Good News: Scientists Say There Could Never Be Another Hurricane Sandy
Or at least, definitely not for another 700 years or so. Which sounds like a good thing, albeit the kind that makes us want to compulsively rap our knuckles on the nearest wooden surface for the next couple of hours? Regardless, there’s some credible science here.
Namely, a more concrete version of what we already kind of knew, which is that the scale and wanton destruction of Sandy was mostly the result of a freak confluence of factors, the likes of which is incredibly unlikely to happen again anytime soon.
The already-unusually-large storm was exacerbated by a full moon, which causes higher tides, as well as a “region of high pressure” that forced the storm to hit the coast at an atypical perpendicular angle. “The sustained winds towards the coast from the direct path is continually pushing a wall of water onto the coast, and you can get a greater surge magnitude, compared to more typical in-land winds sweeping along the coast,” explained researcher Timothy Hall.
Which is all legit enough, and comforting if you’re willing to ignore other credible science about sea levels continuing to rise as climate change causes storms to become stronger by the year. If you’re willing or able to put all that aside, looks like we’ll be just fine.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
