Tag Archives: Tropical storms

US

Heavy rain and winds along West Coast leave thousands without power, with more storms expected

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CNN
 — 

A strong storm system bringing heavy rain, mountain snow and hurricane-force wind gusts to much of the drought-parched western United States has left more than 115,000 customers without power as the region braces for more wet, blustery weather in coming days.

All 11 Western states are under winter weather alerts Wednesday, with about half a million people along the higher elevations of the Rockies under high wind alerts as gusts could reach Category 1 hurricane strength. Already, electricity has been knocked out in parts of Oregon, Washington and California, according to PowerOutage.us.

The region is being inundated by an atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can carry moisture thousands of miles – as much of the eastern US recovers from a deadly winter storm that left wide swaths of the country under dangerously cold temperatures.

In the West, an initial round of lashing rain, wind and snow has moved inland and is set Wednesday to engulf inter-mountain areas. While coastal states may experience a brief lull on Wednesday, more rounds of rain and snow are predicted to sweep onshore at the end of the week.

Avalanche alerts have been issued for parts of Idaho, Colorado, Montana and California due to strong winds combined with heavy snowfall.

Winds on Tuesday whipped above 100 mph in some cities, reaching Category 2 hurricane levels. A gust of 107 mph was reported in Mount Hood, Oregon, and a 104-mph gust was recorded in North Bonneville, Washington. Wind speeds between 80 and 90 mph were reported Tuesday in several cities, including a gust of 90 mph in Walker, California.

“This unsettled weather pattern is expected to linger into the upcoming weekend as well,” the National Weather Center said.

Several more rounds of moisture will inundate the West this week, bringing temporary relief to a region suffering under prolonged drought conditions.

California’s snowpack could benefit from the storms. The critical source of water that has suffered under severe drought was running more than 150% of normal levels late last week, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

Now, widespread rainfall totals of 2 to 4 inches are expected across the region through Sunday, with isolated areas receiving up to 6 inches. Northern California could see rainfall up to 7 inches, with isolated higher amounts.

The first wave is impacting parts of Southern California and the Four Corners region that includes parts of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Low elevation rainfall and high elevation snowfall will move out of California by late Wednesday morning and remain in the Four Corners area until Thursday.

The avalanche alerts are in effect as lower elevations across the West could see five-day snowfall totals of 2 to 8 inches, with some areas getting as much as a foot. More mountainous high elevations are forecast to receive 1 to 3 feet of snowfall, with isolated areas getting over 3 feet.

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US

Hurricane Nicole: Beachfront homes in small Florida community washed away

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CNN
 — 

Trip Valigorsky’s beachfront home in a tight-knit community in Volusia County, Florida had been in his family for nearly 15 years before it was washed away this week, as the dangerous storm surge and powerful winds caused by Hurricane Nicole swept across Florida.

“This home was my grandma’s favorite place,” Valigorsky told CNN. “Some of the best memories with her were here.”

Valigorksy is just one of many residents in the beachfront neighborhood of Wilbur-By-The-Sea whose homes were damaged or destroyed by the storm.

In Volusia County, at least 49 beachfront properties, including hotels and condos, have been deemed “unsafe” in the aftermath of Nicole, which hit Florida’s eastern coast south of Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane early Thursday before weakening into a tropical storm and eventually becoming a post-tropical cyclone Friday afternoon.

Video from the county shows homes crumbling, reduced to wreckage, as Nicole’s waves erode the coastline. Separate video shows the county’s beach safety office collapsing into the rising water.

Sea level in this part of Florida has risen more than a foot in the past 100 years, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and most of that rise has occurred in the past three decades.

Scientists and researchers have long warned that sea level rise is leading to more erosion and high-tide flooding — particularly during extreme coastal storms.

This has put even more stress on seawalls that are meant to protect coastal communities from high waves and water levels, many of which were destroyed this week by the storm surge. One seawall that was put up on Tuesday, which Valigorsky and his neighbors had hoped would protect their properties from damage, crumbled into the ocean by Wednesday, he said.

“It was stressful wondering if it would fall, and here we are,” Valigorsky said.

On Wednesday morning, Valigorsky decided to grab his essential belongings and his dog to evacuate the area as he watched the storm become even more severe. By the time he returned, all that remained of his home was the garage and the front foyer.

As his community begins to rebuild their neighborhood in the aftermath of Nicole, Valigorsky said he plans to reconstruct his home alongside his neighbors who also lost theirs.

Another resident, Phil Martin, lost his entire home during the hurricane this week.

“It was the most devastating thing to see,” Martin said. “We didn’t think it would be this bad.”

