Call it a nor\u2019easter, a \u201cbomb cyclone,\u201d or a superstorm\u2014in an era of worsening extreme weather, fierce winter systems like this are arriving with startling frequency.<\/b>
\nThis story originally appeared on Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk Collaboration.
On Friday and Saturday, the winter storm now moving up the East Coast will unleash hurricane-force winds on Washington, blizzard conditions across parts of New York and New England, and inflict the worst coastal flood in Boston\u2019s history.
By all accounts, this storm is a monster. It\u2019s also the latest sign that New England\u2019s long-feared coastal flooding problem is already here\u2014and it\u2019s time to admit climate change is its primary cause.
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The storm\u2019s strongest winds will point squarely towards the shore, smashing huge waves the six of three-story apartment buildings into coastal defenses, and roiling the sea as far away as South America. To make matters worse, it\u2019s arriving in conjunction with a full moon, when tides are normally highest. The system is predicted to stall out for more than 24 hours just off the New England coastline\u2014for an astonishing three straight tide cycles.
Although the storm is getting little attention in the national news, the National Weather Service and meteorologists across the Northeast are screaming at a fever pitch. Boston-area municipalities have taken heed, issuing evacuations, preparing dive-team equipment for water rescues, and deploying a temporary flood barrier designed as a climate change-resilience measure. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has activated the National Guard to help with preparations.
A wave crashes over a house after flooding and surge due to a winter nor’easter storm in Marshfield, Massachusetts, in this still image from video taken on March 3,2018 obtained from social media. Instagram\/JAMES KUKSTIS\/via REUTERS
This week\u2019s storm is larger in size than Hurricane Sandy, with winds just as strong. National Weather Service in Boston called the storm\u2019s gusts \u201cabout as extreme as it gets\u201d and labeled the flooding it will spur a \u201clife and death situation.\u201d In a harrowing statement, the agency warns of massive power outages, the destruction of coastal homes, and some neighborhoods being \u201ccut off for an extended time\u201d from the rest of the metro area. It\u2019s possible that sea walls and other semi-permanent coastal defenses could be breached, or beaches and dunes erased from the map\u2014exposing vulnerable coastal communities and permanently altering the geography of New England.
Nor\u2019easters draw their energy from clashing regions of warm and cold air, often producing massive circulations double the size of hurricanes. Hurricanes usually have much stronger winds at ground level, though, which is why they\u2019re typically more destructive. But as seas have risen across the northeastern U. S. over the past century due to climate change, the flooding impact of what were once relatively routine winter storms has quickly grown .
A man gets hit by a wave as a storm surge from the Atlantic Ocean hits a break wall during Winter Storm Grayson in Cow Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada January 5,2018. REUTERS\/Darren Calabrese
While hurricanes are also expected to eventually grow stronger, there\u2019s no convincing evidence they clearly have yet\u2014although last year\u2019s hurricane season is a worrying harbinger. Nor\u2019easters are also expected to get worse due to climate change, as warmer air provides them with additional water vapor, fueling their ability to strengthen. Add to that, sea levels in Massachusetts have increased by about a foot over the past 100 years, and should rise by a further 3 to 9 feet by the end of this century.
Winter superstorms that bring high-level coastal flooding to northern locales like Boston are already occurring with alarming regularity. Only 34 hurricanes have passed within 200 miles of the city since 1851\u2014an average of one every five years. And only nine of these created a significant rise in the tides. Meanwhile more than 90 of the top 100 floods in Boston were spawned by nor\u2019easters, and 13 of the top 20 have happened since 2000.
Though it\u2019s one of the most severe examples in history, today\u2019s storm is not the first one to hit the most densely populated part of the country with the power of a hurricane. It’s not even the first one this year \u2014in January, another \u201cbomb cyclone\u201d floated rafts of ice into flooded Boston streets.
Boston firefighters wade through a street flooded from tidal surge during Storm Grayson in Boston, Massachusetts, January 4,2018. REUTERS\/Brian Snyder
There are around three strong nor\u2019easters every winter, 15 times as frequent as hurricanes\u2014plenty of opportunity for repeat flooding disasters. A study earlier this year showed that record flooding could happen in New York City every five years starting just a few decades from now, largely because sea level rise has transformed nor\u2019easters into coastline-devouring monsters.
Storms like these\u2014technically called \u201cextratropical cyclones,\u201d because they form outside the tropics\u2014don\u2019t come with scary cone-shaped tracking maps like hurricanes or official names that can be blasted across social media. Still, they have quickly become the single biggest threat to coastal development across most of the northeast.
Coastal floods are one of the leading indicators that the world is warming. Given the path we\u2019re on, the worst is yet to come.<\/p>\n

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