in every area of the planet by catastrophic global warming. In addition to increasing air temperatures, the changes in Jet Stream behavior is exacerbated by rapid melting of Arctic sea ice. The unpredictability of planetary wind patterns accounts for the stark increase all manner of extreme weather behavior, including violent weather events, droughts and wildfires.
As you consider that 2023 set another global record for warmest year in roughly a hundred thousands of years, as ocean temperatures run off the charts, as the North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before hurricane season, as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground, as CO2 levels crash through 425 ppm, as methane increases 15+ ppm yearly, as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns, as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from toxin newly released from permafrost, as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought and historic water crises, as global river shipping is in jeopardized, as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent, as a million acres and thousands of cattle are torched in the Texas Panhandle, as Greenland actually turns green with new vegetation, as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires, as the Amazon is on the brink of no return, as glaciers in every mountain range melt away, as species of every kind migrate toward the poles….it’s hard not to see an alarming pattern. The variations from both long term and short term cycles is statistically stunning.
Although Forbes and other respected media have reported the turbulence and jet acceleration events, the news didn’t go much further. You didn’t see it reported on cable, with the exception of FOX, which denied it. While passengers and even crew have commented after a particularly harrowing event, the plane companies are mostly mum as they concentrate on tightening all the bolts on their products. However, it is telling that the NTSB issued new rules for flight safety after several 2023 incidents.
For all you denialist optimists out there who think there are benefits to global warming (“Hell I wouldn’t mind a milder winter.”) the good news is you may sometimes be able to get to Paris from Tulsa faster with an extra 265 tail wind.
The bad news is that getting back might be a real  bitch.

 

Billionaire Bunker Bingo

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Do they know something we don’t?

(Yes)

The news media is slowly noticing that some of the world’s elite 1% types are building doomsday get-aways, including one said to sport a flaming moat (presumably as a deterrent to hoi polloi hordes trying to escape the climate apocalypse).

Of course, these so-called doomsday bunkers are not well documented: it is doubtful that escape castle portcullis’s will be opened to the public once the first Cat 7 cyclone destroys Savannah, or a long dormant virus escapes the thawing Arctic permafrost or New Orleans disappears for good beneath the Gulf or New South Wales goes up in a final flame. In other words, no media attention is not sought at this time.

Although current not-that-well-informed estimates of the numbers hover as high as fifteen of these installations globally (Peter Theil, Bill Gates, Marc Zuckerberg), my guess is that the total is considerably more than that (Elon is apparently committed to Mars). The global hierarchy will not likely be publicizing these high-end escape modules. There will be no road signs to help the proletariat find them. They have read “The Masque of the Red Death” and know how the townspeople feel about this stuff.

THE ULTIMATE GET AWAY
Nevertheless, word has filtered out from various contractors specializing in this commercial space. Demand began to escalate during the pandemic and continues to climb. The perilous political situation and impending eco-collapse of the planet is also good for business.

Why are the best and the richest building upscale bunkers when they could be buying more super yachts?

Because they know things we don’t.

Maybe you only skim the typically tepid corporate news coverage of the unfolding climate catastrophe, but the terrifying documentation is there for anyone to see. Consider that 2023 set another record for warmest year globally in roughly a hundred thousands of years, for both atmosphere and ocean. We have just experienced the eighth consecutive month of record global heat. Temperature of the seas is off the charts.

The North Atlantic is bathtub-warm months before normal as the fires of Canada’s disastrous 2023 conflagration continue burning underground as part of Australia bakes and the other half drowns as rivers in the Arctic turn orange from newly released toxins as Spain and Italy endure relentless drought as global river shipping is in jeopardized as Antarctic sea ice undergoes an “abrupt critical transition” to another summer low extent as the Texas Panhandle burns as Greenland turns green with new vegetation as large swaths of South America see catastrophic wildfires as the Amazon is on the brink of no return as glaciers in every mountain range melt away and the effects of escaping methane are just beginning to kick in.*

If you don’t believe climate scientists’ warnings, maybe you’ll believe one of the world’s largest insurance companies.

According to the world’s second largest insurance broker Aon PLC , the number of billion dollar climate disasters in 2023 was the highest ever.

