Hurricane!

Just in time for the 2006 hurricane season: hurricane insurance premiums are up!

New insurance policies up and down the Gulf Coast are far more expensive and more restrictive as to what they cover than earlier policies. That's going to affect a whole lot of people, even those who were not directly affected by Katrina, Rita, or Wilma.

Is the run-up in German floods due to climate change?

After the harsh winter now several parts of Germany once again are facing floods. This is becoming a regular thing now since 2000 and has hardly happened before.

Click through for more photos.

Field Note's from a Catastrophe has got a lot of notice, and now The Weather Makers is getting notices.

The Times has reviewed the book twice recently, once in the Arts section, and again in the Sunday book section, alongside a review of Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth, whose first chapter is also available online.

This blog has lots of great climate change updates.

This blogger writes that rising Sun temps may be the cause of global warming, but ignoring greenhouse gas levels simply defies the laws of physics.

So if we’d signed onto the Kyoto Protocol and had started messing with our economies to reduce CO2 emissions, how stupid would we feel about now as we learn that the Sun is probably to blame for rising temperatures? Pretty darn stupid – and about $500 billion poorer. Thank you, President Bush for bucking the “consensus.”

TMM (Too Many Minivans), Florida was a nice place to live until Hurricane Ivan blew by.

Anyways, getting back to my original topic, TMM was still a nice place to drive even as the population grew though the years into my young adulthood. I didn't mind trips to the beach (either the east beach or the more westerly one--close to Alabama's beaches) because we never had clogged up traffic on the bridge except for a few times when there was a car crash or a vehicle had broken down. And most importantly, people were more courteous. And it had remained that way well up until the recent past 2 years, maybe earlier than then, but after Hurricane Ivan, it seemed like everything went to hell....

Click through for the link to the Hurricane Rita traffic survey.

I’d like to urge all my readers in the Houston area that evacuated for Hurricane Rita to take the state survey which will be used to make changes so the “Texadus” debacle doesn’t happen again: http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/ritasurvey/.

The 2006 hurricane season is just a couple months away.

Just remember boys and girls: only 60 more shopping days until hurricane season ‘06.

Lots of Hurricane Katrina news here:

Meanwhile in the Katrina Zone, the Small Business Administration has tripled it's staff yet cut emergency loan approvals to the lowest rate in 15 years.

More bloggers picking up the 60 Minutes story on global warming.

60 Minutes had an eye-opening segment on the Global Warming situation.

Click through for the story of the Inuit and climate change in their land.

Climate change is changing the way of life in the Arctic Circle.

The science of global warming has been understood for over 100 years.

Normally I don’t post articles without pictures, but this one just floored me. This little blurb from 53 years ago perfectly sums up the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Click through for the Popular Mechanics article.

Are we prepared for a hurricane striking, say, Manhattan?

We've known for years that the Northeast could face a major hurricane at some point in the future. The further away we were from the last hurricane to hit, the closer we are to the next one. Yet, more people now live on vulnerable coastlines, and emergency preparedness is nowhere near as good as it should be both at the personal level or at the local, state, or federal levels.

The 60 Minutes story on climate change last night was very interesting.

I have written repeatedly of the keen interest that the American government and the corporations who sponsor our politicians have in silencing scientific facts and opinion on climate change. For one obvious reason: it will be enormously costly to implement the immediate changes so desperately needed to reduce the amount of pollution our current way of life is pumping into the Earth’s atmosphere. And, given that:

Even the New Zealand bloggers are picking up the 60 Minutes story on climate change.

Those human changes, he says, are driven by burning fossil fuels that pump out greenhouse gases like CO2, carbon dioxide. Hansen says his research shows that man has just 10 years to reduce greenhouse gases before global warming reaches what he calls a tipping point and becomes unstoppable. He says the White House is blocking that message.

From the NOAA report on the 2005 Hurricane season.

There were a record 27 named storms, of which 14 were hurricanes, exceeding the 1969 record of 12 hurricanes, and 7 were major hurricanes. Of the 7 major hurricanes, an unprecendented 3 reached category 5 status, with a 4th reaching the greatest possible windspeed within category 4 of the Saffir-Simpson scale. The season has been remarkable for its early beginning and number of storms as well as the intensity of the hurricanes, including the most intense hurricane on record for the Atlantic. Many records were broken during the season and a list of the most notable are available at the end of this summary.

From the NOAA report on the 2004 Hurricane season.

