Paul Beckwith on Hurricane Dorian

Hurricane Dorian 
Essentially Wipes Grand 
Bahama Island from the Map

Paul Beckwith

It is heart-wrenching witnessing utter devastation that Hurricane Dorian unleashed on the Bahamas. This powerful Category 5 (sustained winds over 180 mph (300 km/hr), peak winds 225 mph (360 km/hr), storm surge 24 feet) razed and submerged lots of Bahama’s northern islands, unprecedentedly parking over Grand Bahama for 36 hours. Imagine being hit by winds equal to a tornadoes EF3-EF4 not for a minute or so, but continuously for 1.5 days, while inundated with 24 foot ocean surge, and torrential rainfall. If this had occurred 50 miles to the west, it could have caused trillions of dollars of damage to Florida’s east coast.

What causes a Category 5 Hurricane (Cat. 6 if it existed) to park itself over Grand Bahama Island, and stay stationary over 1.5 days while churning away, grinding the island to a pulp, and submerging lots of the island under 24 feet of seawater? I show you on Earth NullSchool how Dorian behaved, and then I delve into the science on how climate change is making hurricanes much more dangerous. Imagine what would happen if Dorian had parked itself off Miami instead; the damage to Florida’s east coast could have run into trillions of dollars. We must think about the unthinkable, with abrupt climate change.