The last major hurricane (category 3, 4 or 5) to make landfall on the US (48 states) was hurricane Wilma in October 2005, almost 12 years before hurricane Harvey hit Texas.
The previous record for a major hurricane lull was about 8 years in the 1860s.
Will those who falsely claim that Harvey was caused by CO2 also claim that the 12-year lull was caused by CO2?
Actually, no one in then mainstream media even mentions the 12-year lull -- that fact doesn't support their climate change fantasies!
Hurricane Harvey made landfall between Port Aransas and Port O’Connor (east of Corpus Christi) Texas as a category 4 hurricane with wind speeds of 130-156 mph.
The National Weather Service failed to predict the storm would stall over the Houston area, go back to the Gulf of Mexico, and then return.
Staying in the Houston area so long allowed moisture to be replenished from the Gulf.
Hurricane Harvey dropped almost 50 inches of rain on a Houston suburb (in the fifth most populated metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the country).
The Houston MSA has a population of 6.8 million people, in 10,062 square miles (26,000 sq. km.).
Harvey was not the most intense rain recorded in the world, or in the US, but was significant for the Houston area.
One early government glitch: The mayor of Houston recommended that people stay in their homes (he was wrong), while the Texas governor was recommending evacuation (he was right).
Some communities were flooded after gateways of flood control dams were opened to prevent the dams from bursting.
There have been many Houston floods since mid-1800s.
The worst Houston flood was in December 1935, when the Buffalo Bayou in downtown topped at 54.4 feet (16.6 meters), long before the fear of CO2-caused global warming.
The 1930 population of Houston was 292,000, and the 1940 population was 385,000, roughly 5% of the population today.
The Houston ship channel was closed for eight months after the 1935 storm -- but it was open on a limited basis only one week after Harvey hit (limited to ships with a draft of less than 33 feet, only in daytime).
Soils in the Houston area drain poorly, with low to moderate permeability -- they flood easily and are not ideal for building a city.
Repeated flooding have cause parts of Harris County to drop 10 to 12 feet since the 1920s, according to the U.S. Geological Survey:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-years-the-Houston-area-has-been-losing-ground-7951625.php
Repeated flooding have cause parts of Harris County to drop 10 to 12 feet since the 1920s, according to the U.S. Geological Survey:
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/For-years-the-Houston-area-has-been-losing-ground-7951625.php
Following floods in 1929 and 1935, the US Corps of Engineers built Addicks and Barker dams to control flooding of the Buffalo Bayou and its tributaries.
Fear that hurricane Harvey rains would overwhelm those dams caused the Corps to release water from the reservoirs, causing additional flooding.
Releases from the Addicks dam were not enough to prevent that reservoir from overflowing the dam for the first time.
The Gulf of Mexico is warm enough every summer to produce a major hurricane.
Climate scientist Roy Spencer said this
about the history of hurricanes:
“There is coastal lake sediment evidence of catastrophic hurricanes which struck the Florida panhandle over 1,000 years ago, events which became less frequent in the most recent 1,000 years."
"Texas Flood" happens to be one of my favorite blues songs, especially the cover version by guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, who I heard play it live, outdoors, a few years before he died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjdMLAMbM0
"Texas Flood" happens to be one of my favorite blues songs, especially the cover version by guitar legend Stevie Ray Vaughan, who I heard play it live, outdoors, a few years before he died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVjdMLAMbM0