Twelve U.S. billion-dollar weather disasters in 2011 so far: NOAA
The official tally of billion-dollar U.S. weather disasters in 2011 is now twelve, announced NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco in a speech given yesterday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. This is the greatest number of billion-dollar weather disasters in U.S. history, besting the record of nine set in 2008. Dr. Lubchenco said that at least two additional disasters, the October 29 snowstorm in the Northeast, and the flooding from Tropical Storm Lee in early September, may surpass the $1 billion mark, by the time all damage estimates are tabulated. This would bring the 2011 tally to fourteen billion-dollar weather disasters, a truly astonishing level of destruction for one year. The damages from the twelve official billion-dollars disasters is $52 billion, making the 2011 the 4th most expensive year for billion-dollar weather disasters in history. Damage estimates from natural disasters are fraught with uncertainty, and it is not usual for different insurance companies to give damage estimates a factor of two different for the same disaster. Insurance broker AON Benfield estimates that there have been at least sixteen billion-dollar weather disasters in the U.S. so far in 2011, according to their November Catastrophe Recap report. Included in their tally, but not in NOAA's, are severe weather outbreaks on July 10 - 14 and August 18 -19 in the Plains that caused $1.25 billion and $1.1 billion in damage, respectively, plus $1 billion in damage from Tropical Storm Lee's floods, and $3 billion in damage from the October 28 - 30 snowstorm in the Northeast.
Figure 1. Billion-dollar U.S. weather disasters in 2011 as officially recognized by NOAA's National Climatic Data Center in early December, 2011. Image credit: NOAA/NCDC.
Jeff Masters
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I'm pretty sure the currents go Poleward on the western end of the basin due to the direction of the Earth's rotation, so I would say that no, it is not possible for them to reverse.
Something of interest and potentially far reaching consequences both in time and connected to possible sea rise.
Part of the programme covered the break up and dissolving of glaciers both in Greenland and the Antarctic.
Due to ice behaving as a very slow moving liquid it can be plugged, or its movements slowed, if the base of the glacier is locked to the seabed. Recently speculation has arisen that as large ice sheets break up along coasts then the ice masses behind them may flow much more quickly towards the sea than previously. It could of course refreeze to the seabed, slowing the increased flow speed but its thought that due to slightly warmer sea waters along the coasts it won't.
Bit of a long term plan so to speak but it is thought there is enough water locked up in these areas to raise the sea by over 100 meters,was stated in the programme.
Fair enough, those in Largs are a rather small variety but have you looked at the other link with a proper tall palm tree growing in Eastern Scotland? With Britain's climate gradually warming we might see more of them.
Also, Manchester City Council plans to plant date palm trees in their parks. The article is from 2006 so I assume that they have done that already.
There are actually articles advising people on growing palm trees in their gardens and here's a choice of palm trees that are hardy enough to grow in Britain. You be the judge what actually counts as a palm tree and what doesn't. I'm not an expert on that. The Largs 'palm trees' seem to be of the Cordyline varieties.
British people seem to like a bit of 'holiday flair' in their gardens and at the coast we rarely have sub 0°C temperatures, so the palms / yuccas do very well.
Thousands of families have left their homes to take refuge in government disaster shelters, Interior and Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said.
Five people died in western Zulia state, while three others died in Caracas and adjacent Miranda state, El Aissami said.
President Hugo Chavez's government has ordered the military and rescue teams to be on alert in several regions of the country that have seen heavy rains this week. El Aissami said at a news conference that Chavez has been closely monitoring the government's efforts to help flood victims.
Heavy rains at the end of 2010 also forced tens of thousands of Venezuelans into shelters. Some are still in shelters nearly a year later, while others were moved into new public housing.
El Aissami said about 29,000 families are being housed in hundreds of shelters due to this week's rains and more than 1,000 homes have been seriously damaged.
He said the government is providing about $350 in cash assistance to each family. The government ordered schools closed due to the deluges.
Parts of neighboring Colombia have also been coping with floods. Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos toured flooded areas south of Bogota on Friday and promised assistance to those whose houses have been damaged.
Patrap writes:
There are now 377 days until the 2012 Winter Solstice.
Enjoy your Friday
Isn't there supposed to be some goofy word that starts with the letter "g" in your post Pat?
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