The NHC consensus is that Tropical Storm Isaac will certainly hit Florida, and could come into the Tampa area.
Nevertheless, even though the NOGAPS forecast has shifted Isaac a bit farther west than it was yesterday, it still shows Isaac remaining east of the Bahamas (but approaching close enough to alarm people there). The NOGAPS forecast shows the storm moving up the East Coast, hitting Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and raking the Atlantic seaboard. But NOGAPS does NOT show the storm entering the Tampa area: at least, the forecast doesn’t show that at the present time.
So, let’s hope things turn out the way NOGAPS forecasts!
Meanwhile, the folks over at Salon are yearning for some schadenfreude:
Oh no, a hurricane might strike the Republican National Convention in Tampa! Weather scientists say a little “tropical system” in the Atlantic could head up to Tampa this weekend and become a hurricane named Isaac. Also, fun fact: Tampa is terribly vulnerable to hurricanes. Vast numbers of Tampa residents live in areas that would be overrun in the event of a major storm surge. The city is more vulnerable every year, since sea levels are rising due to ... God loving the Earth so much that he’s hugging it real close and accidentally melting the ice caps.
According to Climate Central’s research, sea level rise is escalating the threat of damaging storm surge flooding in the Tampa area. The odds that a flood exceeding 6.5 feet would occur in Tampa before 2030 are about 14 percent without global warming, but these odds increase to 20 percent with the effects of global warming-related sea level rise factored in.
A “worst-case Category 4 hurricane in the Tampa Bay region” would put the Tampa Bay convention center under 20 feet of water, “and St. Petersburg would become an island, as occurred during the 1848 hurricane.”
No comments:
Post a Comment