The John Rothmann Show Podcast

“Climate change is taking its toll on our planet,”  says John Rothmann

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Three blockbuster storms struck different coasts this weekend, causing widespread damage in Puerto Rico, Alaska and Japan. Their damage offers examples of what we can expect more of in a rapidly warming world.

In Alaska: The most intense storm ever recorded in the Bering Sea during the month of September blasted communities across a 1,000-mile stretch of Alaska's western coastline with hurricane-force winds and record storm surge flooding.

  • The villages hit include names familiar to the climate community for being vulnerable to erosion and seeking to move to higher ground, such as Kivalina and Shishmaref.
  • Severe flooding was also seen in Nome, the endpoint of the Iditarod sled dog race. The flooding there beat any seen since November 1974.
  • By battering already vulnerable coastal communities, the storm will make them more susceptible to the Bering Sea's notorious winter storms.

    • In Puerto Rico: Hurricane Fiona struck on Sunday, causing an island-wide blackout that illustrates the country's challenges with repairing its electrical grid in the wake of Hurricane Maria in 2017.

    • Hardening infrastructure against increasingly potent extreme weather events is a major challenge facing the U.S.
    • At one point Sunday evening, nearly the entire island was under a flash flood warning, with "catastrophic" flooding underway.

      • In Japan: Typhoon Nanmadol, the country's fourth-most intense typhoon to make landfall, struck the island of Kyushu on Sunday morning eastern time.

      • The storm dropped more than two feet of rain in 24 hours on parts of that island, threatening to cause landslides, along with wind and storm surge flooding.
      • Climate change is enabling hurricanes and typhoons to dump more rainfall and stay stronger further north.

        • Prior to its landfall, the storm had rapidly intensified — a process with climate change ties and reached Category 4 intensity.

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        The John Rothmann Show PodcastBy The John Rothmann Show