XTREME WEATHER IN THE STATES

This week we are exploring extreme weather events. In the figure from climate.gov you can see the location that mostly impacted the country last year. All those were billion-dollar disasters. So far, in 2017 (as of October 6th, as per this website), there have been 15 weather and climate disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each across the United States [wildfires, droughts, hurricanes..].

Knowing your weather patterns matters. As the climate changes, so will the weather. Global patterns like more droughts, more heavy downpours, heat waves, etc. can be linked to extreme weather events. NOAA staff says: “The point here is that these events are causing up to billions of dollars of damage. As we see the increasing trends in these metrological and hydrological extremes, as a society we really need to think about how we are going to manage the risk, how we’re going to adapt to these changes in extremes.”

NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center provides a variety of information detailing all these extreme weather events. Their yearly maps of U.S. Billion-dollar weather and climate disasters are very informative and should open our eyes about what is happening around us. Interesting times…

THE GREAT CA SHAKEOUT WEEK-DRILL ON OCTOBER 19TH-JOIN US

Millions of people worldwide will practice how to Drop, Cover, and Hold On at 10:19 a.m. on October 19 during Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills, which began in California in 2008.

Join us that day [or another that you can] in practicing these live saving skills...

For more, click on https://www.shakeout.org/california

Landslides in CA- week 8

The largest landslide in modern U.S. history (in terms of volume) was most likely one that occurred just last year in Bingham Canyon outside of Salt Lake City, Utah on April 10, 2013. It had a slide mass of 55 million cubic meters (compared to an estimated 10 million cubic meters during the Oso, Washington event). Fortunately, no one was injured or killed during the Utah slide. 

In California, landslides impact the terrain often [see image of landslide susceptibility below]. These are generally related to precipitation patterns, in particular if there has been previous months of drought conditions. In 1982, a series of landslides near San Francisco killed 33 people and closed the Golden Gate Bridge. A total of 18,000 different landslides took place in the San Francisco Bay Area following a very heavy rain storm (data collected by aerial surveillance in the days following the event). Two fast-moving fronts carrying extremely heavy rain passed through in a 36-hour period, during which the area received an amount of rain equal to half its average annual precipitation. 

Another famous unstable area is La Conchita. A mudslide of 400,000 tons of mud in 2005 killed 10 people. This should not be surprising as the exact same place suffered another hill collapse in 1995, destroying 9 homes [see topo map below]. I that first occasion, the landslide consisted of 600,000 tons of mud and silt slid 600 feet down a cliff face.

The obvious approach is study well the soil in where we put homes and also learn from previous occurrences, understanding that areas that are unstable will continue being so  (La Conchita is not alone; Oso area had been unstable before the 2014 event).  Detailed geologic reports have been made in the past of these places, but the personnel that has the power to act have not followed up/ignored them or have not read them. Gravity always wins. We know better?

After the 2005 disaster, there was an attempt of a $50-million grading project. There were also calls for the county to buy up all the homes through eminent domain and never allow anyone to live there again. It was an idea that came and went, as was the grading project.

This is the USGS page with information on how to identify landslides and what to do if one happens.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/landslides-kill-33-in-california

http://www.usgs.gov/blogs/features/usgs_top_story/rain-and-landslides-in-california/

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-la-conchita-20150104-story.html#page=1

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1067/508of05-1067.html

http://www.geog.ucsb.edu/~jeff/projects/la_conchita/apcg2001_article/apcg2001_article.html