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Hurricanes Katrina,
Rita, and Ocean Warming
=Rita=
[Sept. 22, 2005 update]
Another monster storm, the third strongest ever recorded
in the Atlantic basin, is bearing down on the Gulf coast. Right
now, Hurricane Rita appears headed for another Chemical Alley, Houston,
home to Halliburton, Enron, and ExxonMobil's Baytown
refinery, the largest in the U.S.
Rita rapidly intensified on Sept. 21 as it entered
the Gulf of Mexico and fed off the unusually deep and warm Loop
Current.
The relationship between warming oceans and hurricane
intensity came into clearer focus just before Rita entered the Gulf.
On Sept. 15, the journal Science published peer reviewed
research
linking the two trends. Co-author Judith
Curry of the Georgia Institute of Technology said, "This
trend in sea surface temperature that's sort of relentlessly rising
and the hurricane intensity that's relentlessly rising (means that)
it's with some confidence we can say that these two things are connected
and that there's probably a substantial contribution from greenhouse
warming."
A Knight-Ridder report highlights that the unusually warm Gulf
waters reach an unprecedented depth. "Both storms hit what
scientists call the Loop Current, an annual 100-mile swath of 82-degree
water between the Florida Keys and the mouth of the
Mississippi River that's 300 feet deep, said Frank Marks, the director
of the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Normally, warm water is about 125 feet deep,"
reported Seth Borenstein. ("Rita, Katrina hit deep, warm spots
that fueled hurricanes," Knight Ridder Newspapers, Sept.
21, 2005 )
Graphics of water temperature anomalies preceding Rita's path are
now available in SEEN's
Gallery.
=Katrina=
The horror in southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi
seems otherworldly. Hurricane Katrina may be the siren wail of a
new global climatic order. Record high ocean temperatures -- including
a pool of water exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit just south of Louisiana
-- helped to fuel this nightmare. (Visit SEEN's Gallery
for graphical images of the unusually warm waters.)
As the tempest grew in the Gulf, Time
magazine asked, "Is Global Warming Fueling Katrina?"
Soon after the storm's ferocious winds and surge struck,
analysts and policymakers around the world connected the hurricane
to the changing climate.
Long-time climate journalist Ross Gelbspan wrote in
the Boston
Globe (Aug 30), "The hurricane that struck Louisiana yesterday
was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real
name is global warming."
Although the Bush/Cheney administration discourages
any sort of connection between global warming and Katrina, government
officials in Europe had no such qualms.
Sir David Kind, chief science advisor to the United
Kingdom government, said
on August 30, "The increased intensity of hurricanes is
associated with global warming. We have known since 1987 the intensity
of hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know
that, over the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in
these regions have increased by half a degree centigrade."
German Environmental Minister Jürgen Trittin
wrote
in the Frankfurter Rundschau, "The American president
is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and
the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like
Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies.... There
is only one possible route of action. Greenhouse gases have to be
radically reduced and it has to happen worldwide."
Grist
on-line magazine on Sept 1 published a review of media coverage
of the global warming-Katrina connection.
Last update: Sept. 22, 2005, 12:20 p.m.
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