Martin said he has lived in the area for two years and the home was his permanent residence where he spent time with his children and grandchildren, playing soccer in the backyard or walking down to the beach.

“There’s no politics at the beach, everyone gets along,” Martin said, adding that his community and those surrounding Wilbur-By-The-Sea are keeping his spirits high.

“Everything happened very fast with this one,” he said. “But we’re going to rebuild, we’ve got this.”

Just six weeks ago, Hurricane Ian’s storm surge eroded parts of Florida’s eastern coast, hitting the area where a seawall was built behind Martin’s home as well as his neighbors’. Now, he said, that seawall is gone.

The back-to-back nature of storms is making seawalls – which are already aging – more vulnerable, Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, previously told CNN.

“It doesn’t really take a strong storm – you just need high tides or storm-agitated tides to wash away or put extra stress on the walls,” he said. “Having these two storms six weeks apart, if you don’t give places any time to repair or replenish, each storm definitely leaves its mark.”

Arlisa Payne, who has been a resident of the beachfront community for most of her life, told CNN affiliate Spectrum News 13 that she’s “never seen anything like this” after assessing the damage caused by Hurricane Nicole.

Although her home survived the storm, Payne said that she is concerned the seawall in front of her house is at risk of collapsing.

The mother of four children said many of her neighbor’s homes were not damaged by Hurricane Ian but they were hit hard by Nicole, making it difficult for the community to prepare for such storms.

“I think this caught a lot of people off guard,” she said. “How do you prepare for this? People can’t prepare for it.”

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US

Hurricane Nicole: Florida picks up after storm kills at least 5 and leaves ‘unprecedented’ damage to Daytona-area coastline

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CNN
 — 

As Nicole threatens the Carolinas and Virginia on Friday with tornadoes and flooding, Floridians – many still recovering from Hurricane Ian – are picking up the pieces after this week’s storm killed at least five people and ripped apart buildings with its dangerous storm surge and powerful winds.

In Volusia County, Florida, at least 49 beachfront properties, including hotels and condos, have been deemed “unsafe” in the aftermath of Nicole, which hit Florida’s eastern coast south of Vero Beach as a Category 1 hurricane early Thursday before weakening into a tropical storm and eventually becoming a post-tropical cyclone Friday afternoon.

“The structural damage along our coastline is unprecedented,” Volusia County Manager George Recktenwald said in a news conference, adding more buildings will likely be identified as compromised.

As Nicole turns to the northeast, a tornado watch is in effect for portions of northeastern North Carolina, central, eastern and southeast Virginia until 6 p.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

Track Nicole here >>

As the storm – the first hurricane to hit the US in November in nearly 40 years – walloped Florida, Ian-battered coastal buildings were compromised even more by coastal erosion. Deputies went door to door Wednesday evacuating residents from structurally unsound buildings in Volusia County ahead of Nicole’s arrival.

In Wilbur-By-The-Sea – a barrier island community off Daytona Beach – 22 homes were evacuated in advance after officials deemed them unsafe.

Then amid Nicole, some oceanfront homes collapsed into the ocean.

Trip Valigorsky unlocked the front door to his home to see a gaping hole leading to crashing ocean waves where his living room had once stood. Pointing to where the television and sofa used to be, he told CNN affiliate WKMG he was in shock.

“I was here Tuesday night and I kind of watched the wall deteriorate, and then I woke up Wednesday morning and the wall was completely gone, so I started evacuating,” Valigorsky said. “And now here we are.”

Nicole also pushed a huge volume of water onshore, tearing through infrastructure already strained by Ian.

Storm surge peaked Thursday morning at around 6 feet, sending rising ocean water to streets. A lower surge also pushed ashore on top of exceptionally high tides associated with this week’s full moon, keeping water levels high longer.

Homes nearly hung off cliffs and Daytona Beach hotels crumbled into the ocean in the storm’s aftermath, drone video showed.

“The devastation is almost impossible to comprehend. Imagine watching your home collapse into the ocean,” Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood tweeted.

Nicole is weakening as it passes Georgia and heads into the Carolinas, but it still poses dangers, CNN meteorologist Dave Hennen said.

The tornado watch in effect Friday covers about 4.2 million people, including Virginia Beach and areas just south of Washington, DC.

Isolated damaging wind gusts to 70 mph are also possible and more than 12 million people are under wind alerts from Georgia into the Carolinas.

This system is expected to produce an additional 1 to 3 inches of rain across the central Appalachians, mid-Atlantic, and New England through Saturday morning, before pushing away from the US East Coast, according to the US Weather Prediction Center.

