SoylentNews

JoeMerchant writes:

Americans Should Brace for a Floodier Future

Government scientists predict 40 places in the U.S. will experience higher than normal rates of so-called sunny day flooding this year because of rising sea levels and an abnormal El Nino weather system...

"The future is already here, a floodier future," said William Sweet, a NOAA oceanographer and lead author of the study.

The report predicted that annual flood records will be broken again next year and for years and decades to come from sea-level rise.

"Flooding that decades ago usually happened only during a powerful or localized storm can now happen when a steady breeze or a change in coastal current overlaps with a high tide," it read.

The nationwide average frequency of sunny day flooding in 2018 was five days a year, tying a record set in 2015.

But the East Coast averaged twice as much flooding.

The agency says the level of sunny day flooding in the U.S. has doubled since 2000.

Nationwide, the agency predicted, average sunny day flooding could reach 7 to 15 days a year by 2030, and 25 to 75 days a year by 2050.

Back in the late 1990s, I lived and worked on streets which would get three to six inches of water on them during spring high tides. The work street was elevated 12" with fill, but the neighborhood protested at the idea of raising the street and demanded pumps instead... I haven't checked back on how that worked out for them - but on Google Maps it appears that some of the lowest lying asphalt has been blocked off and converted to a mini-park.

Any coastal dwellers here noticing wetter feet yet?

Original Submission