Report Projects L.A.’s Vulnerability To Future Sea Level Rise

February 26, 2014

  • February 27, 2014 at 4:53 am
    Steve Case says:
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    “Los Angelenos may expect to experience sea level rise of as much as two feet due by 2050 due to climate change, according to current projections.”

    Really? Two feet by 2050? That comes to an average of 17 mm/yr for the next 36 years. The tide gauge at Los Angeles
    http://www.psmsl.org/data/obtaining/stations/245.php
    tells us that the average sea level rise since 1923 has been 0.9 mm/yr and for the last 30 years the rate has been 0.3 mm/yr. The highest rate over a 30 year span ended in 1999 when the rate had been 2.5 mm/yr. In 1970 the rate had been a negative -0.4 for the previous 30 years. Anyone with some curiosity and modest Excel skills can download the annual mean sea level data from the link on that page to verify those numbers.

    What do those numbers tell us? Well, they don’t tell us that 17 mm/yr of sea level rise totaling up to two feet by 2050 at the Los Angeles tide gauge station is very likely to happen.

    Steve Case – Milwaukee, WI



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