Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 13 sepTember 2018
'Not a pretty sight': Hurricane Florence has experts worried

By SETH BORENSTEIN But it's such a large storm
AP Science Writer that the rain will keep com-
WASHINGTON (AP) — To ing down in the region no
whip up a monstrous storm matter where it wanders.
like the one chugging for And with the Appalachian
the Carolinas you need a Mountains to the west,
handful of ingredients — there could be flooding
and Florence has them all. and mudslides, experts
Warmer than normal sea worry.
temperatures to add en- Florence's large size —
ergy and rain to a storm. tropical storm force winds
Check. extend 170 miles from the
A wind pattern that allows center in all directions —
a storm to get strong and means its fury will arrive
stay strong. Check. long before the center of
Higher sea levels to make a the storm comes ashore,
storm surge worse. Check. Graham said.
A storm covering enormous Some of Florence's behav-
area, to drench and lash ior, both what has been
more people. Check. This enhanced satellite image made available by NOAA shows Tropical Storm Florence, upper seen so far and what ex-
And an unusual combina- left, in the Atlantic Ocean on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2018 at 3:30 p.m. EDT. At center is Tropical Storm perts expect, show the in-
tion of other weather sys- Isaac and at right is Hurricane Helene. fluence of climate change.
tems that are likely to stall Associated Press Its expected sluggishness is
Florence when it hits the becoming more common,
Carolinas, allowing it to sit The National Hurricane goes roaring into shore and Florence from doing the possibly a result of climate
for days and dump huge Center Tuesday afternoon then comes to a screech- normal turn, said University change, said National
amounts of rain. Check. increased its rainfall fore- ing stop," said MIT meteo- of Miami hurricane expert Oceanic and Atmospheric
"The longer it stays, the cast to 15 to 25 inches of rology professor and hurri- Brian McNoldy. Administration climate sci-
more wind, the more rain. rain and 35 inches in iso- cane expert Kerry Emanu- After Florence makes land- entist and hurricane expert
That means the more trees lated spots. But a comput- el. "This is not a pretty sight." fall, that ridge, now over Jim Kossin. The ocean wa-
that could fall, the more er simulation known as the Florence is unusual in that Washington and New York, ters that Florence is trav-
power outages," National European model predicts it is aiming at the Carolinas will move east — but be elling over are about 2.7
Hurricane Center Director some places could get 45 from the east. Usually storms replaced by another one degrees (1.5 degrees Cel-
Ken Graham said. inches. Sound unlikely? It's come to the Carolinas and forming over the Great sius) warmer than normal,
"This one really scares me," the same model that ac- mid-Atlantic from the south Lakes that will likely keep McNoldy said. Even normal
Graham said. "It's one of curately predicted that — and those usually curve the storm stuck, McNoldy water is warm enough for a
those situations where last year's Hurricane Har- safely out to sea. said. storm to form there, but this
you're going to get heavy vey, which also stalled over But a weather formation Florence's path remains un- adds to the storm's fuel and
rain, catastrophic, life- land, would drop 60 inches. known as a high-pressure certain. It may move a little its rainfall. The air is holding
threatening storm surge, "It does look a bit similar to ridge is parked over the north into Virginia or a little 10 percent more water that
and also the winds." Harvey in a sense that it U.S. East coast, preventing south into South Carolina. can be dumped as rain.q

Undersea eruption detected

at Japan's Iwo Jima

TOKYO (AP) — Signs of ing as high as 10 meters (33 uation plans. The island is
undersea volcanic erup- feet) above the surface closed to civilians, except
tions were detected at Iwo just off the island's southern for those with permits to
Jima, the site of one of the coast, the Japan Meteoro- search for the remains of
bloodiest battles in World logical Agency said. more than 10,000 soldiers
War II, meteorological The island, which has been still unaccounted for or to
and defense officials said renamed Ioto, has been attend memorial services
Wednesday. showing increased vol- and other special events.
In this March 21, 2015, file photo, Iwo Jima, now known officially Aerial photos taken by navy canic activity since the Virtually all of the Japanese
as Ioto, is seen from an airplane in Japan. aircraft earlier Wednesday weekend, the agency said, soldiers defending the tiny
Associated Press showed seawater shoot- warning of more eruptions. island died in the battle in
The island is 1,250 kilometers early 1945 which claimed
(780 miles) south of Tokyo. 21,570 Japanese and 6,821
Ioto last had an undersea American lives.
explosion off its northern Japan has about 100 ac-
coast in 2013, and small tive volcanoes and is fre-
overland explosions at few quently jolted by earth-
places in 2015, the agency quakes. Earlier this month,
said. a magnitude 6.7 quake on
Defense officials said troops the northern island of Hok-
stationed on the island are kaido killed more than 40
safe and there are no evac- and injured hundreds.q