Hurricane Idalia is NOT ‘unprecedented’: ‘No different to dozens of other hurricanes which have hit USA in past’ – Similar to at least 46 other US landfalling hurricanes’ – Only ‘unprecedented’ for landfall in that small 50 mile stretch of coastline

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2023/08/30/hurricane-idalia/

Hurricane Idalia

By Paul Homewood

Sky have gone into full Goebbels mode with this pack of lies:

[Climate Depot Note: Other outlets are also pushing the “unprecedented” angle.

France 24: Residents in Florida urged to evacuate as ‘unprecedented’ Hurricane Idalia approaches

PBS: “The National Weather Service in Tallahassee called Idalia ‘an unprecedented event’ since no major hurricanes on record have ever passed through the bay abutting the Big Bend.”

AP: Idalia roars into Carolinas after taking ‘unprecedented’ path through northern Florida, Georgia

]

https://news.sky.com/story/hurricane-idalia-latest-unprecedented-hurricane-to-hit-florida-residents-told-youve-really-got-to-go-now-12950589

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Paul Homewood responds:

Heaven knows where they got “unprecedented” from. The headline was probably written even before landfall.

In fact it made landfall as a Cat 3, with sustained winds of 125 mph and central pressure of 949 MB:

 

There have been 46 other US landfalling hurricanes with 949 MB and lower:

https://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/All_U.S._Hurricanes.html

Initial reports from Fox suggest that storm surge so far has been much less than forecasts of 16ft suggested, though high tide has still to arrive. Maximum surge now is expected to be in the range of 7-11 ft:

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at5+shtml/151539.shtml?peakSurge#contents

https://www.foxnews.com/us/hurricane-idalia-landfall-florida-big-bend-category-3-tens-thousands-without-power

Sky have resorted to the rapid intensification nonsense to make it appear to be an extreme event, claiming that it is due to climate change:

 

We simply do not have any reliable data prior to the satellite data to know whether this sort of rapid intensification is in any way unusual. What made Idalia harder to prepare for was the direction it took, as it ran straight north out of the Caribbean, after forming there as a tropical depression on Saturday.

Most Atlantic hurricanes are tracked across the ocean, even before they actually form, giving plenty of warning.

The bottom line is that Idalia was no different to dozens of other hurricanes that have hit the US in the past.

To pretend that it is unprecedented simply shows just how dishonest our media has become.

UPDATE

I suspect the “Unprecedented” claim may have come from US reports. Fox, for instance, that Idalia is the strongest hurricane to strike the Big Bend area – especially near Cedar Key – in 125 years, dating back to an unnamed 1896 storm.

That stretch of coastline is, of course, tiny, about 50 or so miles long.

By the same token, most of the Florida coast has never been hit by a major hurricane, because the strongest winds in a hurricane rarely extend more than a few miles from the centre.