Hurricane Irene Wrapup: Alarmists, Kooks, And Data, Oh My!

29 Aug, 2011 by William Teach

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In the wake of Hurricane Irene (and in advance and during), the Cult Of Gore really attempted to push their dying religion through Irene. And here we have another, as Warmist Katie Fehrenbacher pushes the same failed doctrine

Looks like the global rise in extreme weather events (cough, Irene) hasn’t been enough to make Americans more concerned about the issue of climate change. But extreme weather has been causing certain regions, particularly with dry, hot climates, to worry more about climate change. Essentially if extreme weather particularly effects your region, you’re going to be far more worried about it – guess that’s human nature.

“Damn it, why won’t you anti-science people buy our snake oil!!!!” Of course, “extreme weather events” is code word for “man-induced global warming.” Funny how we hadn’t had one of these “extreme weather events” make landfall in the US in over 1075 days. We haven’t had a Category 3 or higher hit the US since 2005. And no Cat 3 or higher on the east coast since 2004. They are seeing roughly the same thing around the world, namely, few landfalling hurricanes, and not as many tropical waves making it to actual hurricane/cyclone/typhoon status. But, hey, we should be super worried about hurricanes caused by globull warming, because there were none before 1980. In fact, the word hurricane was introduced in 1980, if memory serves /sarc off.

Anyhow, The Daily Beast’s Howard Kurzt discusses the hype around Irene

It was raining in Manhattan on Sunday morning, and the dogged correspondents in their brightly colored windbreakers were getting wet.

But the apocalypse that cable television had been trumpeting had failed to materialize. And at 9 a.m., you could almost hear the air come out of the media’s hot-air balloon of constant coverage when Hurricane Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm.

I’m going to have to agree with liberal Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog on this one: Kurtz is way out of line, and the photos Brad posts show it. Why? Because a hurricane is not just about wind. I highlighted yesterday that the surface wind speeds did not validate Irene being a Category 1 hurricane. But, what is the biggest danger from most hurricanes? Water. It’s the storm surge and torrential rains which become flash floods that kill and injure most people during a tropical storm. We witnessed the same thing in North Carolina back in 1999, when we had to deal with the massive rain dumped by Dennis and Floyd, turning most of the area east of I-95 into a swampland.

Did the politicians go overboard? No. They were smart to take precautions. What if Irene had, in fact, come ashore as a Cat 3, or even a possible Cat 4, then proceeded up the coast? The thing with these storms is Things Can Happen. They can die out. They can shift their track quickly. They can increase power quickly. You don’t take the chance.

Did the media go overboard? Of course. That’s what they do. To expect anything different would be like asking Obama to pay his “fair share” voluntarily. Not going to happen.

So, what happened? Weather. My own little theory is that a huge amount of dry air mixed in to Irene somewhere off the coast. I remember a period on Saturday when a band was coming around and approaching Raleigh, and the rain died out. Local meteorologists said it was because of dry air in the mix. I’m just speculating, but this could account for the lower surface level winds. Some have suggested that the winds aloft were faster. Well, could be. But the only thing that matters is the surface wind speeds, and generally what is measured. Especially since that’s where most of the instruments are.

Finally, here is Kennedy Airport

Kennedy should have been exposed to hurricane force wind speeds, or at least top end tropical storm speeds (greater than 38), yet the greatest reading was 39? I have many more screenshots, as well, from the NYC area, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Long Island, and Massachusetts.