Record number of billion-dollar disasters in 2023: 398 events caused $380 billion in losses globally

Driving all this is a dozen climate feedback cycles that have passed the point of no return. SEE PAGE.

This is what I already know. Imagine what people with limitless resources know.

 

Platinum Series modular steel bunker from Atlas Survival Shelters

Another way to look at it: If I were a billionaire (increasingly unlikely), I personally would be building a nice, secure compound deep inside a mountain, on the water or beneath the Antarctic snow pack. The challenge is mostly money and time. Have you seen what these guys want for even a modest luxury bunker

In summary, there is good reason to believe the 1% knows far more about what is coming than Joe Citizen. No one knew the certainty of the global climate shock better than Exxon many decades ago, so it seems reasonable to conclude that tech billionaires have access to data and other resources that predict a very rough ride for much of the planet. But with a nice bunker escape estate, there’s no reason the End Times have to cut into one’s lifestyle.

FROM DOCTOR STRANGLOVE TO TRIDENT LAKES
The elite survival bunker is not a new idea, although generally the survival modules of the last century were focused on surviving a nuclear holocaust. Dr. Strangelove with Peter Sellers was a great film of the Sixties, but like many parodies, some of the concepts were real, already in place under the West Virginia mountains. Project Greek Island was a huge fallout shelter facility intended for use by the United States Congress and special companions.

And then there is (was) Trident Lakes, one of the twenty-first centuries most embarrassing developments, which went Chapter 7 bankrupt (MORE bankrupt than regular bankruptcy) in 2018, leaving only a dried up fountain on the site. Envisioned in the above ground section was an18-hole golf course, high-end spa, gun ranges, zip lines, shops and restaurants, all protected by a wall and watchtowers designed to kill zombies, poor people and journalists. Most of the post-apocalyptic living space was supposed to be below ground.

And membership was to be by invitation only!

*None of these conditions and events in isolation would prove global warming, but the fact that they are taking place simultaneously at unprecedented speeds and scales is impossible to dismiss. 

 

Alaskan Rivers Flow Acid Orange As Permafrost Releases Toxins

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“The alarming thing is how far our human reach is, in a big way.”
– Roman Dial, Prof. Biology, Alaska Pacific University.

Scientists at this point are indicating that the minerals are leaching out of rock that has been newly exposed to water and suddenly active bacteria in defrosting wetlands are also releasing iron, manganese and other elements.

Although we expect this phenomenon to worsen rapidly, it has already negatively affected the indigenous way of life. The increased quantities of dissolved minerals and salts in the waters of the Wulik and Kobuk rivers to increase, threatening the drinking water supply for native communities. The affects are seen in fish and wildlife, with key staple fish species are reported deformed in increasing numbers.

There is a certain amount of low grade irony in the fact that many the most powerful effects of global heating are taking place in the relative cold of the Arctic. Not only is this region warming three time faster than the rest of the planet, but visual evidence of ecosphere collapse in the far North tends to takes more exotic and dramatic form than in the lower latitudes: Exploding craters, flammable lakes, crashing glaciers. But comparatively few humans live in the Arctic and therefore miss all the powerful evidence of the broken climate on display.

It will only be when extreme weather events and the serious disruptions to the food supply affect their own lives that people will truly understand.

 

METHANE BLOWOUTS, MEGASLUMPS, THERMOKARST AND CLATHRATES

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Gates of Hell methane blowout crater in Turkmenistan continues to burn

As ice melts on the lakes for the first time in thousands of years, newly released methane bubbles up from the deposits below. which can sometimes be lit. Batagaika Crater in Siberia is a half mile wide and 330 ft. deep. 

As ice melts on the lakes for the first time in thousands of years, newly released methane bubbles up from the deposits below. which can sometimes be lit on fire.

 

New methane craters continue to blast out of the Siberian tundra.

One of the first and still the largest emerged in Turkmenistan 1971 with some help from a drilling rig and continues to burn today. The so called “Gates of Hell” (also known as the Darvaza gas crater) is about 200 ft. in diameter and 100 ft. deep. Since then, dozens of new craters have emerged without the help of humans, with blasts that can be heard 60 miles away. This anthropomorphic phenomenon is a direct result of global warming, linked to the thawing of permafrost triggered by runaway warming in the Arctic.

