Photo above: Students in the Semester by the Sea Program class MAR 303 – Long Island Marine Habitats visited the Rocky Intertidal at Montauk Point. Follow the class on their Blog!

Here’s the October News and Press from the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

Amber Pavek, a SoMAS alum who majored in Environmental Humanities, is part of the New York State Parks Invasive Species Strike Team. Their work at Connetquot River State Park was recently featured by the Long Island Invasive Species Management Area

 

The Breach at Old Inlet, opened on Fire Island during Superstorm Sandy, as it looks on October 9, 2022. The breach has since closed, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the storm.

The Breach at Old Inlet, opened on Fire Island during Superstorm Sandy, as it looks on October 9, 2022. The breach has since closed, on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the storm.

Superstorm Sandy: Ten Years Later

NBC 4 New York: Post-Katrina New Orleans Built Surge Barrier in 8 Years. Decade After Sandy, NY Still Waits

  • Melanie Shaw, the Storm Surge Working Group Communications Director, said the slow pace of planning and the failure to get shovels in the sediment puts communities at increasing risk as each new hurricane season approaches.

Toms River Patch: Not Just A Hurricane: What Made Sandy A Superstorm (Also in MSN)

  • The left turn toward land was the result of a “blocking high,” a “major deviation of the high-altitude jet stream,” according to a report by Malcolm Bowman of the SUNY-Stony Brook Sea Grant program. That high-pressure system parked north of the storm and prevented it from turning out to the eastern Atlantic.

Bloomberg TV: Hurricane Sandy 10 Years Later: Is New York City Ready?

  • Hurricane Sandy caused billions of dollars in damage in New York City 10 years ago, in October of 2012. The city was forever changed. So what’s been learned and what still needs to be done?  Stony Brook University Distinguished Professor Malcolm Bowman weighs into this story.

News12: Professor: Breach caused by Superstorm Sandy helped clean the Great South Bay, but concerns remain

  • “The increased exchange with the ocean cleaned the bay,” says Stony Brook University Research Professor Charlie Flagg.

MSN/WNBC-TV: Post-Katrina New Orleans Built Surge Barrier in 8 Years. Decade After Sandy, NY Still Waits

  • “We have a global city here. Why shouldn’t we be all protected?” said Suzanne DiGeronimo, an architect and urban planner with the Storm Surge Working Group, a collective founded at Stony Brook University that advocates for regional surge barriers.

Politico: How Hurricane Sandy helped gentrify Brooklyn

  • “But part of the problem is 10 years on, it’s not the same community,” says Donovan Finn, who teaches environmental design, policy, and planning at Stony Brook University. “Red Hook has become a more affluent place than it was 10 years ago.”

Ten Years After Sandy: Assessing the Social Resilience and Physical Resilience of Waterfront Communities

 

NBC Special “Chasing Our Climate,” a 4-part series diving into climate change on a hyperlocal level. Episode 3, embedded below, features SoMAS research.

Sea levels are expected to rise up as much as a foot by 2050. How are New Yorkers preventing further coastal damage? NBC New York’s Linda Gaudino brings us Episode 3 of Chasing Our Climate: ‘Chasing the Rising Tides.’

Latest Publications

Stepanuk, J.E.F., Kim, H., Nye, J.A., Roberts, J.J., Halpin, P.N., Palka, D.L., Pabst, D.A., McLellan, W.A., Barco, S.G., Thorne, L.H. (2022). Subseasonal forecasts provide a powerful tool for dynamic management of marine mammal populations. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16382

Finn, D. and Pawlowski, T. (2022). Hurricane Recovery Fails the Financially Vulnerable. Planning Magazine.

Lamer, K., Luke, E. P., Mages, Z., Leghart, E. C., Zhu, Z., Treserras, B. P., … & Vogelmann, A. M. (2022). The impact of heat and inflow wind variations on vertical transport around a supertall building–The One Vanderbilt field experiment. Science of the Total Environment, 851, 157834.

Yin, H., Aller, J. Y., Furman, B. T., Aller, R. C., & Zhu, Q. (2022). Cable bacteria activity and impacts in Fe and Mn depleted carbonate sediments. Marine Chemistry, 104176.