As remnants of Nicole race northward Friday through Saturday, its tropical moisture will be absorbed by a separate cold front, which delivered blizzard conditions across the northern Plains, CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam said.

Heavy rain and gusty winds in excess of 30 mph will make traveling along the Interstate 95 corridor tricky. Meanwhile, airline travel will likely be disrupted at many East Coast airports as the storm moves through.

As the colossal storm approached Florida, schools and universities closed, hundreds of flights were canceled, airports halted operations and some coastal residents were evacuated.

After Nicole passed through, streets were left flooded, roads and homes were damaged, and thousands were without power. More than 300,000 customers in Florida were affected by outages earlier; the number had fallen by late Friday morning to about 14,000, according to PowerOutage.us.

Two people died after being “electrocuted by a downed power line” in Orange County, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. Two additional deaths are being investigated as possibly storm-related following a fatal car accident, according to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings.

Also killed was a 68-year-old Port Canaveral man who had been on a yacht early Thursday morning as it was “being battered by the waves and the dock,” the Cocoa Police Department said. After his wife called 911 to report her husband was in distress, rescuers took the couple to a hospital. He was later pronounced deceased, police said, adding the cause of death isn’t yet determined.

Downed power lines in flooded streets are among a multitude of hazards residents must maneuver in the hurricane’s wake as they return to their homes, and crews work to clear debris from roadways and conduct emergency repairs to washed out roads.



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Science

NASA inspects Artemis I rocket after Hurricane Nicole

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CNN
 — 

The Artemis I moon rocket is still standing after battling Hurricane Nicole, which made landfall as a Category 1 storm roughly 70 miles south from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida overnight. The $4.1 billion rocket rode out the storm while sitting exposed on its launchpad.

It’s not yet clear how the hurricane affected the rocket, called the Space Launch System, or the Orion spacecraft that’s currently sitting atop it, but initial inspections have begun.

“Our team is conducting initial visual check-outs of the rocket, spacecraft, and ground system equipment with the cameras at the launchpad. Camera inspections show very minor damage such as loose caulk and tears in weather coverings. The team will conduct additional onsite walk down inspections on the vehicle soon,” according to a Thursday afternoon statement from Jim Free, associate administrator for NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate.

“Teams monitored SLS and Orion remotely during the storm and successfully maintained purges and other essential support,” the statement reads.

Leading up to Hurricane Nicole’s landfall, wind gusts and potential debris were concerns for the Artemis I mission team. The rocket is designed to withstand 85 mile-per-hour (74.4-knot) winds with some margin, NASA officials noted in a Tuesday statement.

“While wind sensors at the launch pad detected peak wind gusts up to 82 miles per hour (71 knots) at the 60-foot level, this is within the rocket’s capability. We anticipate clearing the vehicle for those conditions shortly,” Free said.

But Thursday evening, a NASA spokesperson confirmed to CNN that sensors at the 467-foot (142-meter) level of the lightning towers indicated that the wind peak did reach up to 100 miles per hour (87 knots) at that location.

At 5:15 a.m. ET Thursday, sensors located on one of the lightning towers surrounding the rocket also clocked wind speeds of 75 miles per hour (65 knots), with gusts as high as 100 miles per hour (87 knots). Data from some of the sensors, which are owned by NASA and the US Space Force, is available on the National Weather Service’s website.

That website says the sensor producing that data is 7 feet (2 meters) off the ground. However, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service’s Melbourne, Florida, forecast office told CNN that is inaccurate. The actual height of the sensor is 230 feet (70 meters), which should provide accurate readings for the types of winds the 322-foot-tall (98-meter-tall) rocket endured.

NASA did not respond to requests for comment about that detail on Thursday.

The space agency decided to roll the SLS rocket out to its launchpad last week as the storm was still an unnamed system brewing off the East Coast. At the time, officials had been expecting the storm to bring sustained winds of around 29 miles per hour (25 knots) with gusts of up to 46 miles per hour (40 knots). Those were deemed to be well within the predetermined limits of what the rocket can withstand, according to comments from Mark Burger, a launch weather officer with the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, at a NASA news conference on November 3.

“The National Hurricane Center just has a 30% chance of it becoming a named storm,” Burger said at the news conference. “However, that being said, the models are very consistent on developing some sort of a low pressure.”

But the storm did grow into a named system on Monday, three days after the rocket was rolled out to the launchpad.

“We took the decision to keep Orion and SLS at the launch pad very seriously, reviewing the data in front of us and making the best decision possible with high uncertainty in prediction the weather four days out,” according to the Thursday statement from Free. “With the unexpected change to the forecast, returning to the Vehicle Assembly Building was deemed to be too risky in high winds, and the team decided the launch pad was the safest place for the rocket to weather the storm.”