Methane (CH4) has been trapped beneath Arctic permafrost for many thousands of years. Now the frozen land cap is thawing across the Arctic regions, releasing massive quantities of the greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. As the permafrost thins and weakens on the surface, it is also heated from below by gas deposits.

Although it dissipates after 12 years, methane (renamed by the fossil boys “natural gas” to make it sound more friendly) is far more powerful than CO2*. It also explodes. At this point, science doesn’t know for certain how much of the gas is down there, but spewing additional megatons of CH4 into the atmosphere can’t be good.

The Clathrate Menace Beneath the Sea
And below the surface of the Arctic seas lurks another ominous peril, with a name out of a Phillip K. Dick horror fantasy. Composed of methane frozen within a crystal of water, methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or “fire ice” is found in the deepest sediments of the ocean. As the seafloor temperature increases, these reservoirs appear to be destabilizing, releasing methane into the ocean and atmosphere. While this process is not fully understood at this point, evidence is clear that there have been dramatic, rapid climatic consequences in the past. Although unproven, the “methane burp” hypothesis claims an event during the Paleocene epoch raised deep ocean temperatures about 10F.

The Megaslump that ate Siberia
In 2023, Batagaika Crater – the world’s largest permafrost crater – continued to grow in Siberia. Already more than 330 ft. deep and half a mile wide, this monster “mega-slump” is expanding at about 33 ft. a year. This part of Siberia is warming about 2.5 times faster than the rest of the planet is warming, accelerating the land surface thaw.

These non-explosive but more widespread craters are another dramatic manifestation of land subsidence caused by permafrost collapse. This phenomenon was first noted in the 1960s and is becoming more and more common as the climate warms.
Also related (and lots of fun in their own right) are thermokarst lakes: the entertainment value being related to the fact that you can light them on fire. As ice melts on the lakes for the first time in thousands of years, newly released methane bubbles up from the deposits below. The greenhouse gas emissions from these lakes deploys powerful climate effects because of the rapid release of long stored CO2.

Blowing through the albedo feedback loop
Of the many climate feedbacks at work on the planet, the “albedo” effect is one of the most convincing. As snow cover and sea ice area diminish, less solar heat energy is reflected back into space and more is absorbed into the oceans and land, further heating the planetary systems which accelerates thawing of the permafrost.
While most noticeable in Siberia, these phenomena are also taking place in Alaska and Canada.

 

COP(OUT)28: THE BURNING MAN OF CLIMATE GAS LIGHTING

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Getting Yelled At By The Petro Sultan

The Host With The Most…To Lose

I don’t know, does anyone else think that there might be some sketchy optics when a major oil producing nation hosts a global climate conference, and the president of the event – head of the state oil company – publicly objects to the term “phaseout” of fossil fuels. The very mention of such a thing caused Cop28 conference president Sultan Al Jaber to insist there is “no science” indicating that a “phase-out” of fossil fuels is necessary. In fact, the petro boss was a little cranky with press members asking such awkward questions of the host. The host of the climate event.

“I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C,” ranted Al Jaber. ”Stop the pointing of fingers. Stop it!”

Hey, sorry Al! Didn’t mean to offend. Hoping this doesn’t mean I won’t be invited back?

To be quite candid, a lot of people disagree with the Sultan. In fact, the past month saw a couple of successive days in which the magic 1.5C threshold was already breached. 2023 is the hottest month globally for hundreds of thousands of years. Emissions are still climbing, ice melt at both poles is accelerating, droughts are emptying rivers, atmospheric CO2 has soared past 420 ppm for good and extreme weather event insurance losses breached $100 billion annually. The USA is producing more oil and gas than anytime in history.

So then, if the 84,000 attendees of Cop28 weren’t there to phase out fossil fuels, why did they commit all that time and money? Did you guess that the 1,400 oil company lobbyists in attendance were there to promote solar and wind? Nope, sorry, you guessed wrong.

