this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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science

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[–] [email protected] 84 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Are these pictures even on the same zoom level?

[–] [email protected] 136 points 6 days ago (2 children)

You are correct, they don't appear to be. This one seems more accurate there, but the difference is still stark:

[–] [email protected] 52 points 6 days ago

I was going to correct you on the comparison and I tried making my own scaled image .... but I couldn't because yours is a correct scale

I just couldn't believe that Helene was that massive and widespread compared to Katrina which was known as a major event. wow

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

I did one too. Top and bottom before I saw yours. Here it is as well to help with the scale. I overlaid them in Photoshop to help get the land the same but hell its nuts.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 6 days ago (4 children)

They are not, but I think the main focus is on how obscenely tall Helene was. There's many parts of the US that weren't prepared because they didn't think it would reach them

[–] [email protected] 41 points 6 days ago (1 children)

There were warnings for Georgia and the southern Appalachia, but the storm moved so much faster at the end and carried so much water inland. The ability to hold more water in the atmosphere has been an ongoing concern from climate scientists, and this is a clear example of how it can lead to disaster.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 6 days ago

This bundled with droughts that cause the ground to not be able to absorb the water, causing serious flash floods, is just a start. I'm guessing in the next ten years, we'll see this happening more and more each year for inland areas

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

We even got some excessive wind in Chicagoland, which was obviously from the hurricane, because it was coming from the east. Normally, the wind here comes from the west.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Reminds me of youtuber LGR's latest video, he didn't prepare much because the storms don't normally reach that far inland, and unfortunately he had a lot of his collection damaged because 2 massive trees sliced his house clean in half. Makes me think that the midwest will soon get more populated due to its position away from coastlines

[–] [email protected] 20 points 6 days ago (5 children)

Makes me think that the midwest will soon get more populated due to its position away from coastlines

We have our own shit show of extreme weather. For example, derechos (an oceanless, inland hurricane essentially) used to be rare. We've had 2 massive ones in the last 4 years. This summer alone there were hundreds of tornados hitting places that rarely ever see them. Hell, it's god damn October and we're still having ~90°F days, which hardly ever used to happen.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In nebraska here under a Red Flag warning and a high of 91 today

EDIT : Correction, forecast updated with a high of 102... in fucking october. Holy shit

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

Hell, I think northern Nebraska had widespread, massive flooding a few years ago due to extreme weather causing one of the dams to fail. Wiped out several communities.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 days ago

We got one of those out of place tornadoes this year! My town had one set down basically in the middle. We lost so many huge old (50-150+ year old) trees because that just doesn’t happen here. And because it doesn’t happen here, and some of the trees were planted well before the roads were built (meaning a lot of the trees that came down were basically in the road, curbs built around them sort of thing), it really did a number on the infrastructure (to say nothing of the damage to homes and stuff).

But in addition to a random tornado, we’ve just had a ton more super strong wind/rain events that cause damage in the last few years. I honestly don’t blame my neighbors for taking down their big old trees rather than deal with the weather damage. (I disagree with it, but I understand it)

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Texas had a derecho go from Central Texas to the coast, which is the opposite of how weather is supposed to work here.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago

We don't have winter in Chicagoland anymore. We have Spring, Summer, Fall, and Polar Vortex. Stays around 30-40 until mid January or early February and then get -20 for two weeks.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Are you in Tennessee? Because that sounds like the last four years here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Not super far from there (~6 hours), WNW Illinois.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago (2 children)

If you are ever fortunate enough to pay off your house DO NOT go without insurance because you can

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago

Pretty much all home insurance doesn't cover hurricane related damages if you're on the east side of the US.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 6 days ago (1 children)

In some parts of Australia you cannot insure your home any longer due to climate change.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Florida and California are getting like that in the US. The lawyers and public adjusters are contributing to the problem by suing and shaking down every insurance company that stays in the state. In California they are begging them to stay…

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Parts of Massachusetts are like that as well. As far as I know, flood insurance basically no longer exists on Cape Cod.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Same in the Outer Banks, the island chain to the east of North Carolina. The first time I went I was like wow how cool you can see the bay and the ocean at the same time in Rodanthe! That strip of land keeps getting narrower.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago

Makes me think that the midwest will soon get more populated due to its position away from coastlines

Unless they move near one of the great lakes or a big river, it will be unsustainable. Most areas without those get their water from underground aquifers, which are getting depleted already. These little towns and cities that dot the flyover states aren't preparing for this at all.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I wonder how deep inland hurricanes will affect the production of tornadoes up here (for good or ill).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

Tornados seems to be moving eastward, so really the worst of the weather so far is hitting that side of the US

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Wasn't a big part of Katrina's destruction from the hurricane effectively stalling over the southern US which caused prolonged and massive local damage?

Not trying to discount either event, mostly worried about the time we get a stalled Helene sized hurricane

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

A stalled hurricane doesn't have to be large. Fran is an example back in history, and Harvey in more recent. But stalled storms also has its origin from climate change, because the weather steering systems are broken and cause/allow it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

It was ridiculously huge. I'm in Orlando, and when we were getting the first bands of wind, the eye of the storm was still over the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico