Coastal flooding is not a new phenomenon, but according to NASA, such events will occur up to four times more often in the 1930s.
This worrying trend is caused by climate change and, as a result, rising water levels in the oceans. Glacier ice is now melting at record speed, producing huge amounts of water reaching the oceans. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Service (NOAA), since 1880 the average global sea level has risen from about 21 to about 24 centimeters, with about a third of this increase in the last 25 years.
The “wobble” of the moon
The Moon’s activity will also affect the increasing occurrence of floods. The gravitational interaction of the Earth with the Moon and the Sun is responsible for the tides on our planet, i.e. the alternating rising and falling of the water level in the oceans.
The position of the Silver Globe is not constant, and it “wobbles” in its orbit, slightly changing its position relative to the Earth in an 18.6-year cycle. For the first half of the cycle, there are less high and low tides, and the reverse is true for the second half.
Dangerous connection
We are now in the second phase, and the next one will be in the 1930s. By that time, global sea levels will rise enough to make the tides caused by our natural satellite particularly dangerous, the scientists emphasize.
According to the researchers, coastal areas, which are currently threatened by two or three tidal floods a month, can expect up to a dozen or more of such events.
Additionally, the El Niño phenomenon may cause flood days to cluster at certain times of the year, causing seashores to be flooded for months.
El Nino means baby in Spanish. This is an irregular phenomenon, an anomaly that consists in the persistence of above-average temperatures on the surface of the water in the equatorial zone of the Pacific. Its formation is favored by the weakening of the trade winds (constant winds of the tropics) blowing from the east and the inhibition of upwelling, i.e. the raising of cool deep waters to the ocean’s surface. One of the effects of the warming of the Pacific waters to higher than average values is the heavy rainfall on the usually dry coasts of South America.
“Critical Information”
The study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, focuses on the United States, but as the US space agency points out, it is applicable worldwide. And although tidal floods only concern coastlines, scientists have no doubt that their intensity will affect entire countries.
“It opens the eyes of many people,” NASA’s Ben Hamlington told Reuters. He also noted that this is “really critical information” for people who create spatial development plans in cities.
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