Transporting the mega moon rocket between the launchpad and the Vehicle Assembly Building is no small feat. It usually takes about three days of preparations before the maneuver can occur, and there are a limited number of rollbacks the mission team can perform. The slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) ride aboard an Apollo-era giant NASA crawler takes 10 to 12 hours in favorable conditions. If the rocket had to be rolled back as a storm approached, it could only handle sustained winds less than 46 miles per hour (40 knots).

The storm’s strength was unusual, with Nicole becoming the first hurricane to strike the United States in November in nearly 40 years.

To prepare for the storm, NASA said in a statement Tuesday that its teams powered down the Orion spacecraft as well as the rocket’s side boosters and other components. Engineers also installed a hard cover to protect the rocket’s launch abort system window and took other steps to prepare the ground systems.

The SLS rocket had been stowed away for weeks after issues with fuel leaks thwarted the first two launch attempts, and then Hurricane Ian rolled through Florida, forcing the rocket to vacate the launchpad in September.

NASA officials returned the rocket to the launchpad last week with the goal of working toward a third launch attempt on November 14, but that schedule shifted to November 16 as NASA acknowledged the looming threat of Hurricane Nicole on Tuesday. It’s not clear if the launch date will be moved again as NASA looks for damage.

The overall goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return humans to the moon for the first time in half a century. And the Artemis I mission — expected to be the first of many — will lay the groundwork, testing the rocket and spacecraft and all their subsystems to ensure they are safe enough for astronauts to fly to the moon and back.



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US

Nicole strikes Florida’s east coast as the first US hurricane in November in nearly 40 years

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CNN
 — 

Nicole has weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall early Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane along the east coast of Florida, knocking out power to thousands, pushing buildings near collapse and flooding the coast as the first hurricane to hit the US in November in nearly 40 years.

Follow live updates >>

The storm struck just south of Vero Beach with winds of 75 mph before quickly weakening, the National Hurricane Center said. Its strong winds, downpours and storm surge thrashed some areas hit in September by Hurricane Ian.

A tornado threat, plus powerful wind and rain, are expected to continue Thursday in parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina. A tropical storm warning is in effect from Juniper, Florida, to the South Santee River in South Carolina and along Florida’s west coast – where Ian first struck – from Bonita Beach to Indian Pass, plus Lake Okeechobee. Storm surge warnings also remain in place across coastal Florida and Georgia.

“Given the uncertainty of the storm’s strength and path as it approaches South Carolina, residents need to have their personal emergency plans ready to go just in case we need to take safety precautions later in the week,” said Kim Stenson, who heads the state’s emergency management division.

At 7 a.m. ET Thursday, Nicole was still packing 60-mph sustained winds and centered about 30 miles southwest of Orlando, moving west-northwest at 14 mph.

Track Nicole here >>

Up to 8 inches of rain could drench eastern, central and northern portions of Florida. And between 2 to 6 inches are expected from parts of the US southeast to the southern and central Appalachians and western mid-Atlantic through Friday, the hurricane center said.

Nicole is expected to weaken to a depression early Friday and become a post-tropical cyclone over the Southeast.

Here’s what to know now:

Tens of thousands without power: More than 240,000 homes and businesses were without power early Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us.

Crews set to survey damage: In Indian River County, officials Thursday morning will “be assessing debris and messaging cleanup plans,” spokesperson Kathy Copeland. In St. Lucie County, there were so far “no serious reports of damages or injuries,” spokesperson Erick Gill said, adding, “Most likely the biggest impact is going to be beach erosion.”

Residents urged to evacuate unsafe buildings: Ahead of Nicole’s landfall, officials asked people to evacuate some buildings deemed unsafe to withstand the storm. In New Smyrna Beach, some condos were determined to be unsound due to the erosion of a sea wall. And in Daytona Beach Shores, still reeling from Ian’s impact, at least 11 buildings were at risk of collapse, Public Safety Department Director Michael Fowler said.

Volusia County officials told people to leave more than 20 buildings found to be structurally unsound due to Ian’s impact. “There is a strong potential that one or more buildings will collapse during the storm,” Sheriff Mike Chitwood told CNN affiliate WESH-TV on Wednesday.

“Right now, ground zero is here.”

Low tide limits storm surge: Nicole’s peak winds coincided with low tide, limiting the storm surge and inundation on the shore. At Port Canaveral, the surge was measured at just under 6 feet around 4 a.m. ET, just after landfall. Later Thursday morning, surge was down to around 3 feet, but water levels are expected to remain high through high tide, between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.

