Page 28 - aruba-today-20190711

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 11 July 2019

‘A floodier future’: Scientists say records will be broken

By WAYNE PARRY er May 2018 through April
Associated Press 2019. The agency forecasts
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — sunny-day flooding this
The federal government year in Boston at 12 to 19
is warning Americans to days (it had 19 last year).
brace for a “floodier” fu- It predicted sunny-day
ture. flooding this year in New
Government scientists pre- York (8 to 13 days, com-
dict 40 places in the U.S. pared with 12 last year);
will experience higher than Norfolk, Virginia (10 to 15
normal rates of so-called days; compared to 10
sunny day flooding this days last year); Charleston,
year because of rising sea South Carolina (4 to 7 days,
levels and an abnormal El compared to 5 last year);
Nino weather system. Pensacola, Florida (2 to 5
A report released Wednes- days compared with 4 last
day by the National Oce- year); Sabine Pass, Texas
anic and Atmospheric Ad- (6 to 13 days compared
ministration predicts that with 8 last year) and Eagle
sunny day flooding, also Point, Texas (29 to 40 days,
known as tidal flooding, will compared to 27 last year).
continue to increase. In this Oct. 5, 2017, file photo, residents move a “no wake,” sign through flood waters caused by West coast predictions in-
“The future is already here, king tides in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. cluded San Diego (5 to 9
a floodier future,” said Associated Press days compared to 8 last
William Sweet, a NOAA Service. “This issue gets “We’re not talking about ami region, and farmlands year); Los Angeles (1 to 4
oceanographer and lead more urgent and compli- disaster flooding. We’re in the Delmarva Peninsula days compared to 5 last
author of the study. cated with every passing talking about repetitive in Delaware and Maryland year); Humboldt Bay, Cali-
The report predicted that day.” Global sea levels are flooding that disrupts peo- have been damaged by fornia (6 to 12 days com-
annual flood records will rising at a rate of about 3 ple’s lives on a daily basis. salt water encroaching into pared to 12 last year); Toke
be broken again next year millimeters a year, or about It’s sometimes called ‘nui- planted areas. Point, Washington (9 to 21
and for years and decades an inch every eight years, sance flooding,’ but it has High-tide flooding is caus- days compared to 12 last
to come from sea-level rise. according to Rutgers Uni- real impacts and costs.” ing problems including year) and 2 to 6 days in Se-
“Flooding that decades versity researchers, who The report cited the disrup- beach erosion, over- attle, compared to 2 last
ago usually happened only predict that by 2050, seas tion of commerce in down- whelmed sewer and drink- year.
during a powerful or local- off New Jersey will rise by town Annapolis, Maryland, ing water systems, closed The report documented
ized storm can now hap- an additional 1.4 feet (0.4 where parking spaces are roadways, disrupted har- that 12 locations broke or
pen when a steady breeze meters). lost to flooding. bor operations, degraded ties their record of sunny
or a change in coastal cur- The study noted floods A 2017 study put the price infrastructure and reduced day flooding last year,
rent overlaps with a high interfering with traffic in tag on lost economic activ- property values — prob- including 22 in Washing-
tide,” it read. northeast states, swamp- ity at as much as $172,000. lems which “are nearly cer- ton, D.C., 14 in Wilming-
The nationwide average ing septic systems in Florida The water table has risen to tain to get much worse this ton, North Carolina; and
frequency of sunny day and choking Delaware ground level and degrad- century,” the report read. 12 each in Baltimore and
flooding in 2018 was five and Maryland coastal ed septic systems in the Mi- The report’s statistics cov- Annapolis.q
days a year, tying a record farms with saltwater over
the past year.
set in 2015. Baltimore experienced 12 Virgin Orbit conducts drop-test
But the East Coast aver-
days of high-tide flooding
aged twice as much flood- from 1902 to 1936. Within of rocket from Boeing 747
ing.
The agency says the level the last 12 months, it expe- By JOHN ANTCZAK
of sunny day flooding in rienced an additional 12 Associated Press
the U.S. has doubled since days. Robert Kopp, a lead- LOS ANGELES (AP) — Virgin
2000. Nationwide, the ing climate scientist with Galactic’s sister company
agency predicted, aver- Rutgers University, who was Virgin Orbit conducted a
age sunny day flooding not involved in the study, drop test of its air-launched
could reach 7 to 15 days a said it confirmed many satellite booster over Cali-
year by 2030, and 25 to 75 well-established trends. fornia on Wednesday, a
days a year by 2050. “It’s simple arithmetic: If key step toward space mis-
“We cannot wait to act,” you have higher sea level, sions.
said Nicole LeBoeuf, acting you will have tides causing The 70-foot (21.3-meter)
director of NOAA’s Ocean flooding,” he said. LauncherOne rocket was In this photo provided by Virgin Orbit, a rocket is dropped from

released from a Boeing 747 a Boeing 747 airplane flying above Edwards Air Force Base in
flying 35,000 feet (10,668 California, Wednesday, July 10, 2019.
meters) over an Edwards Associated Press
Air Force Base test range in The test did not involve the ect.
the Mojave Desert. ignition of the rocket motor. “It’s the capstone to a thor-
The purpose of the test was “The release was extremely ough development pro-
to observe how the rocket smooth, and the rocket fell gram not just for a rocket,
detached from the 747’s away nicely,” Chief Test Pi- but for our carrier aircraft,
wing and its free-fall to the lot Kelly Latimer said. our ground support equip-
desert floor before the first Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart ment, and all of our flight
actual orbital launch later said it was “a monumental procedures,” he said in a
this year. step forward” for the proj- statement.q