Uploaded February 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND — U.S. government scientists say sea level rise will combine with a continental sagging effect to hit the Texas and Florida coastlines hard with increased coastal flooding.
Galveston in Texas is expected to sink as much as 25 inches by 2050. Here are the details:
The U.S. National Ocean Service, or NOAA, published a report on Tuesday, February 15, warning that sea levels along the U.S. coastline are projected to rise an average of 10 to 12 inches in the next 30 years, which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years — from 1920 to 2020.
The NOAA report says the sea level rise will vary regionally along the U.S. coastlines — not just because of the global rise of ocean height, but also because of differences in the relative movement of land height.
That’s because the southeastern part of the U.S. landmass is projected to sag much more than the northwestern part — which is why the sea level is expected to rise a whopping 25 inches in Galveston, Texas, but only 9 inches in Seattle.
The NOAA warns that Galveston and cities on the east coast would experience many more damaging storm surges, while so-called “sunny day floods” during high tides will happen more often and cause more damage.
The lead author of the new NOAA report is oceanographer William Sweet. He says the scariest thing about global sea level rise is that the effects of the current melting of Earth’s ice sheets will only start to hit at the end of this century.
SOURCES: NOAA, Washington Post, CNN, Phys.org
oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/sealevelrise/sealevelrise-tech-report.html
washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/02/15/sea-level-rise-2050-climate
phys.org/news/2022-02-century-worth-sea-years.html
edition.cnn.com/2022/02/15/us/us-sea-level-rise-report-noaa-climate/index.html
SILVER SPRING, MARYLAND — U.S. government scientists say sea level rise will combine with a continental sagging effect to hit the Texas and Florida coastlines hard with increased coastal flooding.
Galveston in Texas is expected to sink as much as 25 inches by 2050. Here are the details:
The U.S. National Ocean Service, or NOAA, published a report on Tuesday, February 15, warning that sea levels along the U.S. coastline are projected to rise an average of 10 to 12 inches in the next 30 years, which will be as much as the rise measured over the last 100 years — from 1920 to 2020.
The NOAA report says the sea level rise will vary regionally along the U.S. coastlines — not just because of the global rise of ocean height, but also because of differences in the relative movement of land height.
That’s because the southeastern part of the U.S. landmass is projected to sag much more than the northwestern part — which is why the sea level is expected to rise a whopping 25 inches in Galveston, Texas, but only 9 inches in Seattle.
The NOAA warns that Galveston and cities on the east coast would experience many more damaging storm surges, while so-called “sunny day floods” during high tides will happen more often and cause more damage.
The lead author of the new NOAA report is oceanographer William Sweet. He says the scariest thing about global sea level rise is that the effects of the current melting of Earth’s ice sheets will only start to hit at the end of this century.
SOURCES: NOAA, Washington Post, CNN, Phys.org
oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/sealevelrise/sealevelrise-tech-report.html
washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/02/15/sea-level-rise-2050-climate
phys.org/news/2022-02-century-worth-sea-years.html
edition.cnn.com/2022/02/15/us/us-sea-level-rise-report-noaa-climate/index.html