Flights canceled and schools closed: The storm’s colossal path led to the closure of many schools, colleges and universities, as well as the cancellation of hundreds of flights and the shuttering of amusement parks. Orlando International Airport halted operations Wednesday afternoon, and Miami International Airport warned of cancellations but did not plan to close.

Historic hurricane: Nicole’s landfall Thursday was the latest in a calendar year a hurricane has ever struck Florida’s Atlantic coast. It broke the record set by the Yankee Hurricane, which hit Florida’s east coast on November 4, 1935.

Earlier impacts: Nicole on Wednesday brought strong winds and dangerous storm surge to the northwestern Bahamas.



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Science

NASA’s Artemis I rocket could face damaging winds as storm approaches

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CNN
 — 

The Artemis I mission, which is expected to send an uncrewed spacecraft on a test mission around the moon, is delayed yet again, as NASA’s Space Launch System faces Tropical Storm Nicole, which is now expected to strengthen into a hurricane before it slams into Florida’s East Coast.

The space agency had been targeting November 14 for the third launch attempt but is now looking to November 16, “pending safe conditions for employees to return to work, as well as inspections after the storm has passed,” NASA said in a statement Tuesday evening. November 16 would offer a two-hour launch window that opens at 1:04 am ET

The rocket, often referred to as SLS, is sitting on its launchpad at Kennedy Space Center, which lies just to the north of where the storm’s center is expected to make landfall, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller noted. That will mean the area can expect some of the strongest winds the system will bring.

If it is a 75-mile-per-hour (120-kph) Category 1 hurricane, as it’s predicted to be, gusts could range between 80 and 90 miles per hour (130 to 145 kph), according to Miller. That could mean the rocket will get battered by winds higher than the predetermined limits of what the rocket can withstand. Officials have said that SLS is designed to withstand gusts of up to 85 miles per hour (137 kph).

“Further, the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida, has forecasted max wind gusts occurring early Thursday morning of 86 miles per hour,” Miller added. “So yes, this is absolutely possible that wind gusts exceed that threshold.”

The National Hurricane Center’s latest report also gives a 15% chance that Cocoa Beach, which lies about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the launch site, will endure sustained hurricane-force winds.

NASA however, said in its statement “forecasts predict the greatest risks at the pad are high winds that are not expected to exceed the SLS design.”

“The rocket is designed to withstand heavy rains at the launch pad and the spacecraft hatches have been secured to prevent water intrusion,” the statement continues.

The space agency decided to roll the SLS rocket out to its launchpad last week, as the storm was still an unnamed system brewing off the East Coast. At the time, officials had been expecting this storm to bring in sustained winds of around 25 knots (29 miles per hour) with gusts of up to 40 knots (46 miles per hour), which was deemed to be well within the predetermined limits of what the rocket can withstand, according to comments from Mark Burger, a launch weather officer with the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, at a NASA news conference on November 3.

“The National Hurricane Center just has a 30% chance of it becoming a named storm,” Burger said last Thursday. “However, that being said, the models are very consistent on developing some sort of a low pressure.”

But the storm did grow into a named system on Monday, three days after the rocket was rolled out to the launchpad.

The storm’s strength is unusual, as Nicole is expected to be the first hurricane to strike the United States in November in nearly 40 years.

To prepare for the storm, NASA said its teams have powered down the Orion spacecraft, which sits atop the SLS rocket, as well as the rocket’s side boosters and other components.

“Engineers have also installed a hard cover over the launch abort system window, retracted and secured the crew access arm on the mobile launcher and configured the settings for the environmental control system on the spacecraft and rocket elements,” according to the statement. “Teams also are securing nearby hardware and performing walkdowns for potential debris in the area.”

Kennedy Space Center announced on its Twitter feed Tuesday that it is “in a HURICON III status and continues to prep for the upcoming storm taking prudent precautions across all of our programs, activities, and workforce in advance of the storm.”

The HURICON III preparations include “securing facilities, property and equipment” as well as deploying a rideout team, which is a staff that will be on site to assess any damages.

The SLS rocket had been stowed away for weeks after issues with fuel leaks thwarted the first two launch attempts and then Hurricane Ian rolled through Florida, forcing the rocket to vacate the launchpad in September.

Officials at NASA returned the rocket to the launchpad last week with the goal of working toward a third launch attempt on November 14. It’s not clear how or if the storm could impact those plans.

The overall goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return humans to the moon for the first time in half a century. And the Artemis I mission — expected to be the first of many — will lay the groundwork, testing the rocket and spacecraft and all their subsystems to ensure they are safe enough for astronauts to fly to the moon and back.



