Sea Level Rise Accelerating Along US Coastlines, Scientists Warn

[appalachiablue]

Source: The Guardian

Inundation and flooding are steadily becoming more likely. Worldwide rise being driven by melting of large glaciers. The pace of sea level rise accelerated at nearly all measurement stations along the US coastline in 2019, with scientists warning some of the bleakest scenarios for inundation and flooding are steadily becoming more likely.

Of 32 tide-gauge stations in locations along the vast US coastline, 25 showed a clear acceleration in sea level rise last year, according to researchers at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (Vims). The selected measurements are from coastal locations spanning from Maine to Alaska. About 40% of the US population lives in or near coastal areas. The gathering speed of sea level rise is evident even within the space of a year, with water levels at the 25 sites rising at a faster rate in 2019 than in 2018.

The highest rate of sea level rise was recorded along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, with Grand Isle, Louisiana, experiencing a 7.93mm annual increase, more than double the global average. The Texas locations of Galveston and Rockport had the next largest sea level rise increases.

Generally speaking, the sea level is rising faster on the US east and Gulf coasts compared with the US west coast, partially because land on the eastern seaboard is gradually sinking...


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/03/sea-level-rise-accelerating-us-coastline-scientists-warn

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NOAA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has also reported an acceleration in sea level rise, warning that if greenhouse gas emissions are not constrained there may be a worst-case scenario of as much as a 8.2ft increase by 2100, compared with 2000 levels.

The current pace of change means "we may be moving towards the higher projections", according to Molly Mitchell, a Vims marine scientist.

- Filling In Narrowing Miami Beach With Extra Sand, Miami Herald
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/miami-beach/article239077713.html

[Submariner]

1. It won't be too long in South Florida

until residents start calling their water management districts and complaining about salt water coming out of the kitchen and bathroom faucets.

Years before the ocean starts lapping at the coastal roadways, seawater will intrude into the upper cone of the groundwater plumes, already just a couples of inches higher than the current high tides. They will probably reach equilibrium in just the next few years.

When that happens, the construction of expensive desalinization plants will be necessary.

[Javaman]

5. Meet America's new climate normal: towns that flood when it isn't raining

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jun/28/rising-elizabeth-rush-extract-towns-flooding

I spend the afternoon in Shorecrest, a neighborhood a couple of miles north of downtown Miami. To get there I leave the beach behind and drive past Arky’s Live Bait & Tackle, Deal and Discounts II, Rafiul Food Store, Royal Budget Inn, Family Dollar and Goodwill. As I continue north, the buildings all lose their mirrored glass and their extra floors, until most are single story and made from stucco.

It isn’t raining when I arrive in Shorecrest, and there isn’t a storm offshore; the day is as clear and as blue as the filigree on a porcelain plate. But the streets are still full of water. I watch as a woman wades ankle deep across Tenth Avenue. She has gathered her long russet-colored skirt in her right hand, and in her left she holds a pair of Jesus sandals. When she reaches the bus stop, she sits and puts her shoes on.

“We get flooded with just about every high tide,” the woman tells me. “And if the moon is big it’s worse.”

All along the east coast, from Portland, Maine, to Key West, “sunny day flooding” is increasingly frequent. Many places in the Sunshine State are so low lying that high tide – when coupled with something as innocuous as a full moon – can cause the streets to brim with water. Sometimes the tide simply rises above the seawalls and starts to spill into the roadways; in other cases it enters the neighborhood through the storm-water infrastructure belowground. The very pipes designed to reduce flooding by ushering rain out instead give salt water a chance to work its way in.

more at link...

[BlueWI]

2. Thanks for posting this.

Important story - should be a bigger headline.

[bronxiteforever]

3. Kick and recommend

[Maxheader]

4. Like the stumpy impeachment..

Where the gop has admitted to cheetoxs' crimes but decide they are not an impeachable offense..

The deniers will see the climatic changes, the unseasonable cycles and admit its warming up but
its nothing mankind is doing to accelerate or create...so nothing to worry about..

[rickyhall]

6. South Florida disappears beneath the waves

And there's surfing off Shreveport

[IronLionZion]

7. Think Trump has flood insurance at Mar-A-Lago?

[patphil]

8. Sea level rise is just one of the symptoms of catastrophic climate change.

Last edited Tue Feb 4, 2020, 05:08 PM - Edit history (1)

We're seeing more inland flooding also, as rainfall patterns change and storms become more powerful.
I've also seen a big difference in the growing season where I live about 50 miles above NYC.
In the 1990's our garden would experience a killing frost in September.
Now we don't see one until late October, and have had a couple years where it didn't happen until November.
This winter we have almost no snow; mostly rain.
It's February 4th, and the ground is bare...no snow at all, and it was 55 degrees outside yesterday. That's at least the 3rd 50+ degree day this winter.
I remember winters so cold the Hudson River essentially froze over. Ice Breakers had to be used to keep the channel open for barges to deliver fuel oil upriver.
Now there isn't even any ice on the local ponds.
I'd say the rate of change is definitely accelerating.
Just for the record, it reached 57 degrees today.

[LudwigPastorius]

9. If this baby breaks loose, all bets are off.

The melting Thwaites glacier is partially holding back the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Worst case scenario is if it breaks off and allows the ice behind it to slide into the ocean. This could lead to a sea level rise of 10 feet...kissing Miami, Naples, Charleston, Galveston, and half of Boston & New Orleans bye bye.

https://earther.gizmodo.com/scientists-make-first-ever-observation-of-warm-water-un-1841428615

[Marcuse]

10. The Republicans on the Climate Change and on the Impeachment Trial:

Evil.