Global Warming: Spring Storm Cancels Flights, Threatens Floods

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/4/15/140050.shtml?s=us

Storm Cancels Flights, Threatens Floods

NewsMax.com Wires Sunday, April 15, 2007

NEW YORK -- Airlines canceled 300 flights Sunday as a hard-blowing

nor'easter gathered strength along the East Coast and threatened to deliver

some of the worst shore flooding in 14 years.

The storm, already blamed for five deaths on the Plains, also flooded people

out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia.

The cancellations at the New York area's three major airports affected most

carriers, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York

and New Jersey. More cancellations were expected throughout the day.

Meteorologists expected sustained wind of 40 mph and a storm surge of 3 to 5

feet, a combination that could cause as much coastal damage to New York's

Long Island as a winter storm that wreaked havoc there in late 1992, Gov.

Eliot Spitzer said.

The 1992 storm also caused millions of dollars worth of damage to low-lying

areas on the New Jersey shore, and on Sunday some residents of those areas

were packing up to leave.

"This is going to be bad," Shaun Rheinheimer said as he moved furniture to

higher spots at his house on New Jersey's low-lying Cedar Bonnet Island.

Streets were beginning to flood by late morning and waves splashed over

bulkheads into backyards.

Heavy rain and thunderstorms extended from Florida up the coast to southern

New England on Sunday and the National Weather Service said Washington's

Reagan National Airport had measured 1.43 inches of rain.

The weather service posted storm warnings and watches all along the East

Coast, with flood warnings extending from Virginia north to the New York

area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for parts of New England and

eastern New York state.

The storm also caused flooding in the mountains of southern West Virginia,

where emergency services personnel rescued nearly two dozen people from

homes and cars in Logan and Boone counties early Sunday. Two people were

unaccounted for.

"It's about as bad as it can get," said Logan, W.Va., Fire Chief Scott

Beckett. "This thing came down at 2 or 3 in the morning, when people were

sleeping in their beds. They just didn't know what was happening."

Some remained trapped in their homes because roads were blocked by high

water or mud, said Dean Meadows, Wyoming County emergency services director.

Two people in Matheny were injured when they drove into high water and their

truck became lodged under a bridge, Meadows said. Firefighters sliced the

top off the truck to rescue the people, who were taken to Raleigh General

Hospital. Their conditions were unknown.

In central Florida, a tornado touched downed near a mobile home park in

Dundee damaging some of the homes, police said. No injuries were reported.

Two to 4 inches of rain was forecast for the New York City region with wind

gusting to 50 mph. The weather service said as much as 20 inches of snow was

possible at higher elevations of New York's Adirondacks by the time the

storm passes late Monday and Tuesday.

Spitzer said some low-lying areas of Long Island may need to be evacuated,

and he deployed 3,200 members of the National Guard to potential flood

areas. Ferry service to Fire Island, off the south shore of Long Island, was

halted, and New York City opened nine emergency storm shelters in

flood-prone locations.

Pennsylvania and Connecticut officials were opening emergency operations

centers, Pennsylvania in anticipation of heavy snow and Connecticut because

of the threat of coastal flooding. New Jersey made preparations for heavy

snow in the state's northwest corner and flooding elsewhere.

"We're kind of all sitting back, getting prepared and hoping it doesn't get

as bad as it has been in different parts of the country," said James Thomas,

Connecticut's emergency management commission.

The storm also rained out Sunday's Washington Nationals game with the New

York Mets at New York's Shea Stadium. Last weekend, snow dumped by another

major storm system wiped out scheduled Mariners-Indians games at Cleveland

for four straight days.

The storm had been blamed for five deaths as it blew out of the Plains late

in the week, two in violent thunderstorms in Texas and three on slippery

roads in Kansas, where more than a foot of snow fell. Two tornadoes caused

damage Friday in Texas.

On Apr 16, 4:34 am, "Patriot Games" <Crazy_Bast...@Yahoo.com> wrote:

> http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/4/15/140050.shtml?s=us

>

> Storm Cancels Flights, Threatens Floods

> NewsMax.com Wires Sunday, April 15, 2007

>

> NEW YORK -- Airlines canceled 300 flights Sunday as a hard-blowing

> nor'easter gathered strength along the East Coast and threatened to deliver

> some of the worst shore flooding in 14 years.

>

> The storm, already blamed for five deaths on the Plains, also flooded people

> out of their homes in the middle of the night in West Virginia.

>

(cut)

Not even the extreme AGW folks at RealClimate believe severe storms

are the result of global warming. From

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/04/a-tale-of-three-interviews/#more-432

Due to Global Warming, one of the predictions for the changes we'd see

is for greater variability in weather due to more energy in the

atmosphere. Hotter hots. Wetter wets. Dryer dries. And even, in

places, colder colds.-Comment by Jeffrey Davis - 9 Apr 2007 @ 7:19 pm

[Response: Actually, I don't think this is a fair statement. There is

evidence for the dry places getting dryer, and wet places getting

wetter - mainly in the tropics and subtropics. And there is evidence

for greater intensity of rainfall events due to increased specific

humidity. Evidence for greater variability per se is much weaker if it

exists at all. What we are seeing this month are extreme excursions of

the jet stream - but in most of the models there is a weak increase in

the 'NAO' pattern, which is actually associated with less winter

variability in the jet stream and reduced extreme cold outbreaks. I am

not aware of any study suggesting that extreme cold events should be

more likely or more extreme. Be careful not to fall into the

contrarian trap of blaming everything (and therefore explaining

nothing) on global warming.... - gavin]

- A. McIntire