jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

There is some science involved here, so if you think science is nonsense, don't bother read the article.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/hurricane-harvey-why-is-it-so-extreme/

Bike guy Loc: Atlanta

Thank you for the link.

TJBNovember Loc: Long Island, New York

Interesting article Jerry, thanks for sharing.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

This is definitely not your typical hurricane. Luckily, Texans seem to be working together to help each other.

TJBNovember Loc: Long Island, New York

No it is not, we went through Super Storm Sandy down here on Long Island. While we only had to deal with wind damage and a week long power outage, many people we know had to deal with flooded homes and lives that are still disrupted. The scope of what is happening in Texas and now Louisiana is beyond comprehension. One cannot but feel for them for what they our going through and will have to endure in the months and years to come.

John N Loc: HP14 3QF Stokenchurch, UK

Interesting. So how do they work out how much rain has actually fallen (we've heard of 1.25m / 50" over - yes, I heard an American talking to R5 the other night using a metric measurement) if some of is 'recycled'?

Mary Kate Loc: NYC

The real tragedy will start when the insurance companies start to nit pick damage claims. The Wind vs water damage.

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Interesting--

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Right. Language can be deadly.

granbob Loc: SW Wisc; E Iowa; W Illinois

Thanks for an excellent article Jerry. The explanations were scientific but written simply.

Jolly Roger Loc: Dorset. UK

Curious that there is no mention of climate change or the American government's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.
I understand that many farmers and companies will suffer huge losses, as flooding was never an issue prior to this and therefore they don't have insurance to cover it.

Cykdelic Loc: Now outside of Chiraq & Santa Fe, NM

It floods quite a bit down there.

CaptainBobBrown

Basic meteorology so don't be put off by the description of it as "science". A good subject for social scientists though would be to gain a better understanding of why so many people stayed in denial so long about the impending disaster and avoided taking even simplest basic measures to protect themselves. As nightly news shows, many people were stranded on their rooftops without even so much as a bottle of water or a "go bag" because they didn't plan on being flooded out even though weather forecasts for location and duration and extent of rain (50+ inches) were spot on. Such denial is a common phenomenon throughout the world but is puzzling in a country with significant highway and communication systems, lots of transport options, and in an area with a recent and well known history of increasingly violent tropical storms where everyone was warned ahead of time what was coming. Many still took no precautions and then proceeded to blame others for their misfortune. A better understanding of this aspect of denial in human behavior might serve all of us better by enabling planners to figure out what it takes to get people to pay attention and to act ahead of time.

Most striking to me is the case of an intelligent woman, a poet, who wrote an ode to Harvey even before the storm made landfall. In her poem she describes the horror to come but expressed surprise in an NPR interview after her rescue that the flooding in her neighborhood came so fast that she and her family didn't have time to even rescue their pets, had no go bags packed, and little plan for where to go except to a neighbor's house that was built on stilts after the last time it was destroyed by flooding. She says now she's "learned her lesson" but why only after the facts which she clearly expected to arrive before time. To paraphrase a famous politician "She was warned ... and yet she persisted". Seems to be the story of humanity and yet somehow I'd expect that the evolutionary advantage would go to those who take serious warnings seriously ahead of time.

Ksocha Loc: Bethesda, MD

Good article, but have you ever actually met anyone that thinks "science is nonsense"?

Or are you implying that anyone who questions the kind of climate science that has become so politicized must somehow believe there is no such thing as science?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I avoid people like that.