Flazenbaum, J. M., Jankowiak, J. G., Goleski, J. A., Gorney, R. M., & Gobler, C. J. (2022). Nitrogen Limitation of Intense and Toxic Cyanobacteria Blooms in Lakes within Two of the Most Visited Parks in the USA: The Lake in Central Park and Prospect Park LakeToxins14(10), 684.

Geraci-Yee, S., Collier, J. L., & Allam, B. (2022). Mucochytrium quahogii (= QPX) Is a Commensal, Opportunistic Pathogen of the Hard Clam (Mercenaria mercenaria): Evidence and Implications for QPX Disease Management. Journal of Fungi, 8(11), 1128.

Hülse, D., Vervoort, P., van de Velde, S.J., Kanzaki, Y., Boudreau, B., Arndt, S., Bottjer, D.J., Hoogakker, B., Kuderer, M., Middelburg, J.J. and Volkenborn, N. (2022). Assessing the impact of bioturbation on sedimentary isotopic records through numerical models. Earth-Science Reviews, 104213.

 

Latest Seminars

Alum Kelly Lombardo returns for the October 5 TAOS Seminar, “The Behavior of Squall Lines over Coastal Zones

New PhD graduate Luis Medina gave the October 5 Southampton Lecture, “Do Microplastic Contaminants Distort Our Understanding of the Oceans Carbon Cycle?

Donovan Finn gave the October 7 OSAC lecture, “How Do We Build Collaborative Science for Better Urban Planning & Climate Change Adaptation

Dan Whittle gave the October 14 OSAC lecture, “The Sea Unites Us – Lessons From US-Cuba Scientific and Environmental Cooperation

Charitha Pattiaratchi gave the October 21 OSAC lecture “Physical Process Along The Rottnest Continental Shelf – A Unique Field Laboratory

Kazuomi Morotomi gave the October 26, 2022 TAOS lecture “Research and Development of Phased Array Weather Radar.

 

Press Highlights

East Hampton Star: Water Report: Bacteria Spike After Rain, but No Bloom in Fort Pond

  • The nonprofit also works with the Gobler Laboratory at Stony Brook University to regularly monitor Fort Pond in Montauk for toxic cyanobacteria blooms.

Newsday: Nissequogue board delays decision on resident Andrew Georgakopoulos’ bid to build dock outside home

  • Jeffrey Levinton, a Stony Brook University marine ecologist who has visited the harbor since the 1970s, said at the hearing new docks would slow the tidal exchange of harbor waters already low in oxygen, and construction could disrupt habitat for horseshoe crabs and nesting terrapins.

The Independent/MSN: Biden says Hurricane Ian ‘ends discussion’ over climate change as DeSantis looks on

  • Analysis, published by researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory last week, also found that human-induced climate change increased Ian’s extreme rain rates by more than 10 per cent, the nonprofit Climate Signals reported. Also ran on MSN, The AU Times, Canada Express News,

Shelter Island Reporter: Battle over treating wastewater comes down to location, location, location

  • Two of those speakers — Stony Brook University Professor Christopher Gobler, Ph.D., and Peconic Baykeeper Peter Topping — had previously indicated there was a better proposal than siting a wastewater treatment system on Manwaring Road.

LI Herald: New York state adds to South Shore Estuary Reserve Act

  • Stony Brook University will work with environmental organizations such as Operation SPLASH and Save the Great South Bay on efforts to preserve water quality, focusing on fighting harmful algae blooms and ensuring that towns within the reserve work with the state to limit the pollutants that enter the estuary’s water system.

Newsday: ‘Perfect storm’ of conditions leads to record fish kills in LI waters, Stony Brook scientists say

  • A “perfect storm” of excessive nitrogen in the region’s coastal waters, combined with harmful algal blooms and the effects of climate change, led to a record number of fish kills on Long Island during the summer of 2022, according to a new report from scientists at Stony Brook University.

HamletHub Local News: WSHU Wins Award for “Higher Ground” Podcast

  • Higher Ground was produced by Sabrina Garone. Associate producers are Sara Ruberg and Kelly Hills-Muckey, and the editor is Harriet Jones. Support for Season 1 of Higher Ground came from the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University and the Kavli Foundation. (The podcast features SoMAS faculty Lesley Thorne and Donovan Finn, and staff member Ellie Heywood).

Patch.com: Staller Center To Host Panel On Indigenous Art, Environmental Issues (press release)

  • What are new ways we can connect science and art at Stony Brook University? Whose stories are being left out, and what topics should we be exploring? The Zuccaire Gallery’s upcoming panel focuses on the work of Indigenous Peoples in addressing issues of climate change, pollution, and environmental conservation. The panel will explore the connections between art and science, touching on the Shinnecock Hope Spot, climate activism through art, Indigenous Science, and the environmental work that scientists and activists are doing on Long Island.

WSHU-FM/NPR: Long Island saw record-setting fish kills this summer

  • “Warmer water just by laws of physics holds less oxygen,” said Christopher Gobler, professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University.

East End Beacon: A “Summer of Discontent” in Long Island Waters

  • There were record numbers of fish kills, dead zones and toxic tides, intensified by summer heat, in Long Island’s estuaries in 2022, according to this year’s assessment of water quality by the Gobler Lab at Stony Brook University. Also ran in this edition.

Rye Record: Could Oyster Aquaculture Come to Rye?

  • Interest in reviving the Westchester oyster population, and potentially hosting aquaculture, is growing. Among those advancing the idea is Emma Forbes, who leads the E=New York Sea Grant extension” office in Elmsford. Like federal land grant universities, charged with disseminating up-to-date information about agricultural science to farmers, the Sea Grant program, a collaboration of Cornell, CUNY Stony Brook, and the federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), does the same for aquaculture.

WCBS-TV: Is it going to be a bad winter? Scientists weigh in on what to expect in the Tri-State Area

  • “This ultimately leads to sort of a pattern that favors, in our region, it tends to favor fewer nor’easters,” said Brian Colle, professor of atmospheric science at Stony Brook University. Also ran in Head Topics,

Innovate LI: Albany, Suffolk Close Land Deal, Opening Wind Tunnel

New York State: Governor Hochul and Suffolk County Executive Bellone Announce Land Transfer to Bring National Offshore Wind Training Center to Suffolk County and Train New Yorkers for Green Jobs

  • The Governor also launched a $9 million competitive opportunity through the State’s Offshore Wind Training Institute, led by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority in collaboration with the State University of New York Farmingdale State College and Stony Brook University, for expanded offshore wind workforce development and training initiatives to address workforce gaps and prepare New Yorkers for high-growth jobs in this growing industry.

Dan’s Papers: Record Fish Kills Reported in Long Island Waters

  • A record 50 fish kills — well above the average of five annually — were recorded this summer in waterways around Long Island, according to a Stony Brook University study released on October 13. Also ran on MSN.

Riverhead News-Review: Report shows North Fork mostly escaped fish kills this past summer

  • The North Fork for the most part escaped the fish kills that plagued the western portion of Long Island Sound, said Stony Brook scientist Christopher Gobler.

Windobi: We speak with Just Stop Oil, the eco-activists who threw soup at Van Gogh’s Sunflowers

  • 5+1 revisit, Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Staller Center for the Arts, Stony Brook University

KCRW-FM: Carl Safina: Wolves, whales and the wonders of nature

  • Author and naturalist Carl Safina has spent his career studying both animals and marine life. A marine ecologist, writer, and founding president of The Safina Center at Stony Brook University in New York, he’s the author of several books, including “Beyond Words: What Animals Think And Feel.”

Newsday: Lindenhurst program for Sandy-damaged properties shows mixed results, residents say

  • Richard Murdocco, adjunct professor of environmental policy at Stony Brook University’s School of Atmospheric and Marine Sciences, said Lot Next Door is collectively a good but ineffective idea.

