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Thursday, July 16th, 2020

With Sea Level Rise, High-tide Flooding Spikes Along U.S. Coasts

Author:     Thomas Frank
Source:     Scientific American / E&E
Publication Date:     July 15, 2020
 Link: With Sea Level Rise, High-tide Flooding Spikes Along U.S. Coasts
Stephan:   The Covid-19 virus has its own priorities and schedule, and so does climate change and sea rise. Here is the latest from NOAA.
 Michel Rodriguez tries to jump to a shallow spot as he crosses a flooded street that was caused by the combination of the lunar orbit which caused seasonal high tides and what many believe is the rising sea levels due to climate change on September 29, 2015 in Miami Beach, Florida. Credit: Joe Raedle Getty

American coastal communities will experience high-tide flooding as many as 270 days a year by 2050, according to NOAA projections released yesterday that show sea-level rise causing the dramatic increases.

NOAA’s annual report on high-tide flooding—also called “sunny day” or “nuisance” flooding because it’s not related to storms—shows that records were set in the past year in one-quarter of the communities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts where the agency has tide gauges.

Eagle Point, Texas, near Houston, experienced high-tide flooding 64 days in the one-year period from May 2019 through April.

“This is the new normal. It’s a floodier future,” NOAA oceanographer William Sweet said. “It’s this drive in sea-level rise that is really pumping up the water levels and causing more flooding to occur.”

Fifteen communities […]

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