Quote:
Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive
Interesting!
A category 1 hurricane has max sustained winds of 95 mph.
A category 2 hurricane has max sustained winds of 110 mph.
Francine, as close as I was able to find out, had max sustained winds of "around 100 mph" (Washington Post, 9/11/24)
That means that this entire rancorous debate is over A WIND SPEED OF APPROXIMATELY 5 MPH!!
The real issue here, IMO, is something we've seen much of before: a sense of disappointment that whatever hurricane under discussion wasn't stronger that it turned out to be. We've been hearing now for nearly two decades that global warming was going to increase not only the number of hurricanes per season but their intensity as well. That disappointment is evidenced by the repeated proclivity of media to magnify events associated with hurricanes: if the numbers of hurricanes aren't there, it seems that the power of the ones that ARE occurring are maximized in media to the fullest possible extent.
Are there people who would be a lot happier today, if Francine HAD been a category 5?
Unfortunately, I think so.
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Personally, I could agree with everything except the last line. When a hurricane gets to Cat 3 to 5 we are talking the loss of life. Francine (either a 1 or 2 ) ruined some peoples homes. PERSONALLY, I don't care so much about hurricanes because their number and intensity depends on more than ONE factor. But, the main factor is Ocean WATER temperature, which is HIGH this summer and (what is IMPORTANT) is that the WATER TEMPERATURE will be HIGHER next summer and HIGHER each succeeding summer - which will bring larger and larger Hurricanes. The IMPORTANT thing that I see is the Earth temperature is increasing each year and the average older person wants to ignore it. But, most know that the Coral Reefs are dying and hordes of people are moving NORTH from South America. And they could read about the TUNDRA conditions in Alaska and Russia. The poles, both north and south, are heating faster than the center latitudes of the Earth. The HEAT disruptions and problems that Alaska is facing today will be the problems of the US in about 10 years (maybe longer). But, as long as Villagers look outside their windows and see INFERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE cars, trucks, and golf carts go by they will BEGIN to know that they have a PROBLEM.