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Science

NASA’s Artemis I rocket could face damaging winds as storm approaches

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CNN
 — 

The Artemis I mission, which is expected to send an uncrewed spacecraft on a test mission around the moon, is delayed yet again, as NASA’s Space Launch System faces Tropical Storm Nicole, which is now expected to strengthen into a hurricane before it slams into Florida’s East Coast.

The space agency had been targeting November 14 for the third launch attempt but is now looking at November 16, “pending safe conditions for employees to return to work, as well as inspections after the storm has passed,” NASA said in a statement Tuesday evening. November 16 would offer a two-hour launch window that opens at 1:04 a.m. ET.

The rocket, often referred to as SLS, is sitting on its launchpad at Kennedy Space Center, which lies just to the north of where the storm’s center is expected to make landfall, CNN meteorologist Brandon Miller noted. That will mean the area can expect some of the strongest winds the system will bring.

If it is a 75-mile-per-hour (120-kph) Category 1 hurricane, as it’s predicted to be, gusts could range between 80 and 90 miles per hour (130 to 145 kph), according to Miller. That could mean the rocket will get battered by winds higher than the predetermined limits of what the rocket can withstand. Officials have said that SLS is designed to withstand gusts of up to 85 miles per hour (137 kph).

“Further, the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida, has forecasted max wind gusts occurring early Thursday morning of 86 miles per hour,” Miller added. “So yes, this is absolutely possible that wind gusts exceed that threshold.”

The National Hurricane Center’s latest report also gives a 15% chance that Cocoa Beach, which lies about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the launch site, will endure sustained hurricane-force winds.

Officials at NASA, however, said in a statement “forecasts predict the greatest risks at the pad are high winds that are not expected to exceed the SLS design.”

“The rocket is designed to withstand heavy rains at the launch pad and the spacecraft hatches have been secured to prevent water intrusion,” the statement continues.

Read more: The numbers that make the Artemis I mission a monumental feat

The space agency decided to roll the SLS rocket out to its launchpad last week, as the storm was still an unnamed system brewing off the East Coast. At the time, officials had been expecting this storm to bring in sustained winds of around 25 knots (29 miles per hour) with gusts of up to 40 knots (46 miles per hour), which was deemed to be well within the predetermined limits of what the rocket can withstand, according to comments from Mark Burger, a launch weather officer with the US Space Force’s 45th Weather Squadron, at a NASA news conference on November 3.

“The National Hurricane Center just has a 30% chance of it becoming a named storm,” Burger said last Thursday. “However, that being said, the models are very consistent on developing some sort of a low pressure.”

But the storm did grow into a named system on Monday, three days after the rocket was rolled out to the launchpad.

The storm’s strength is unusual, as Nicole is expected to be the first hurricane to strike the United States in November in nearly 40 years.

To prepare for the storm, NASA said its teams have powered down the Orion spacecraft, which sits atop the SLS rocket, as well as the rocket’s side boosters and other components.

“Engineers have also installed a hard cover over the launch abort system window, retracted and secured the crew access arm on the mobile launcher and configured the settings for the environmental control system on the spacecraft and rocket elements,” according to the statement. “Teams also are securing nearby hardware and performing walkdowns for potential debris in the area.”

Kennedy Space Center announced on its Twitter feed Tuesday that it is “in a HURICON III status and continues to prep for the upcoming storm taking prudent precautions across all of our programs, activities, and workforce in advance of the storm.”

The HURICON III preparations include “securing facilities, property and equipment” as well as deploying a rideout team, which is a staff that will be on site to assess any damages.

The SLS rocket had been stowed away for weeks after issues with fuel leaks thwarted the first two launch attempts and then Hurricane Ian rolled through Florida, forcing the rocket to vacate the launchpad in September.

Officials at NASA returned the rocket to the launchpad last week with the goal of working toward a third launch attempt on November 14. It’s not clear how or if the storm could impact those plans.

The overall goal of NASA’s Artemis program is to return humans to the moon for the first time in half a century. And the Artemis I mission — expected to be the first of many — will lay the groundwork, testing the rocket and spacecraft and all their subsystems to ensure they are safe enough for astronauts to fly to the moon and back.



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US

Subtropical Storm Nicole is on track to strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane as it approaches Florida

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CNN
 — 

A powerful storm packing torrential rain and damaging winds could slam into Florida’s east coast as a Category 1 hurricane this week as many residents are still enduring the aftermath of Hurricane Ian.

Subtropical Storm Nicole is expected to strengthen slowly as it approaches the Florida Peninsula, bringing heavy rain that could lead to dangerous storm surges and high winds beginning Wednesday, according to Jamie Rhome, the acting director of the National Hurricane Center.