Crain’s New York Business: Governors Island climate center proposals narrowed to top three

  • The proposals came from the Coastal Cities Impact Team, led by Northeastern University; the New York Climate Exchange, headed by Stony Brook University; and the New York Coastal Climate Center, helmed jointly by the City University of New York and the New School. Each team is a consortium including universities, businesses and nonprofits.

Gothamist: NYC unveils proposals for Governors Island climate hub

  • Among the groups whose proposals have made the final cut is a team led by Northeastern University, which has partnered with Fordham University and a slate of other institutions. Another proposal was from the group led by Stony Brook University, which has teamed up with other schools, nonprofits, and businesses, including General Electric. Also ran Flipboard,

New Milford Patch: The Nature Conservancy: New Sign At The Long Island Maritime Museum Honors Ongoing Campaign To Improve Water Quality

  • Overharvesting, overdevelopment, and pollution have each contributed to the depletion of shellfish in the bay. Research supported by the Nature Conservancy and partners including Stony Brook University found that excess nitrogen from polluting septic systems is a major factor leading to harmful algae blooms.

WSHU: Art exhibit taps Indigenous knowledge to save Long Island waters

  • The panelists were Shavonne F. Smith, environmental director of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Dr. Ellen Pikitch, executive director for Institute for Ocean Conservation Science at Stony Brook University, and featured artists Courtney M. Leonard, of Shinnecock and Erin Genia of Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate in South Dakota, led by Dr. Abena Asare, associate professor of modern African affairs and history.

 

Hurricane Ian

Miami Herald: Historic storm surge. Record flooding. Ian’s lesson in the rising risk of hurricanes

Miami Herald: What we know — and don’t — about how climate change impacts hurricanes like Ian

USA Today: Ian’s death toll rises to at least 31; more than 1,000 rescued in Florida: Live updates

USA Today: There are ‘no easy fixes’ in Florida. But could Hurricane Ian’s havoc bring a call for better planning?

Windobi: Death toll rises; 1,000 rescued in Florida

  • “This was kind of what we expected days in advance, and it’s still heartbreaking to see so many people stranded,” said Kevin Reed, an associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Stony Brook University in New York. Also ran in the Indies Times.

Sumter Item/Associated Press: Study finds that climate change added 10% to storm’s rainfall

  • Wehner and Kevin Reed, an atmospheric scientist at Stony Brook University, published a study in Nature Communications earlier this year looking at the hurricanes of 2020 and found during their rainiest three-hour periods they were more than 10% wetter than in a world without greenhouse gasses trapping heat. Wehner and Reed applied the same scientifically accepted attribution technique to Hurricane Ian. Also ran on KHQA-TV.

News Explorer: How Climate Change Is Rapidly Fueling Super Hurricanes

  • And a preliminary analysis of Ian’s rainfall released Thursday by Stony Brook University professor Kevin Reed and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory senior scientist Michael Wehner, based on previously peer-reviewed research, found that climate change is responsible for increasing Ian’s extreme rainfall rates by 10 percent. Also ran in Vietnam Explorer and News Channel,

USA News Hubs: About 1.7 million remain without power in Ian’s path; storm treks through North Carolina: Live updates

NPR/Blue Ridge Public Radio: Instant study links Hurricane Ian’s heavier rains to climate change

  • The Associated Press reports that Michael Wehner of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University reached that conclusion by plugging new data into a model they built to study previous hurricanes.

The Independent: Florida woman films herself riding out Hurricane Ian in pool float as storm surge swallows neighborhood

Insurance Journal: Analysis Shows Climate Change Increased Ian’s Rainfall Amounts by 10%

  • To arrive at their finding, Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University relied on what they call a “storyline” approach.

Florida Politics/Associated Press: Forecasters predicted Ian will have dropped up to two feet of rain in parts of Florida.

  • Wehner and Kevin Reed, an atmospheric scientist at Stony Brook University, published a study in Nature Communications earlier this year looking at the hurricanes of 2020 and found during their rainiest three-hour periods they were more than 10% wetter than in a world without greenhouse gasses trapping heat. Wehner and Reed applied the same scientifically accepted attribution technique to Hurricane Ian. Also ran in Carrier Management, Virginian-Pilot, The Daily Press,

BNN Bloomberg: Climate Change Infused Hurricane Ian With 10% More Rain, Scientists Say

  • To arrive at their finding, Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University relied on what they call a “storyline” approach. Also ran in Claims Journal.

