Who gets fired when this doesn’t happen? Oh, right, they don’t expect anyone to remember their prognostication of doom, this is all meant to be scaremongering now
Map Shows US Cities That Could Be Underwater in 2050 https://t.co/CKtaMkoD9h
— Newsweek (@Newsweek) December 9, 2024
From the link
A map shows the growing threat to coastal cities across the United States due to rising sea levels.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s latest projections, sea levels along the U.S. coastlines are projected to rise, on average, around 10 to 12 inches by 2050.
Many communities along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts face significant risks of partial inundation in the future if current trends continue and mitigation efforts are not intensified.
NOAA’s Sea Level Rise Viewer shows which cities may be impacted along each coast, with dark blue areas indicating significant projected sea level rises.
You can play with that sea level rise viewer if you want, but, consider the 10-12 inches of sea rise thing: sea rise during the 20th Century was exactly average, meaning 6-8 inches, when it should have been much higher for a Holocene warm period. And it has not accelerated for the 21st Century. Look at, say, Atlantic City, NJ: NOAA’s own actual data, not computer models, shows 1.38 feet per 100 years, which is what is expected during a Holocene warm period, and this is a gauge that goes back to 1911. There’s also land subsiding going on.
While it is highly unlikely that cities will go underwater in the near future, according to a NOAA oceanographer specialist, any rise that is two feet or more above the average high tide has the potential to be extremely disruptive and/or outright damaging.
Dr. William Sweet, an NOAA oceanographer spearheading efforts to track and predict changes in sea level and coastal flood risk, told Newsweek that while he did not believe any communities in the U.S. would be going underwater by 2050, though “episodic flooding could become extremely damaging and a major concern unless we do something.”
And there it is, the bet hedging. Anyhow, sea rise should be expected during a warm period, especially during an inter-glacial period, no need to bring in witchcraft, er, human caused reasons.
The employees of 2024 will mostly be gone by 2050. If Donald Trump and Elon Musk have their way, they’ll mostly be gone by 2026.
“Sea level” represents the average height of the ocean surface over a long period of time, essentially the midpoint between high and low tides. The tidal range in Virginia Beach, the closest ocean beach to where I lived when in the Old Dominion, is 3.28 feet, half of that — the high tide — being 1.64 feet. Effectively, a 10 to 12 inch rise isn’t even as much as high tide!
The building code for Hampton, Virginia, where I lived, is that the finished floor, including the floor joists, must be 12 feet above sea level. I ran into that when a customer wanted me to build an addition for him, but his grandfathered slab home was only about 9½ feet above sea level. I told him that I wouldn’t do it, because I’d have to build the rear addition to code, and he’d never be happy with what I had to do.
Even with that, at 9½’, his home wouldn’t be threatened by a one foot rise in sea level.
When himicane Daniel, or was it Floyd, came through in 1999, an extreme tide came up the Foxhill neighborhood, where we lived, though it didn’t reach our humble abode. If I drove past the Francis Asbury Elementary School I’d reach the water in another block. I’m not sure how many houses the tide got into.
The expensive homes built very close to the shore in Grandview were mostly on stilts, so they were protected.
If you build on the coast too close to sea level, you’re an idiot.
Maybe some sea walls, levies (can’t say dikes anymore), and pumps. Plenty of time to design and install them before they are needed. The cities themselves should pay the costs of living at the shore. Besides, commenters here are always telling us how wealthy the cities are.
Commenter: can’t say dikes anymore
Actually, you can say anything you want. But that’s not to say that what one says is inconsequential. Anyway, “dikes” is a perfectly useful word meaning ‘a long wall or embankment built to prevent flooding from the sea’.
“Dykes”, on the other hand, was a slur directed at masculine lesbians, but has been more recently reappropriated by lesbians in reference to “tough” or “strong” women.
It’s hard to keep up with the world of slang and slurs.
I agree with Mr Dana that there’s no need to worry.
NOAA is on the DOGE-boyz (Ramaswamy & Musk) cancellation list. As of 2026 we’ll have no mo NOAA’s ark to research and announce this bologna.
Mr Teach typed: sea rise should be expected during a warm period, especially during an inter-glacial period, no need to bring in witchcraft, er, human caused reasons
So, even the skeptical Mr Teach agrees that coastal denizens should prepare.