[ FOR ADDITIONAL PERSPECTIVE, THE FIRST WORLD NATIONS COMMITTED FUNDS THAT EQUAL THE COST OF JEFF BEZOS LATEST BOAT. ]

No, the point of this glitzy exercise in lux networking and sustainable partying is to help the distracted, uninterested and overwhelmed public feel as if something meaningful is being done to put the brakes on the runaway climate emergency. In other words, to provide cover for corporate business as usual (even maybe meet some fellow operatives and make a few deals – that oil isn’t going to extract itself).

The strategists who run the global denialist infrastructure have moved past denial (it’s been an ever shifting platform for at least six decades). The new phase is to shape and smooth the narrative to make sure the draconian actions that are now imperative do not happen. Instead, the oil producing entities have most definitely committed more or less to probably take some action pretty soon “as they see fit.” Lots of words, nothing actually binding. And history shows that even those promises will not be kept. There is no enforcement mechanism in the contract that no one will read.

So the way this will work is the way it’s supposed to work: the average citizen will probably peripherally notice that there was a climate summit and they will read the back pat ourselves press releases. They will conclude – because they really want to conclude – that the greatest catastrophe ever to face the species is being taken care of. But it isn’t.

One unprecedented outcome was announced after Cop28: The First World countries agreed for the first time to set aside $550,000,000 for third world companies to “fight” climate change. That’s a lot of zeros. F

For perspective, it’s the price of Jeff Bezos’ latest boat. Maybe Maldives can build some sustainable rafts.

109°F IN SIDNEY AS SUMMER LOOMS

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Black Summer 2.0 In Australia?

Most of the rest of the world has forgotten Australia’s summer of 2020, when wildfires driven by apocalyptic winds and 120°F temperatures killed hundreds of people, torched 72,000 square miles and 3 billion animals and cost in the neighborhood of $88 billion. The firestorms moved so fast that fleeing Australians were incinerated in their vehicles trying to escape.

The Red Hot Chile Peppers Song “Black Summer” metaphorically commemorates the event, which was a wakeup call to many in the land down under. Some woke up, some expedited the world’s largest coal mine and 116 new fossil fuel projects.

Now, many wonder if a repeat of the catastrophe is in the near future. On December 8, temperatures at Sidney airport approached 110°F, with 85 bushfires still burning in the state. Jasper, a very early Cat 4 cyclone is churning south toward Queensland, threatening a landfall this week.

Australia has always had crazy climate extremes, but the last decade has moved into a range that can only be called apocalyptic.

These events are unfolding a day after scientists from the EU climate service Copernicus announced 2023 would be the hottest year on record AND as the Cop(Out) 28 joke conference – hosted by one of the planet’s largest oil producers – makes a mockery out of any meaningful effort to mitigate the climate crash.

 

Half a million Somalians displaced by floods

A month of record rains have turned roads to rivers in Mogadishu and other cities, destroying infrastructure and killing hundreds. The fall harvest has been wrecked. This catastrophe follows record drought earlier in the years. Famine will follow.

 

Spain’s avocado harvest threatened by heat

The combination of ever increasing temperatures and drought is killing thousands of avocado trees in one of the world’s major producing countries.

 

Greenland ice shelves that block land ice are down to 5

Greenland’s floating ice platforms — which hold back trillions of tons of ice that could cause sea level rise — are in stark decline, according to a new study.

 

Global shipping is threatened by dropping water levels at the panama canal and major rivers

The Mississippi, Amazon and Rhine have experienced diminished commercial traffic, affecting global shipping for a wide range of products.

 

 

DEAD SWIFTIE ONLY A SUBPLOT IN THE MURDER OF THE AMAZON

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As the Amazon region undergoes eco-collapse, corporate media focuses on the shiny

Last week’s death by heat of a young Brazilian Swiftie concertgoer was breathlessly covered by global media. The record heatwave involved was noted as a component of the story, but typically missed the much much larger story:  the accelerating eco-collapse of Amazonia as Brazil recorded its highest temp of all time (112.6°F) and the nation’s hottest driest winter ever. One more broken record in the hottest planetary year in hundreds of thousands of years.

We are now in mid-spring in the Southern hemisphere and the web of waterways that are the lifeblood of the region are drying up, leaving boats stranded in the muddy river bottoms. Water levels in the mighty Amazon and its tributaries are at never before seen lows as the ocean forces salt water deeper into the delta. If the pattern prevails, the hydroelectric  dams that are the main source of energy in the Amazon region will fail.
The global climate catastrophe is the driving force behind the emergency, but human activity – as always – has pushed the region to the brink. Healthy forests once generated regular rainfall and cooled the region naturally. Those days are gone. The pattern now in effect is a typical climate feedback loop, with higher temperatures triggering more fires which burn more trees which create a warmer climate. The local crisis is a climate disaster within a climate disaster.

“The forest is succumbing,” Climate Observatory executive secretary Marcio Astrini told the Financial Times in November. “It doesn’t happen as a whole or all at once, but in some regions you’re already experiencing these inflection points.” 

With forests already slashed by cattle ranching, mining and illegal logging, new blazes are filling the air with smoke so toxic that school is canceled in Manaus and other cities. Through the bleak landscape wander emaciated cattle, simultaneously cause and victims of the drought and toxic air in the shrinking tropical forest.

The wandering cows are evidence of one of the most dangerous and persistent climate crimes on the planet, as the herds serve to protect the claims of the criminals who introduce them to the land they have cleared by fire. Brazil’s 220 million cows produce a carbon footprint greater than all of the nation of Japan.

Palm trees shrivel and the leaves wrinkle up. Mass dolphin die-offs are photographed and cataloged in 102°F waters as the rains decline to make an appearance. Food and drinking water are already scarce.

 

States of Emergency

With forests already slashed by cattle ranching, mining and illegal logging, new blazes are filling the air with smoke so toxic that school is canceled in Manaus and other cities. Through the bleak landscape wander emaciated cattle, simultaneously cause and victims of the drought and toxic air in the shrinking tropical forest. Palm trees shrivel and the leaves wrinkle up. Mass dolphin die-offs are photographed and cataloged in 102°F waters as the rains decline to make an appearance. Food and drinking water are already scarce.

Seventy-five percent of the states in the Amazonas region have declared a state of emergency, this only two years after the worst flooding catastrophes of all time. The flood drought flood model that characterizes the dawning Anthropocene epoch becomes more extreme with each cycle.

Like Moses’s wives, the name of this deceased Brazilian music fan is not easy to find in the reporting. Ana Clara Benevides Machado’s death is only important to the media in the context of megastar Taylor Swift. Similarly, the fact that her death was a small component in the collapse of the world’s largest rain forest was barely noted…and then they move on to the next shiny thing.

Until we grow up as a species, our prospects for surviving the climate crash will continue to dim.

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TAJIKISTAN TOXIC STORMS DRIVEN BY WARMING AND POLLUTION

NOTHING TO SEE HERE…REALLY

 

Health Emergency In Dushanbe

It’s not that sand storms in semi-arid Tajikistan are new, it’s that there are now 10 times as many events as a few decades ago, they are more violent, the season lasts much longer and the fine particles are more deadly to humans. They were rare in the nineties, but now afflict the capital of Dushanbe 30 to 40 times a year.

The most obvious cause is the heat-driven extended drought that is drying out Central Asia. The effects are most dramatically seen in the collapse of the once magnificent Aral Sea to the northwest. The other part of the climate component is that winds are becoming more powerful, lifting more soil into the air and carrying it farther, and making the air borne particles more destructive.

Worse, the airborne particles are also composed of salt and toxins that damage lungs over time. For Tajikistani citizens, the health toll is becoming alarming, as these fine particles infiltrate and destroy lung tissues. In Dushanbe, air quality and visibility has reached the level of an ongoing emergency  

Yet another contributing factor is less obvious: not only do these toxic storms impact agriculture,  they speed alpine glacier melt, which historically provides what little fresh water is available to farmers.  

 

Hurricane Otis’ Rapid Intensification Wrecks Acapulco

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HURRICANE OTIS: THE LATEST EXTREME RAPID INTENSIFICATION

.”