Bloomberg: Researchers say climate change made Hurricane Ian worse

  • To arrive at their finding, Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University relied on what they call a “storyline” approach.

News Explorer: Hurricane Ian – live: Florida damage may top $120bn as Charleston airport shuts before South Carolina landfall

  • The analysis by researchers Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University and Michael Wehner of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has not yet been peer-reviewed, but they say they used the same methodology for their study of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, which has been. Also ran on the Vietnam Explorer News Channel.

Pelhal News: Text-only updates on Carolinas, Florida death toll

  • “This is kind of what we had expected for days in advance, and it’s still heartbreaking to see so many people stranded,” stated Kevin Reed, affiliate professor in atmospheric science at Stony Brook University in New York. Also ran in the Indies Times, Amstad Post, MSN, Windobi and Yahoo News.

Tampa Bay Times: How climate change impacts hurricanes like Ian

The Independent:  Hurricane Ian: Hundreds Rescued in Southwest Florida as Death Toll Continues to Rise

New Zealand Times: Hurricane Ian makes landfall in South Carolina

  • Rapid analysis, published Thursday by researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, shows that human-caused climate change increased Ian’s extreme rainfall by more than 10 percent, the nonprofit Climate Signals said in an email. Also ran in The Switzerland Times and The US Express News.

Boston Globe/Washington Post: How climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes

  • And a preliminary analysis of Ian’s rainfall released Thursday by Stony Brook University professor Kevin Reed and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory senior scientist Michael Wehner, based on previously peer-reviewed research, found that climate change is responsible for increasing Ian’s extreme rainfall rates by 10 percent. Also ran Stuff NZ,

New York Times: Billion-dollar disasters

  • One analysis by a team of scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and State University of New York at Stony Brook found that man-made climate change had made Hurricane Ian at least 10 percent wetter.

Gizmodo: Emergency Workers Continue Door-to-Door Search as Hurricane Ian’s Death Toll Rises

  • Using peer-reviewed techniques, scientists have attributed at least 10% of Hurricane Ian’s precipitation to climate change, in an analysis from Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

EcoWatch: Science Guy Bill Nye Tells Conservatives to ‘Cut It Out’ With Climate Denial in the Wake of Hurricane

Flash News 11: Emergency Workers Continue Door-to-Door Search as Hurricane Ian’s Death Toll Rises

  • Using peer-reviewed strategies, scientists have attributed at least 10% of Hurricane Ian’s precipitation to local weather change, in an analysis from Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

The Meadville Times/Miami Herald: What we know — and don’t — about how climate change impacts hurricanes like Ian

Jacksonville Journal Courier: Nature’s fury: As much of the East Coast cleans up after Hurricane Ian, the devastation carries a cautionary note for Illinois

  • “The real storm was 10% wetter than the storm that might have been” because of climate change, said Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and co-author with Kevin Reed, an atmospheric scientist at Stony Brook University, of a study published in Nature Communications.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette/Bloomberg: Climate change worsened Hurricane Ian’s rainfall by 10%, scientists say

ZME Science Blog: Human-induced climate change made Hurricane Ian worse and it’s a taste of what’s to come

  • Wehner and Kevin Reed, a climate expert at Stony Brook University, had published earlier this year a study looking at 2020 hurricanes and found their rainiest three-hour periods were over 10% wetter than in a world without climate change. Now, the two researchers decided to use the same attribution technique for the recent Hurricane Ian.

Buffalo News: Ask Don Paul: Was monstrous Ian worsened by a warming climate?

  • There are also the increased rates of rainfall from hurricanes (and extratropical cyclones) due to more water vapor in the atmosphere from heating boosting evaporation. Two SUNY Stony Brook researchers have reported on a 10% increase in extreme rainfall rates tied to warming.

