Weather WTF

[Liep]

The sun is shining :O Something it hasn't done in weeks.

[Grey Fox]

This weeks & the next will be the best 2 weeks weather wise of the entire summer. Too bad the sun's down by 7pm, already.

[jimmy olsen]

Maria's a category 5 with winds of 160 headed for a direct hit on Puerto Rico.

[mongers]

Maria's a category 5 with winds of 160 headed for a direct hit on Puerto Rico.

Glad you're not there, do you still have extended family there?

[KRonn]

We're getting rain from the outer edge of the tropical storm (former hurricane) that made its way offshore up here to the north east. Supposed to get rain through at least tomorrow and get more windy but not a bad storm. Even so, a day or two ago the local news showed boaters taking boats out of the water as the ocean was getting rough from the storm's approach. 

[alfred russel]

KRONN!!!! 

[jimmy olsen]

Maria's up to 175mph. Heading for a direct hit on Puerto Rico. There are thousands who still don't have power because of Irma's glancing blow.

[derspiess]

We're getting rain from the outer edge of the tropical storm (former hurricane) that made its way offshore up here to the north east. Supposed to get rain through at least tomorrow and get more windy but not a bad storm. Even so, a day or two ago the local news showed boaters taking boats out of the water as the ocean was getting rough from the storm's approach. 

We've gotten a little rain as a result of some of these storms, but one apparent effect is higher temperatures.  Could get up to 90 this weekend

And welcome back

[Admiral Yi]

Wicked hot day.  Y'all further east brace for impact.

[merithyn]

RAIN! First real rain storm since I got here. I know I'll be sick of it soon enough, but for now... RAIN!

[Barrister]

We had our first bit of snow yesterday. 

[HVC]

We had our first bit of snow yesterday. 

29c here today

[PDH]

Weather is still REDACTED here.

[Jacob]

A colleague bought a house on one of those waterways in Cape Coral recently. I hope he got good insurance...

Looks like the insurance industry expects a huge collapse in property values with attendant knock-ons to the economy unless action is taken: http://riskandinsurance.com/coastal-mortgage-value-collapse/

Some choice quotes from the article:

"Insurance deals with extreme weather and billions of dollars of losses, but what we are talking about is uninsured loss of fair market value that is trillions of dollars in losses and I am not talking about in 2100, I'm talking about the next mortgage cycle," said Albert Slap, president of Coastal Risk Consulting, a Florida firm that provides lot by lot modeling of flood risk.

...

"Forty percent of Americans live on the coast, which means you have trillions of dollars at risk for climate change that hasn't been modeled for default increases," Slap said.

...

In November, Sean Becketti, the chief economist for the economic and housing research group at Freddie Mac, the federally backed housing lender, co-authored a paper that documented this very risk.

The paper referenced the fact that daily high-water levels in Miami are increasing at a rate of an inch per year, much faster than the rate of global sea-level rise. Other cities along the Eastern seaboard are experiencing a 10-fold increase in the frequency of flooding, according to Freddie Mac.

"A large share of homeowners' wealth is locked up in the equity in their homes," Becketti wrote.

"If those homes become uninsurable and unmarketable, the values of the homes will plummet, perhaps to zero."

... and this is not an environmental group, but a an insurance industry organization talking about these risks.

[jimmy olsen]

Power out across the whole island of Puerto Rico. 3.5 million without power.