Most powerful storm EVER in history? Really?

[Pilot1]

The hype is just the Media's way of justifying man made climate change. We've had millions of years of EXTREME weather, and drastic climate change prior to man, and prior to man's industrialization, yet THIS ONE is the WORST. Oh my, can it be? I need to hide under my coloring book now. Someone give me a puppy to hug!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

[metalmancpa]

Size of the storm, wind speed, etc are the metrics of the storm itself. Number of lives lost, monetary extent of damage, all tied to where the storm lands is another.

It's obvious the media thrives on sensationalism. Any way it can be spun as "worst" in the media's minds keeps viewership interest up.

I've seen enough footage with Irma and Harvey to know peoples lives were devastated. It was made very clear from reports I saw that storm surge is the biggest killer (water), not wind. I do not get hung up on comparing storms to each other. I just compare loss of life and cost to determine and compare which is worst, because that's all that matters.

[Avalon08]

But we do know the media hypes this stuff. When Hurricane Matthew hit us last year in the Sarasota/Bradenton area, it actually wasn't much more than a thunderstorm, and in fact people made those joke "I survived Matthew" memes on FB. But I had friends frantically messaging me because they saw pictures of flooded roads (they kept showing the same picture of an area on 41 that always floods with rainstorms) and of course the blowing palm trees. If you were not here, you would certainly have thought we were getting completely blasted and it was just not the case.

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by Avalon08

But we do know the media hypes this stuff. When Hurricane Matthew hit us last year in the Sarasota/Bradenton area, it actually wasn't much more than a thunderstorm, and in fact people made those joke "I survived Matthew" memes on FB. But I had friends frantically messaging me because they saw pictures of flooded roads (they kept showing the same picture of an area on 41 that always floods with rainstorms) and of course the blowing palm trees. If you were not here, you would certainly have thought we were getting completely blasted and it was just not the case.

The news didn't fake photos of the Virgin Island
Anyone seeing those photos and being close to the Gulf Coast or Keys or Miami area when there was no surety of where Irma would come ashore had every right to be afraid
The MSM is about hype and sensationalizing what they have but you can't argue there was NO reason to be afraid/cautious/worried---call it what you will...
Do you have children?
That puts people into another dimension of caution

I think the thing to do if find someone/weather person---who did give good advice
I think we had three or four people on CD Hurricane forum worth listening to
I had couple of Internet sites (Tropical Tidbits and the Houston Space City Weather) who did informed, more than average accurate reports...
I have difficult time with my iPad getting news stations in some areas that are eas to watch because their sites use FLash and that does not work for me so watching a local Tampa/SRQ station might have had the same low-key reporting w/accurate info---I just couldn't really get that...

But to say that there was no reason to be worried is just wrong---that in itself is a disservice to people in danger zones...
The fact is that once Irma hit Cuba--which many models did not predict--she was compromised...thankfully
There were other issues--like the dry air on the east coast mentioned b Psychoma here and I don't know that I ever say that mentioned on another forecaster's report--
Those two factors were huge in the weakening of Irma--
Without the Cuba strike which lasted longer, slowed her speed and kinetic energy down there is no telling if he would have hit the Keys as a 5 and if that had happened good bye Margaritaville... Because the storm surge would have been strong enough to have swamped almost anything on the islands...she would have come in Napes or further up the coast maybe Tampa as much stronger 4 than the three she hit Naples...
All kinds of what if's...and no models on how Irma could have been worse--because with the flooding on the east coast, she was bad enough...
Talked to my neighbor who has pilot friend in Miama--he just got his power on-thankfully no bad physical damage---try going a week w/o power in Miami---you can have mold in your home just from humidity...

But do not say there was not a reason to be worried
Hurricane science is INexact---there will never be a forecast that can track the precise GPS point to point 48 hrs before landfall...
Not unless we can engineer weather vs just predict it
And even the secondary damage from storms like electricity outages and secondary flooding are as damaging or more than the initial impact...

[Avalon08]

Originally Posted by loves2read

The news didn't fake photos of the Virgin Island
Anyone seeing those photos and being close to the Gulf Coast or Keys or Miami area when there was no surety of where Irma would come ashore had every right to be afraid
The MSM is about hype and sensationalizing what they have but you can't argue there was NO reason to be afraid/cautious/worried---call it what you will...
Do you have children?
That puts people into another dimension of caution

I think the thing to do if find someone/weather person---who did give good advice
I think we had three or four people on CD Hurricane forum worth listening to
I had couple of Internet sites (Tropical Tidbits and the Houston Space City Weather) who did informed, more than average accurate reports...
I have difficult time with my iPad getting news stations in some areas that are eas to watch because their sites use FLash and that does not work for me so watching a local Tampa/SRQ station might have had the same low-key reporting w/accurate info---I just couldn't really get that...

But to say that there was no reason to be worried is just wrong---that in itself is a disservice to people in danger zones...
The fact is that once Irma hit Cuba--which many models did not predict--she was compromised...thankfully
There were other issues--like the dry air on the east coast mentioned b Psychoma here and I don't know that I ever say that mentioned on another forecaster's report--
Those two factors were huge in the weakening of Irma--
Without the Cuba strike which lasted longer, slowed her speed and kinetic energy down there is no telling if he would have hit the Keys as a 5 and if that had happened good bye Margaritaville... Because the storm surge would have been strong enough to have swamped almost anything on the islands...she would have come in Napes or further up the coast maybe Tampa as much stronger 4 than the three she hit Naples...
All kinds of what if's...and no models on how Irma could have been worse--because with the flooding on the east coast, she was bad enough...
Talked to my neighbor who has pilot friend in Miama--he just got his power on-thankfully no bad physical damage---try going a week w/o power in Miami---you can have mold in your home just from humidity...

But do not say there was not a reason to be worried
Hurricane science is INexact---there will never be a forecast that can track the precise GPS point to point 48 hrs before landfall...
Not unless we can engineer weather vs just predict it
And even the secondary damage from storms like electricity outages and secondary flooding are as damaging or more than the initial impact...

I didn't say there was no reason to be worried, I don't even know where you're getting that from what I posted.

[AlfredB1979]

Originally Posted by Pilot1

The hype is just the Media's way of justifying man made climate change. We've had millions of years of EXTREME weather, and drastic climate change prior to man, and prior to man's industrialization, yet THIS ONE is the WORST. Oh my, can it be? I need to hide under my coloring book now. Someone give me a puppy to hug!!!! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

True. This is not new news. I think it was that Masters goon at weather underground who was trumpeting Typhoon Haiyan a few years back as "the strongest ever" and climate change this and that, yet landfall was nowhere near 200 mph.

Same thing with Barbuda and St Martin. Yes, things are bad there, but one would have figured in the current year that building codes would be much better on those islands, but hearing about the security situation over there reminds me that I am badly mistaken about how the Euros run their dependencies...

[Jame22]

I remember during the last active Atlantic year (2005 I think?) some scientists were claiming that hurricanes were just going to keep getting worse because of man-made climate change..and then of course we go on to have one of the longest landfall droughts in history. Oops. People will forget all about that moving forward because people are mentally enslaved morons who will believe pretty much believe anything on the news.

but at the end of the day it doesn't even matter because weather is not climate!!!!!

[droc31]

Katrina seemed monstrous and more powerful at its peak than Irma. Irma was a dangerous storm no doubt, but at one point Katrina nearly spanned the entire Gulf of Mexico.