California could be struck by winter ‘superstorm’

[TampaYankee]

Scientists warn California could be struck by winter superstorm

By Liz Goodwin [/b]

A group of more than 100 scientists and experts say in a new report that California faces the risk of a massive "superstorm" that could flood a quarter of the state's homes and cause $300 billion to $400 billion in damage. Researchers point out that the potential scale of destruction in this storm scenario is four or five times the amount of damage that could be wrought by a major earthquake.

It sounds like the plot of an apocalyptic action movie, but scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey warned federal and state emergency officials that California's geological history shows such "superstorms" have happened in the past, and should be added to the long list of natural disasters to worry about in the Golden State.

The threat of a cataclysmic California storm has been dormant for the past 150 years. Geological Survey director Marcia K. McNutt told the New York Times that a 300-mile stretch of the Central Valley was inundated from 1861-62. The floods were so bad that the state capital had to be moved to San Francisco, and Governor Leland Stanford had to take a rowboat to his own inauguration, the report notes. Even larger storms happened in past centuries, over the dates 212, 440, 603, 1029, 1418, and 1605, according to geological evidence.

The risk is gathering momentum now, scientists say, due to rising temperatures in the atmosphere, which has generally made weather patterns more volatile.

The scientists built a model that showed a storm could last for more than 40 days and dump 10 feet of water on the state. The storm would be goaded on by an "atmospheric river" that would move water "at the same rate as 50 Mississippis discharging water into the Gulf of Mexico," according to the AP. Winds could reach 125 miles per hour, and landslides could compound the damage, the report notes.

Such a superstorm is hypothetical but not improbable, climate researchers warn. "We think this event happens once every 100 or 200 years or so, which puts it in the same category as our big San Andreas earthquakes," Geological Survey scientist Lucy Jones said in a press release.

Federal and state emergency management officials convened a conference about emergency preparations for possible superstorms last week. You can read the whole report here.

See original article at:http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110117/us_yblog_thelookout/scientists-warn-california-could-be-struck-by-winter-superstorm

[Guest zipperzone]

Sounds like the doom & gloomers are at it again. Could it happen? - who knows - but it sells newspapers, so to speak.

[Guest CharliePS]

The storm could last for 40 days...hmmmm. I wonder where they got that number? And what is the point of spending all that time and energy calculating the possibility? Is there something we could reasonably do about it (like, build an ark)? A helicopter might also crash into my house tonight, because I am under the flight path between two hospitals, but that doesn't persuade me to spend the night in a motel. If something happens with predictably frequent regularity, like hurricanes in Florida, or tornadoes in Oklahoma, one makes reasonable preparations, but scenarios like the giant California storm are not worth worrying about.

[TampaYankee]

I think the value of the article is more informative than alarmist. I find it interesting to know that there is a repeating record of this kind of catastrophic rain occurrence. More interesting that the cycle is nearing an event period although not too near and who knows if it will repeat on time.

For me this is in the same category as the Yellowstone supervolcano with catastrohic eruptions every 600,000 years give or take... That too is nearing its repeat cycle although we probably have some tens of thousands of years to go.

Or on a smaller scale, the repeating New Madrid earthquake fault in the Mississippi Valley that repeats every several hundred years.

All this serves to remind of us we are temporary aberrations in the scheme of nature even though our temporary existence seems like an eternity compared to our individual lifetimes.

Of couse, this also comfirms for me that California is the land of biblical plagues.

[Guest epigonos]

Currently it makes NO difference how much rain we have here in California. We are constantly bombarded with claims that we are in the midst of a major drought. Maybe this at least would put an end to that bull shit.

[TampaYankee]

Currently it makes NO difference how much rain we have here in California. We are constantly bombarded with claims that we are in the midst of a major drought. Maybe this at least would put an end to that bull shit.

It would... and the drought too.

[RA1]

Someone who lives in the "tox basin" once explained to me it didn't matter how much rain southern CA got because neither the land nor the infrastructure was suitable to handle it. Rain just ran off the ground without soaking in like it does in any desert and the "storage" areas for water in CA were in the north. In other words, they needed lot of snow in the mountains, first to acquire the moisture and spread it out a bit and second so it could melt over time and keep the reservoirs in the north full, more or less.

Without the "help" or "interference" of humans I doubt southern CA could sustain 25,000 folks. Just a random thought.

Best regards,

RA1

[lookin]

The storm could last for 40 days...hmmmm. I wonder where they got that number? And what is the point of spending all that time and energy calculating the possibility? Is there something we could reasonably do about it (like, build an ark)? A helicopter might also crash into my house tonight, because I am under the flight path between two hospitals, but that doesn't persuade me to spend the night in a motel. If something happens with predictably frequent regularity, like hurricanes in Florida, or tornadoes in Oklahoma, one makes reasonable preparations, but scenarios like the giant California storm are not worth worrying about.

All too true.

Still, I may nip out later this afternoon and have my galoshes re-vulcanized.