“We’re probably going to have good chunks of the Florida Peninsula impacted by these conditions,” Rhome said Monday in a video briefing posted online.

More than 20 million people are under tropical storm alerts from Hallandale Beach, Florida, all the way north to Altamaha Sound, Georgia, according to according to CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford. Plus, a tropical storm warning has been issued for Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida, he said.

Additionally, more than 5 million people are under storm surge warnings from North Palm Beach northward to Altamaha Sound, including the mouth of the St. Johns River to Georgetown, Shackelford added.

As of early Tuesday, more than 8 million people were under hurricane watches in Florida, Shackelford said. The storm is expected to make landfall Thursday morning above West Palm Beach, he said.

Areas along the state’s west coast from north of Bonita Beach to the Ochlockonee River were also under tropical storm watches Tuesday morning.

Nicole was about 400 miles east-northeast of the northwestern Bahamas Tuesday morning. It is expected to become a tropical storm later Tuesday.

Nicole is not expected to intensify rapidly like Hurricane Ian did in late September when it killed at least 120 of people in its path in Florida and destroyed communities that are still reeling from the destruction.

“We’re not forecasting a major hurricane,” Rhome said. “Again, not an Ian situation, but still a potentially impactful system.”

Impactful in the sense it’s projected to be a strong tropical storm or a Category 1 hurricane by the time it reaches Florida by Wednesday evening into Thursday morning, Rhome said.

“Florida residents need to be taking this seriously,” Rhome said.

The warning comes as a hurricane watch is currently in effect along the east coast of Florida, from the Volusia/Brevard county line to Hallandale Beach, according to the hurricane center.

The watch also extends from just north of Miami to the Space Coast and includes Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Cape Canaveral and Melbourne.

Subtropical Storm Nicole packs wind speed of 45 miles, with higher gusts, Tuesday as it churns toward Florida from the northwestern Bahamas, where a hurricane warning is in effect.

“Dont let the ‘sub’ fool you. #Nicole is a formidable storm that will have major impacts all along the southeastern U.S. coastline, not only near the center. Coastal flooding, large waves and rip currents will extend from the tip of FL to NC,” the National Weather Service explained.

cnnweather

As many people across Florida head to the polls on Tuesday for midterms Election Day, forecasters are warning them to be prepared.

“Florida can expect scattered showers and storm to begin to impact parts of the state by Tuesday afternoon,” Shackelford said.

“The storm surge will be accompanied by large and damaging waves. Residents in the warning area should listen to advice given by local officials,” the hurricane center said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said online that she’s been briefed on the storm and urged residents to prepare.

“Residents and visitors should monitor the forecast and make sure their storm kit is up-to-date,” Levine Cava said in a social media post. “We’re taking all needed precautions to prepare for potential flooding and power outages.”

Officials are not expecting the storm to impact Election Day on Tuesday.

Rhome, the acting director of the hurricane center, said that the potential for coastal flooding exists for a large area along the eastern coast of the Florida Peninsula beginning Wednesday, adding that some of those areas were hit by Hurricane Ian.

The main threats to Florida are heavy rain amounts up to 7 inches, and storm surge that could rise up to 5 feet along the coast combined with high winds. Those conditions are mainly forecast for Wednesday evening and Thursday.



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World

A former NBA champion is changing ‘how the world builds’ to fight the climate crisis

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London
CNN Business
 — 

Three years ago, a hurricane devastated the Bahamas, claiming dozens of lives. Today, the country is building what it claims to be the world’s first carbon-negative housing community to reduce the likelihood of future climate disasters and to ease the shortage of homes caused by the storm.

Rick Fox, a former Los Angeles Lakers player, is the lynchpin of the new housing project. The former basketball player and Bahamian citizen was spurred into action after he witnessed the destruction caused by Hurricane Dorian in 2019. Fox teamed up with architect Sam Marshall, whose Malibu home was severely damaged by wildfires in 2018, to develop Partanna, a building material that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The technology is being put to the test in the Bahamas, where Fox’s company, Partanna Bahamas, is partnering with the government to build 1,000 hurricane-resistant homes, including single-family houses and apartments. The first 30 units will be delivered next year in the Abaco Islands, which were hardest hit by Dorian.

“Innovation and new technology will play a crucial role in avoiding the worst climate scenarios,” Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, said in a statement. He is due to formally announce the partnership between the Bahamian government and Partanna Bahamas on Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

As a country on the frontline of the climate crisis, the Bahamas understands that it’s “out of time,” Fox told CNN Business. “They don’t have time to wait for someone to save them,” he added.