 

The hurricane that devastated Acapulco last week is getting little attention as Gaza, Ukraine and “As The Donald Turns” divert the attention span of corporate media. Nevertheless, this particular climate disaster highlights the realities of the new normal in hurricane and cyclone behavior.

The aftermath of this Category 5 monster storm looks much like any of several other recent extreme weather episodes.  The event left hundreds of thousands of Mexicans in the resort city of about 1 million in dire straits, with little hope of any kind of timely relief for the underclasses.  About 250,000 homes were completely destroyed and the final death toll will be in the hundreds. The city was flooded, homes, hotels and businesses were destroyed, vehicles were tossed about and submerge (Don’t worry, the tourist center will be restored ASAP).

Driven by preternaturally warm waters, the 165 MPH winds speeds were second only to the record smashing 200 MPH gales of Hurricane Patricia, which struck further north in western Mexico in 2015. Patricia was the first storm to really grab the attention of climate scientists as it went from about 100 MPH to 200 MPH in a day. Patricia received little coverage because it hit a sparsely populated area, so there were no good photos.

HOW EXPLOSIVE INTENSIFICATION WORKS

(Not your grandfather’s hurricane)

Although this phenomenon began to alarm climate scientists several years ago, Otis took authorities by surprise as it blew up from a tropical storm to a Cat 5 monster in 24 hours. In the nine hours before landfall, Otis’s sustained winds  went from 90 to 165 MPH. This dynamic is known as rapid intensification and it is increasingly common. It is technically defined as escalation in wind speed of 35 MPH in 24 hours; Otis increased roughly three times that fast, ambushing authorities and hindering evacuation.

If you think of hot water as HURRICANE FUEL, it’s easy to understand how globally warming waters are driving the new breed of hurricanes. Warmer water means more energy is available to the storm system. This is true of extreme weather on land as well, as “thunderstorms” cause more and more wind damage and flooding.

The less obvious factor driving intensification is the DEPTH of the warm water in the upper layers of the oceans. “Legacy” hurricanes were self-moderating  in the good old days, because the storm would churn the upper layers as it moved over them, bringing up cooler waters below and causing  a cooling near the surface. This process lowers the overall energy of the storm. With warmer waters extending deeper in many areas of the ocean, this scenario is no longer in effect, and hurricanes explode in power rather than diminish.

Earlier this year, Atlantic Hurricane Lee blew the doors off with a display of rapid intensification that saw its increase wind speed by 85 MPH in 24 hours as it moved through record warm waters.  Luckily Lee moved north into cooler waters before it made landfall. In 2008, the incredibly destructive, 1,000 mile wide Hurricane Ike displayed similar behavior before it hit the Texas coast, killing hundreds and causing billions in damage.

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EXTREME RAPID INTENSIFICATION, DISAPPEARING MARINE ANIMALS…

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And Other Very Bad News

10 BILLION SNOW CRAB DIE OFF IN THE EAST BERING SEA

A new research report confirms that rapidly warming waters triggered the mass die-off of billions of Alaskan snow crabs.  The collapse pf the population is linked to a marine heat wave that occurred in the region between 2019 and 2021.  Prevailing theory is that the warming waters elevated the crabs’ metabolism, causing them to die of starvation. $ Billions will be lost, and a large percentage of the fishing businesses are expected to declare bankruptcy.

HURRICANE OTIS INTENSIFIES TO CAT 5 IN RECORD TIME

The hurricane, which made landfall near Acapulco on Wednesday morning as a Category 5, intensified by about 110 mph in just 24 hours. Rapidly warming oceans are making storms more powerful and difficult to predict. This record breaking storm surpassed Hurricane Patricia (2015), which was the first to shock climate scientists in terms of rapid intensification.

MASS DOLPHIN DIE OFF IN THE AMAZON AS RIVER WATERS HIT 102 °F

Hundreds of pink river dolphins are dying in the Amazon Basin as record temperatures and an extended drought take their toll on the intensively threatened ecosystem. The immediate cause is attributed to extreme temperatures in Lake Tefé, measured in excess of 102 °F.

The Amazon region contains about 20% of the world’s fresh water, but most rivers are now becoming impassable as water levels drop.