2017 Hurricane Season
Dr. Jeff Masters presents his summary of the 2017 Hurricane Season, which is hopefully over.
While it was supposed to start on June 1st, Tropical Storm Arlene popped up on April 19th. It did end early when Tropical Storm Rina went extra-tropical on November 9th. There were 19 tropical cyclones with 17 earning names. Of the 17 named storms 10 became Hurricanes with 6 making spinning up to major hurricane status, Category 3 and above.
It will be a long time before Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands recover from Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Barbuda was depopulated and Dominica was leveled. Houston was drowned by over three feet of rain from Harvey.
As predicted, this was a very active season.
2 comments
Houston was affected very unevenly. The public library 1-1/2 blocks from us was flooded to a degree that it’s still closed months later. Our street took water deep enough for a canoe and a kayak to pass through, but neither our cars nor Our House took water. For about 3 months furniture was piled in the yards of the truly unlucky. Several pro athletes donated in total millions of dollars to restoration of the worst hit neighborhoods. Many of us cannot avoid asking Why And still life creeps back to normal.
I got 4 feet of rain after Georges stalled, but it just flows through the sand back into the water table. The only flooding we have locally is a result of blocked storm drains for poorly designed roads and parking lots.
My understanding is that Houston has too much pavement and an inadequate drainage system for the metro area. It seems obvious that runoff should be directed into the ship canal, but it appears to be held in retention ponds/bayous which can’t handle the drainage. There doesn’t seem to be a plan, and any real fix will be obscenely expensive.