From the source linked to by the other commenter[0]:
- "Salt water intrudes up the Mississippi River about once every decade. It happened in 2012 and again in 2022. The ocean water usually doesn’t come this far north, but it isn’t unprecedented."
- "You should prepare to some extent. Residents across Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Jefferson and Orleans parishes should be ready to conserve water to relieve pressure on the system as needed"
- "Different school systems are taking different approaches, but closures aren’t likely."
- "most healthy people will not see any impact from the water. But people who are more vulnerable to a higher salt diet due to pregnancy, kidney disease or high blood pressure should be vigilant."
And from the OP's NYT article: "The low-water season typically runs from May through the end of October. Once temperatures cool, the river should start to rebound. “In a typical year, we typically don’t see low water conditions improving for our area until we start to get into November,” Mr. Graschel said."
It doesn't sound like an unfathomably huge cost.
Speaking of, the NYT had a series of hysterical articles[1,2] earlier in the summer about extremely hot ocean waters in coastal Florida, painting a picture of 90-100+ degree waters in the open ocean. It didn't elaborate on the fact that the buoy in question[3] with the "possible world record for sea surface temperature" of 101.1 degrees was less than 100 feet from land, in less than neck-deep water for the average person, in an enclosed bay that is further enclosed by the Keys; basically, a swimming pool, not the open ocean. Actual average temperatures[4] at the time were about the same as the long-term average or a degree higher.
Sorry that the buoy wasn’t at the appropriate depth for whatever arbitrary assessment you’d like to make, but yes the climate research community was and remains extremely alarmed by that data.
Years of "the overall trend is extremely worrying": "errhmm idk, I need specific instances of bad things."
Here's a specific, interesting datapoint -- also worrying: "sorry the bay isn't shaped to my arbitrary preference."
- "Salt water intrudes up the Mississippi River about once every decade. It happened in 2012 and again in 2022. The ocean water usually doesn’t come this far north, but it isn’t unprecedented."
- "You should prepare to some extent. Residents across Plaquemines, St. Bernard, Jefferson and Orleans parishes should be ready to conserve water to relieve pressure on the system as needed"
- "Different school systems are taking different approaches, but closures aren’t likely."
- "most healthy people will not see any impact from the water. But people who are more vulnerable to a higher salt diet due to pregnancy, kidney disease or high blood pressure should be vigilant."
And from the OP's NYT article: "The low-water season typically runs from May through the end of October. Once temperatures cool, the river should start to rebound. “In a typical year, we typically don’t see low water conditions improving for our area until we start to get into November,” Mr. Graschel said."
It doesn't sound like an unfathomably huge cost.
Speaking of, the NYT had a series of hysterical articles[1,2] earlier in the summer about extremely hot ocean waters in coastal Florida, painting a picture of 90-100+ degree waters in the open ocean. It didn't elaborate on the fact that the buoy in question[3] with the "possible world record for sea surface temperature" of 101.1 degrees was less than 100 feet from land, in less than neck-deep water for the average person, in an enclosed bay that is further enclosed by the Keys; basically, a swimming pool, not the open ocean. Actual average temperatures[4] at the time were about the same as the long-term average or a degree higher.
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37703983
[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/climate/florida-ocean-tem...
[2]: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/26/climate/florida-100-degre...
[3]: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=mnbf1
[4]: https://seatemperature.net/current/united-states/florida-key...