Why I Read Him
Susie Madrak located the video of an October, 2011 talk at a TEDx conference in Bermuda given by Dr. Jeff Masters. He gives his qualifications and then talked about upcoming threats.
When he gets to the threat of a major hurricane in New York pay attention to the details and the maps. He was describing Hurricane Sandy.
Some might quibble that he was talking about a Category 3 or 4 hurricane, while Sandy was only a Category 1. Before it slammed into the Gulf Coast of the Florida peninsula in 2004, Hurricane Charley had 145 mph winds and a pressure of 947 mb. Sandy came ashore with a pressure of 946 mb, up from 940 mb just off the coast. Sandy was many times larger than Charley and had higher storm surge. It isn’t the wind, it’s the water.
Dr. Masters points out that warmer sea surface temperatures produces more powerful hurricanes.
