Storm Surge: Hurricane Sandy, Our Changing Climate, and Extreme Weather of the Past and Future

by Adam Sobel

Overview

A renowned scientist takes us through the devastating and unprecedented events of Hurricane Sandy, using it to explain our planet’s changing climate, and what we need to do to protect ourselves and our cities for the future.

Was Hurricane Sandy a freak event—or a harbinger of things to come?  Was climate change responsible?  What connects the spiraling clouds our satellites saw from space, the brackish water that rose up over the city’s seawalls, and the slow simmer of greenhouse gases? Why weren't we better prepared?

In this fascinating and accessible work of popular science, atmospheric scientist and Columbia University professor Adam Sobel addresses these questions, combining scientific explanation with first-hand experience of the event itself.

He explains the remarkable atmospheric conditions that gave birth to Sandy and determined its path. He gives us insight into the sophisticated science that led to the forecasts of the storm before it hit, as well as an understanding of why our meteorological vocabulary failed our leaders in warning us about this unprecedented storm—part hurricane, part winter-type nor’easter, fully deserving of the title “Superstorm.”

Storm Surge brings together the melting glaciers, the shifting jet streams, and the warming oceans to make clear how our changing climate will make New York and other cities more vulnerable than ever to huge storms—and how we need to think differently about these long-term risks if we hope to mitigate the damage. Engaging, informative, and timely, Sobel’s book provokes us to rethink the future of our climate and how we can better prepare for the storms to come.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062304766
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	10/14/2014
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Adam Sobel is a leading scientist in the study of extreme weather and climate. He has authored or coauthored more than a hundred articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has won several major awards, including the David and Lucile Packard Fellowship, the Meisinger Award from the American Meteorological Society, the AXA Award in climate and extreme weather, and the Ascent Award from the American Geophysical Union. Sobel received his PhD in meteorology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is a tenured professor at Columbia University, in the departments of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics. He lives with his wife and two sons in New York City.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Introduction xv

Part 1 The Storm

1 Genesis 3

2 MJO 9

3 Monday, October 22 21

4 NAO 27

5 Tuesday, October 23 33

6 Deadly Boring: The Hurricane Prone 39

7 Hurricane Science 101 47

8 Wednesday, October 24 55

9 Winter Weather 59

10 Thursday, October 25 65

11 Where Weather Forecasts Came From 75

12 Friday, October 26 95

13 Fujiwhara 103

14 Saturday, October 27 111

15 Communicating the Threat: The Label on the Can versus the Fine Print 127

16 Preparations 133

17 Sunday, October 28 139

18 Monday, October 29 143

19 The Damage 147

20 The Toll 155

21 Immediate Aftermath 159

Part 2 What Does It Mean, and What Should We Do?

22 The Climate Is Warming 171

23 The Sea Is Rising 181

24 Zeeland 189

25 Hurricanes and Climate 203

26 Barriers and Beaches Since 1938 233

27 In Harm's Way 249

28 What Happens Now? 263

Afterword 277

Acknowledgments 285

Notes 287

Selected Bibliography 301

Index 303

Editorial Reviews

10/13/2014
Hurricane Sandy hit metropolitan New York hard in October 2012, knocking out power while ruining homes and businesses; it turned parts of Manhattan into swampland, flooded subway stations and transit tunnels, and devastated much of the Jersey shore. Though the damage it caused is irrefutable, the cause of the hurricane itself, says Columbia University atmospheric scientist Sobel, is up for debate. In this comprehensive volume, he looks at the science behind Sandy (and similar weather systems), examining the circumstances leading to it—"the left turn it took" in the ocean in "a radical departure from all known meteorological history"—and factors that made it a superstorm. How did it complete "its transition from a tropical cyclone to a mammoth hybrid"? Sobel diligently re-creates a timeline, from the early warnings issued by the National Hurricane Center to government evacuation orders to the impact Sandy had once it made landfall. Along the way, he provides substantial background information on what, exactly, a hurricane is and how the Fujiwhara effect—named for Japanese meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwhara—applies to dueling vortices. Topics like these make for interesting, if technical, reading, and Sobel manages to strike an effective balance. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Storm Surge is a masterful account of the science and policy implications of Sandy. …Sobel excels at answering our most burning question: What was that thing?…[and] is able to navigate the complex science behind Sandy’s twists and turns with accessibility, precision and authority.

Washington Post

06/01/2015
Sobel, an atmospheric scientist and professor at Columbia University, documents Hurricane Sandy, which devastated the shoreline of New Jersey and New York in 2012. He presents information on the development of the storm itself, contrasting it with how hurricanes have historically developed to identify how climate change may be influencing the weather systems' growth today. What it all portends is examined, too, as overall heating of water helps future hurricanes morph into even stronger storms. (LJ 11/1/14)

Library Journal

2014-09-11
Sobel (Environmental Sciences and Applied Physics and Mathematics/Columbia Univ.) grapples with the "complex questions involving science, engineering, politics, and human psychology" that arose in Hurricane Sandy's wake. The author, who spends much of his time at Columbia studying climate and extreme weather, looks to Hurricane Sandy as a good example to help explain the scientific modeling that predicted the hurricane's birth and path. Sandy was certainly an unusual event—in the past 150 years of keeping weather records, no hurricane has made the fast left turn she did—and Sobel wants readers to comprehend Sandy as both a specific phenomenon and within the global picture, to understand the nature of Sandy and the atmospheric forces at play, which means a considerable dip into physics, meteorology and climatology. That dip turns out to be gratifying, as the author provides a readable introduction to patterns in the global atmosphere, their changes and the influence they have on weather events. Once through this basic course, which includes forays into hurricane science, winter weather and the history of forecasting, readers will walk away with a handle on the dynamics of weather systems. Sobel uses music to help explain coherent patterns applicable to weather, and he delivers approachable discussions of the Fujiwhara effect ("Two giant entities in the atmosphere, dangerous and powerful but elemental...normally solitary, each doing its own thing, engage with each other") and other phenomena. For tonal color, Sobel ends his examination of Sandy with a look at the Occupy movement and its role in recovery from the storm. He then shifts to a satisfying survey of updates and clarifications on the climate change front (including the vexing water-vapor issue) and the evolution of risk-management barriers and preventative measures. An engaged and engaging examination of "what current science allows us to say (or does not) about Sandy's relation to human-induced climate change."

Kirkus Reviews