Hurricane Ida
By Paul Homewood
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/031947.shtml?cone#contents
Hurricane Ida hit the Louisiana coast yesterday afternoon as a powerful Category 4 storm. So far there has been only one reported death, and damage has been pretty much standard for a major hurricane. Fortunately the more apocalyptic warmings never materialised.
NHC data suggest a maximum storm surge of between 7 and 11 feet, which again is not unusual.
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at4+shtml/031947.shtml?peakSurge#contents
Although more news may emerge, apart from some localised coastal flooding, the damage is largely limited to power lines and trees down, flash floods and the like, although one hospital lost its roof.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58378788
As usual, the BBC attempt to link the hurricane to climate change:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-58378788
As they well know, because they have been forced to retract such claims before, the data shows that hurricanes are not becoming more intense, a fact that the IPCC themselves acknowledge.
300 hurricanes made US landfall between 1851 and last year, including 92 major ones, that is Cat 3 and over. The busiest decade for major hurricanes was the 1940s, while in contrast the last decade was one of the quietist. Ida is the first hurricane to hit the US so far this year.
https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/All_U.S._Hurricanes.html
The Independent has also deviously claimed that Ida was the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the mainland United States.
In reality it is actually tied with six other hurricanes, meaning it is only amongst the top 10. Many hurricanes prior to the satellite era of course may not have had their peak wind speeds actually recorded.
https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/All_U.S._Hurricanes.html
Interestingly, Ida hit the same stretch of coast and with the same wind speeds as the Last Island hurricane in 1856. That hurricane left at least 200 dead, wiping out just about every structure on Last Island. It is believed that the Last Island hurricane may have reached Cat 5 status, but its maximum windspeeds were unrecorded, a common problem in those days.
Trackbacks
- Storm Ida Was never Louisiana's Worst - The True USA
- Bernie Sanders Turns Hurricane Tragedy Into Partisan Political Crusade - Patriot Daily Press
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Ida is ranked joint 9th with six other US landfalling hurricanes at Wikipedia, based on wind speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ida
How long before that gets edited?
R5Live is using the virtual scale, ‘virtually a cat5, the most powerful possible’.
A principal reason for the creation of the Saffir-Simpson scale was to get everyone on the same page. Cat 4 has meaning. It’s meaning is known around the world.
‘virtually a cat5, the most powerful possible’
Junk journalism. The legacy press did the same thing with TS Sandy, aka SuperStorm™ Sandy. Why use a universal standard when you can punch up the story with junk?
I guess they teach that in journalism school. Having actual science background would make the job more difficult – you would know you were lying.
all weekend BBC have been hyping this up as the end of the world.. Because of course it then enhances their narrative of exceptional weather being caused by climate change. They will be disappointed at so few deaths and so little damage.
The US rural electricity infrastructure is appalling, mainly wooden poles generally all leaning over, the tall poles have about 100,000 volts on the top layer which is transformed down to 30,000 volts at the main substation, this is on the middle layer, this is transformed down to 10,000 volts at a distribution sub station, the next layer. The household supply is actually 220 volts 3 phase, but each house only gets 2 phase which supplies aircon and tumble dryer, the domestic sockets are phase to neutral (earth) which gives the 110 volt supply. The 10,000 volts is stepped down by myriads of relatively small transformers, often mounted on the poles (pole pigs) supplying from 1 to 30 individual properties the 220 volt wires are the lowest layer. The very local poles will just have the 10,000 volt and 220 volts on them. Linesman will be in great demand……
“The US rural electricity infrastructure is appalling, mainly wooden poles generally all leaning over”
[citation needed]
I live in a rural area just a short 2,030 miles from where Ida came ashore.
The only poles leaning in my district are those intended to lean a little; where lines change direction and a pole has a guide (guy) wire to an anchor rod.
gamecock and john, I got a few recent pictures from Michigan, but no idea how to copy them to a post, maybe I need to get a wordpress account? When I worked I spent time in southern Illinois (Centralia, Tuscola, Arcola and Watseka where my employer had factories) and was concerned by the poor state of the overhead lines.
Hasty generalization, Mr Geoff. RECs in South Carolina do a good job.
This time New Orleans seems to have been more prepared., a city where some localities are below sea level.
The pumping stations have kept working due to diesel back up power.
Just a thought for the future, If all the evacuees had battery electric cars, did they manage to get them charged up? Now what about those left without power, how are they going manage? lot to be said for a full tank of petrol.
Excellent point. Amid all of the dire forecasts about future global warming such things are rarely mentioned. Neither is the fact that by lowering our emissions ASAP, even the carbon fuels will be gone or in shortage with higher costs. Try getting away from a storm with a solar panel or wind turbine. Unintended consequences are still consequences.
Equally to the point, how do emergency services perform during an extended power cut…. if all their vehicles are electric, cos teh climate?
Diesel generators. I know, I know, it would be much more efficient to put the diesel engine in the vehicle and connect it to the wheels.
Oh dear. Facts getting in the way of an manufactured alarmist narrative😂
Given the level of damage, I frankly don’t believe the 150mph wind speed. It looks like another Michael, which was ridiculously overstated.
It’s interesting to compare Paul’s analysis with this article in The Conversation: https://theconversation.com/hurricane-ida-4-essential-reads-about-new-orleans-high-hurricane-risk-and-what-climate-change-has-to-do-with-the-storms-166954. Perhaps someone might like to comment there. It’s outside my skill set.
Just the usual waffle about ‘climate change’ IMO.
Good example of how to mitigate against effects of the weather…spend money on infrastructure not CO2 reduction?
At New Orleans, the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain have a higher elevation than the waters of the Gulf. [Link below]
In hindsight, this is one of the worst places to build. Until the Erie Canal (Lakes to Hudson River) was constructed, New Orleans was destined to be the “great” city of the USA. All of the interior productive land was upriver.
http://www.ccearch.com/geography-of-new-orleans.html
The BBC website has now reduced the Ida story to 9th billing. It was pretty clear that the actual story was unlikely to live up to the pre-event hype, and that’s proved to be the case. The BBC were scrabbling around this morning in a desperate attempt to keep the story going with a clip of a roof being blown off, a car travelling down a windy and rainy road, and a deserted and empty fire station having a couple of feet of flood water (clearly expected and planned for).
Alarmists blown off course again 👍
How long has maximum registered land based wind gusts at 128mph been a category 4 hurricane?
The MSM at it again