Trib Live: Letter to the editor: Permitting reform required in race against climate change

  • While Hurricane Ian caused worries and dread for families across the country, scientists at Stony Brook University have demonstrated that Ian was 10% wetter due to climate change. Climate change is happening now, and we are in a race to stop emitting greenhouse gasses, so it doesn’t get worse.

WLRN-TV: What we know — and don’t — about how climate change impacts hurricanes like Ian

  • “That is a question that is really difficult to answer. There is no ‘what would have September 2022 looked like without climate change?’ We don’t have that,” said Reed, an associate professor in the school of marine and atmospheric sciences, at Stony Brook University. Also ran on WGCU-FM,

Asheville Citizen-Times/USA Today: Learning from Hurricane Ian: Why we should prepare for more storms like it

Reporter Wings: Florida Commits $1 Billion to Climate Resilience. But After Hurricane Ian, Some Question the State’s Development Practices – Inside Climate News

  • Ian went through rapid intensification, and the first preliminary attribution study on Ian found that human-induced climate change increased Ian’s extreme rainfall rates by more than 10 percent, according to researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Also ran in Honest Columnist, Black Chronicle Newspaper, Inside Climate News,

CNN: Hundreds of homes are flooded in Florida. The slow-moving disaster could continue through Thanksgiving

Naples Daily News: Rebuilding after Ian: Is climate change to blame for more hurricanes? Experts remain split

USA Today: Is climate change fueling massive hurricanes in the Atlantic? Here’s what science says.

Florida Insider: Hurricane Ian Update: Hundreds of Central Florida homes underwater

  • Scientists at Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory conducted a fast investigation and found that Ian’s rainfall was at least 10 percent higher as a result of human-caused climate change.

Insurance News Net: Expert: Hurricane Ian a sign of storms to come

  • Researchers from Stony Brook University estimated that Florence’s rainfall was 50% greater than normal due to global warming. And that wasn’t the only change due to climate change.

WMFE-FM: Florida Commits $1 Billion to Climate Resilience. But After Hurricane Ian, Some Question the State’s Development Practices

  • Ian went through rapid intensification, and the first preliminary attribution study on Ian found that human-induced climate change increased Ian’s extreme rainfall rates by more than 10 percent, according to researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

The Limited Times/CNN: Hundreds of homes in Florida are still under water, and this river is now expected to remain flooded by Thanksgiving.

  • Ian’s rainfall was at least 10% higher due to human-caused climate change, according to a quick analysis by scientists at Stony Brook University and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Gainesville Sun/USA Today: Is climate change fueling massive hurricanes in the Atlantic? Here’s what science says.

Watts Up With That?: Is Global Warming Responsible for Hurricane Ian? The Evidence Says No

  • The study conducted by two scientists, one of Stony Brook University and the other of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, mandated that the “climate crisis” made Hurricane Ian 10% rainier than it would have been if there was no global warming.

The Ticker: Greenhouse gas pollution intensifies Hurricane Ian’s rainfall by 10%

  • Scientists have discovered that Hurricane Ian’s rainfall is 10% worse than it would have been two centuries ago due to greenhouse gas pollution. Two United States climate researchers, Michael Wehner of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Kevin Reed of Stony Brook University, conducted a rapid analysis in which they used a “storyline” approach to reach their conclusion.

DredgeWire: Florida Commits $1 Billion to Climate Resilience. But After Hurricane Ian, Some Question the State’s Development Practices

  • Ian went through rapid intensification, and the first preliminary attribution study on Ian found that human-induced climate change increased Ian’s extreme rainfall rates by more than 10 percent, according to researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.

Business Mayor: After Hurricane Ian, Florida forced to rethink its cycle of rebuilding

  • Hurricane Ian was described by experts as a “500-year water event,” but major floods could become frequent because tropical cyclones are producing more rain, according to Kevin Reed, associate professor of atmospheric sciences at Stony Brook University.

WMFE: Misery Wrought by Hurricane Ian Focuses Attention on Climate Records of Florida Candidates for Governor

  • One preliminary study concluded that human-induced climate change had increased the hurricane’s rainfall rates by more than 10 percent, researchers at Stony Brook University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently reported. Also on WUSF.