“Technology can turn the tide, and at Partanna we have developed a solution that can change how the world builds,” Fox said.

Partanna consists of natural and recycled ingredients, including steel slag, a by-product of steel manufacturing, and brine from desalination. It contains no resins and plastics and avoids the pollution associated with cement production, which accounts for around 4%-8% of global carbon emissions from human activities.

The use of brine, meanwhile, helps solve the desalination industry’s growing waste problem by preventing the toxic solution from being discarded back into the ocean.

Almost all buildings naturally absorb carbon dioxide through a process called carbonation — which is where CO2 in the air reacts with minerals in the concrete — but Partanna says its homes remove carbon from the atmosphere at a much faster rate because of the density of the material.

The material also emits almost no carbon during manufacturing.

A 1,250 square foot Partanna home will contribute a “negligible amount” of CO2 during manufacturing, while removing 22.5 tons of CO2 from the atmosphere after production, making it “fully carbon negative within the product’s lifecycle,” according to the company.

By comparison, a standard cement home of the same size typically generates 70.2 tons of CO2 during production.

The use of salt water means that Partanna homes are also resistant to corrosion from seawater, making them ideal for residents of small island countries such as the Bahamas. That could make it easier for homeowners to get insurance.

The carbon credits generated from each home will be traded and used to fund various social impact initiatives, including promoting home ownership among low-income families.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated losses suffered by Rick Fox and Sam Marshall as a consequence of Hurricane Dorian and wildfires.

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US

Subtropical Storm Nicole: Hurricane watch issued for Florida’s east coast as the state grapples with Hurricane Ian’s devastation

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CNN
 — 

A rare November hurricane could batter Florida’s east coast this week as residents try to recover from deadly Hurricane Ian.

Subtropical Storm Nicole is forecast to keep strengthening and is expected to be a Category 1 hurricane when it approaches Florida’s east coast late Wednesday into Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said Monday.

Warmer than normal ocean waters in the region will allow strengthening as the system develops and could lead to the formation of a November hurricane, CNN Meteorologist Brandon Miller said.

The last hurricane to strike the US in November was Hurricane Kate in 1985.

A hurricane watch is now in effect along the east coast of Florida, from the Volusia/Brevard county line to Hallandale Beach, the National Hurricane Center said.

The watch extends from just north of Miami to the Space Coast and includes Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Cape Canaveral and Melbourne.

A storm surge watch has also been issued for parts of Florida and Georgia, from Altamaha Sound to Hallandale Beach.

Florida officials have warned residents – including some recently hit by devastating Hurricane Ian – that the new storm could bring heavy rain and damaging winds this week.

“Heavy rainfall, coastal flooding, gale force winds and rip tides will impact eastern Florida and the southeast US,” CNN Meteorologist Robert Shackelford said.

Rainfalls in the Sunshine State could range between 2 and 4 inches, with isolated amounts possibly exceeding 6 inches, Shackelford said.

Already, the US territories of Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands are under a flash flood watch through Monday afternoon, and tropical storm watches are in effect for northwest Bahamas.

Areas south of Tampa – some of which are still trying to recover from Hurricane Ian’s destruction in September – could get drenched with 2 to 4 inches of rain.

Orlando could get 1 to 2 inches of rain, and areas south of Jacksonville could be hit with 1 to 4 inches.

Ahead of the storm, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents Sunday to take precautions.

“I encourage all Floridians to be prepared and make a plan in the event a storm impacts Florida,” DeSantis said in a news release.

DeSantis said residents should prepare for an increased risk of coastal flooding, heavy winds, rain, rip currents and beach erosion.

On Tuesday, Election Day, much of the Florida Peninsula can expect breezy to gusty conditions. Chances of rain are expected to increase throughout the day for central and eastern cities such as Miami north to Daytona Beach and inland toward Orlando and Okeechobee.

“Conditions may deteriorate as early as Tuesday and persist into Thursday night/Friday morning,” the National Weather Service in Miami said.

“Impacts to South Florida may include rip currents, coastal flooding, dangerous surf/marine conditions, flooding rainfall, strong sustained winds, and waterspouts/tornadoes.”

DeSantis said officials are coordinating with local emergency management authorities across the state’s 67 counties.

The goal is to “identify potential resource gaps and to implement plans that will allow the state to respond quickly and efficiently ahead of the potential strengthening” of the storm system, the statement said.

Hurricane Ian made landfall September 28 as a strong Category 4 storm on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, packing winds of nearly 150 mph.

The ferocious storm killed at least 120 people in Florida, destroyed many homes and leveled small communities. Thousands of people were without power or water for running days.

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