The Atlantic Basin had a more active season than average in 2004 with 15 tropical storms and 9 hurricanes, including 6 major hurricanes. The average (based on data from 1944-1996) is approximately 10 named storms and 6 hurricanes, including 2-3 major hurricanes. The ACE index of hurricane activity also indicates an above average season, with a preliminary value of approximately 220 x104 knots. An average season is anywhere from 66 x104 knots to 103 x104 knots. Hurricane Ivan alone produced an ACE value of 69.9 x104 knots. Its strength and longevity contributed substantially to the cumulative seasonal activity and it holds the record for the greatest consecutive time (7 days) spent with windspeeds of 120 kts/138 mph or greater for any basin. After weakening back to a depression, Ivan also looped southward and then westward through the Atlantic to regenerate into a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico. The first named storm of the season, Alex, brushed North Carolina in August before moving northeast and reaching windspeeds of 105 kts (121 mph), category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson scale. The only other storm to reach major hurricane status north of 38N was Hurricane Ellen in 1973 and it reached 100 kts (115 mph). This season is also the most costly hurricane season on record ($42 billion) for the US, with 9 storms affecting its coast. Impacts are described below.

From the NOAA report on the 2003 Hurricane season.

Sixteen named storms formed in the Atlantic basin during 2003, including Hurricane Isabel, which was the first hurricane to make landfall along the East Coast since 1999. Tropical Storms Odette and Peter formed after the traditional end of the hurricane season. Odette was the first tropical storm to have developed in the Caribbean during December. Of the16 named storms, seven became hurricanes and three were classified as major hurricanes (Category 3 or higher on the Saffir - Simpson hurricane scale). The annual average is five to six hurricanes and two to three major hurricanes.

According to NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, several factors contributed to the very active season including the absence of El Niño conditions in the Pacific and the persistence of conditions associated with the continuation of a multi-decadal period of enhanced activity that began in 1995. With the exception of 2002 and 1997, years that were both affected by El Niño, at least three major hurricanes have developed in every season since 1995. However, no significant long-term trend in hurricane strength or frequency has been observed in the Atlantic Basin.

The reporting after Hurricane Katrina was heroic.

Seriously though, the Times Picayune and Biloxi Sun Herald have done amazing work under difficult circumstances to not only deal with the scale and scope of destruction wrought by Katrina, Rita, and Wilma, but have produced first rate journalism. They're often source material for many of my own bloggings on the ongoing rebuilding on the Gulf Coast - mostly because the national media has moved on to other stories.

As hurricane insurance rate increase, some good questions about catastrophe management practices.

I think a more constructive exercise for a consumer advocate, and something that the industry should be undertaking on its own, is a review of cat management philosophy and some reconsideration of how much it costs to bear risk. While I have no doubt that many insurers had forgotten the lessons of Hugo and Andrew, and needed a refresher course in the form of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma… I fear the past six months have seen more reaction than thoughtful action.

If an increase in hurricanes is due to global warming, then it's possible to look at these increases in hurricane insurance as the first real "carbon tax".

From an Ernst & Young report on hospitality, this bit on the impact of hurricanes on tourism.

The hurricanes that made landfall in the United States during 2005 have been by far the most costly natural catastrophes in the country’s history. The wrath of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma left no industry untouched and caused extraordinary industrial and commercial property damage, which will likely result in an unprecedented number of insurance claims and lawsuits -- estimates indicate insured losses exceed $60 billion. Oil rigs and refineries were initially hit hard as Hurricane Katrina reportedly affected production at more than 50 oil and natural-gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. This fueled an immediate increase in gasoline and airfare costs, due to higher jet fuel prices. While the sticker shock at the pump has subsided (for the most part) as gas prices have declined, the impact of the active hurricane season on tourism in the Gulf Coast, especially in New Orleans, has been far-reaching, beyond the physical damage to local hotels, amenities, and tourist attractions.

An uptick in gas prices due to another bad hurricane season might be viewed as a sort of "carbon tax" if you believe that global warming is increasing ocean temperatures.

AccuWeather is reporting that Atlantic surface water temperatures are high and similiar to last years' surface water temperatures which fueled the massive hurricane season. [thanks to Mike Shedlock, again] The warmer the surface waters in the tropical Atlantic, the easier it is for storms to form up and the more intense they become. There is significant risk of another really bad hurricane season in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, which could increase the shut-in risks due to the fact that not all damage in the oil producing areas have been permanently fixed.

Click through for Harry Anderson's quote on Hurricane Katrina.

For those of you who don’t get HBO, Bill Maher just interviewed Harry Anderson (you might remember him from Night Court), about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Bill and Harry were discussing how the French Quarter survived the onslaught of Katrina, to which Harry said…