There's a thing about climate change and a rising sea level that took me a while to grasp... a lot of the water isn't actually in the sea. As more water accumulates in the sea and the temperature rises, more energy is also being stored in the sea. Now, we are seeing more of that sea and energy transferred to the land.
"Climate change is in general increasing the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall storms," said Andreas Prein, a project scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric Research. "If you look at the records, mostly it's the water that kills most people."
"The ingredients are there for a real catastrophe if the flood control infrastructure simply gets overwhelmed," he said.
The New York Times reported: In recent years, researchers have found that hurricanes have lingered longer and dumped more rainfall -- a sign of climate change, said Christina Patricola, a research scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and a co-author of a study that found that climate change is making tropical cyclones wetter.
Though storms can form at any time, the Atlantic hurricane season stretches from June 1 through Nov. 30 because that is typically when the Atlantic Ocean's waters are warm enough to sustain storms. But the oceans are now warmer than ever: They have absorbed more than 90 percent of the heat caused by human-released greenhouse gas emissions.
More energy is being stored in the sea. One of the results is higher sea level. But another is more intense rain on land, the water comes inland through the air as well. As you may have noticed, the rising sea level is causing flooding in Pennsylvania, as well as, sinking the shore.