Hurricane Dorian is still days away from making its projected landfall in the United States but meteorologist Eric Holthaus is already declaring the yet-to-be-determined damage as evidence of a climate emergency:
Florida has never faced back-to-back-to-back years with a landfall as strong as #Dorian is expected to be this weekend.
We are in a climate emergency. https://t.co/aunbQ4Zq0h
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) August 29, 2019
Sigh:
Making absurd claims like linking consecutive years with major hurricane landfalls on Florida with climate change are fuel for those who don't accept climate science.
Plz stop, not everything happens because of climate change. https://t.co/rZvZQ3pwfd
— Simon Lee (@SimonLeeWx) August 29, 2019
He’s also wrong on the facts as there have been other years when Florida experienced back-to-back major hurricanes:
Always fact check bold claims like these. From 1947-1950, Florida saw 4 consecutive years of 115 kt landfalls in South Florida.
A full list of Continental US landfalls is available here: https://t.co/bVKMvkCHNt https://t.co/1u0Mr80DqO pic.twitter.com/R6hbDWczX3
— Brenden Moses (@Cyclonebiskit) August 29, 2019
There's been consecutive land falls before this year. Actually from 1944-1950 there were 7 hurricanes, just as strong as Dorian that made landfall. If not a few stronger. This is literally fear mongering and causing people to not believe in climate change. https://t.co/wvKalPjLpn
— Mario_WX (@FreakshowWx) August 29, 2019
And notice how he didn’t blame the hurricane drought on climate change?
We just had a decade+ drought of major hurricane landfalls in Florida. Things were bound to balance out. https://t.co/ipy4VEtWk3
— Alex Klucher (@PAWeatherHQ) August 29, 2019
Anyway, he doubled down when challenged by Paul Dellegatto, chief meteorologist at FOX13 in Tampa:
A hurricane made landfall in Florida for seven consecutive years from 1944 to 1950.
— Paul Dellegatto⚡️FOX (@PaulFox13) August 29, 2019
There has never been 3 consecutive years of 115kt+ landfalls which is what my tweet said.
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) August 29, 2019
1944 CAT 4, 1945 CAT 4, 1947 CAT 4, 1948 CAT 4, 1949 CAT 4, 1950 CAT 3, 1950 CAT 4.
— Paul Dellegatto⚡️FOX (@PaulFox13) August 29, 2019
Yet only one of those show up in the list of minimum central pressure at the time of landfall. Those decades are undergoing reanalysis and some of the storms you listed will be downgraded.
— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) August 29, 2019
Ah. So now we can’t trust the climate data? It’s all so confusing.
Here’s the latest NHC track. It’s a hard one to predict so everyone from the Keys to NC needs to be vigilant:
Stay safe!
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Editor’s note: We’ve corrected a spelling error.
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