Tipsheet

Not the Onion: Climate Change Created a ‘Wetter’ Storm That Hit NYC and Caused Those Insane Floods

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  October 02, 2023 11:45 PM

Is everyone hitting the crack pipe at The Guardian, or do they think people are this stupid? While this unabashedly left-wing publication has good moments covering international news and live blogging terror attacks in Europe, they did take a rake to the face here regarding the epic New York City floods last weekend. The Big Apple turned into a swimming pool. Anywhere from four to seven inches of rain dumped on the city from the remnants of Tropical Storm Ophelia. Subways became raging rivers. At the Central Park Zoo, the water levels got so high that the sea lions could escape. It got so bad that Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency—it was bedlam. 

And now, the experts are telling us that the “type of storm” that struck New York City caused—I can’t even believe this is real—the storm to be 10-20 percent “wetter.” Excuse me, what (via Guardian): 


The unmistakable influence of the climate crisis helped cause New York City to be inundated by a month’s worth of rain within just a few hours on Friday, scientists have warned, amid concerns over how well the city is prepared for severe climate shocks. 

A new rapid attribution study, released by scientists in Europe, has found that the type of storm seen on Friday is now 10-20% wetter than it would have been in the previous century, because of climate change. 

Flash flooding soaked large parts of the US’s largest city, turning roads into rivers, following intense rainfall that broke records. John F Kennedy international airport measured 8in of rainfall in one day, the most since records began, while Brooklyn received a month’s worth of rain in just a few hours. People had to be rescued from swamped basement apartments, subway and bus services were canceled and sewage backed up in overwhelmed pipes. 

Climate scientists have stressed that such pounding rainfall is a symptom of a warming planet, with a hotter atmosphere able to hold more moisture that is then unleashed in torrential downpours. 

“Human-driven climate change plays a dual role, both intensifying these storms and warming the atmosphere,” said Davide Faranda, a scientist at the Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace in France. “Deeper storms yield more intense phenomena, while a warmer atmosphere can accommodate a greater amount of rain.”

So, past tropical storms were less wet and hellacious? What is this? Also, I’m chuckling that a tropical storm already known to be a water-logged event is somehow 10-20 percent wetter, thanks to global warming. They had to have known this narrative was dead on arrival.

 Water was not as wet, but it’s now wetter due to climate change. Unreal stuff here, folks.

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