It’s been a soggy week so far in Savannah, with an official and ominous 6.66 inches of rain falling at the Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport Monday.
The previous record amount of rainfall for Sept. 20 was 2.12 inches in 1885, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Emily McGraw in Charleston. That record was “smashed,” she noted.
Some parts of Savannah, like Skidaway Island, got almost 9 inches of rain, according to reports from a network of volunteer weather recorders, called the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network or CoCoRaHS. A quick glance at the CoCoRaHS map shows the rain dumped mainly on Georgia’s Chatham and South Carolina’s Beaufort counties.
Expect more of these overflowing-storm-sewer days in Coastal Georgia. Global warming has already made the rainiest days of the year even rainier around the U.S., including in Savannah, the non-profit Climate Central reported in 2019.
“More than 70 percent of the planet’s surface is water, and as the world warms, more water evaporates into the atmosphere,’ the report stated. “That additional moisture makes heavy rain heavier, increasing the risk of flooding.”
FEMA flood insurance rates get real
Speaking of floods, under a new, more modern approach, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will use industry flood data, best practices, and catastrophic modeling to set rates for the National Flood Insurance Program, the Pew Trusts reports. Effective Oct. 1 for new policyholders and April 2022 for existing policyholders, the new program also encourages flood mitigation by offering lower premiums in exchange for risk reduction actions, such as elevating utilities.
In a world with growing risks, this is a welcome — and timely — change. Without the new program, called Risk Rating 2.0, every NFIP policyholder would get a rate increase this year. Under the new, more equitable plan, nearly 1.2 million of the more than 5 million NFIP policyholders will see an immediate decrease in premiums. More than 215,000 policyholders will get at least a $1,000 break on their yearly premium. Of the single-family homeowners who will see costs rise, nearly 88% will face a modest increase of $10 or less per month. A searchable FEMA flood map is available here.
Demand outstrips supply for utility’s solar buy-back program
When it’s not raining, Georgia gets plenty of sunshine and could be a leader in solar panel installations. Its ranking of ninth in the nation for the total gigawatts of solar installed relies on acres of utility scale solar owned by Georgia Power rather than individually-owned rooftop solar. For homeowners interested in rooftop panels, it’s been hard to get a quick payback. Regulators at the Public Service Commission put a cap on the number of Georgia Power customers with rooftop solar installations that can receive a form of net metering, basically getting paid market rate for the electricity they send to the grid. James Bruggers of Inside Climate News explains how this situation evolved and what’s next.
Oxford reports good news about renewable energy costs
Dave Roberts, who writes a newsletter about clean energy and politics called Volts, tweeted about a new study out of Oxford that discusses how renewable energy keeps beating the forecasts about its cost. The researchers tried to do better. They applied “probabilistic cost forecasting methods that made reliable predictions when they were empirically tested on more than 50 technologies.”
The results are a huge boost to clean energy advocates:
“We use these methods to estimate future energy system costs and find that, compared to continuing with a fossil-fuel-based system, a rapid green energy transition will likely result in overall net savings of many trillions of dollars –
even without accounting for climate damages or co-benefits of climate policy,” the authors write.
Climate author and activist Bill McKibben explains why it matters in his newletter : “..(I)f economists don’t figure out that solar is going to get steadily cheaper, you’re going to waste big bucks building gas plants designed to last for decades. And indeed we have (and of course the cost of them is not the biggest problem; that would be the destruction of the planet.)
Look no further than the billions-over-budget expansion of the nuclear Plant Vogtle — or the Vogtle payment on your monthly Georgia Power bill — for the consequences of off-target cost predictions.
BEACH ADVISORIES: As of this writing, there are no beach water advisories except for the permanent ones at Clam Creek Beach and St. Andrews Beach on Jekyll Island, and King’s Ferry at the Chatham-Bryan County line on the Ogeechee River.
Before you head to the beach, check the link to see current notices.
Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary is seeking applicants to serve on its volunteer advisory council. The council provides NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries with advice and recommendations on the management of the sanctuary.
Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Georgia is one of the largest near-shore “live-bottom” reefs of the southeastern United States. The approximately 22 square mile sanctuary (about 14,000 acres) of Gray’s Reef is just a small part of the U.S. territorial Atlantic Ocean, yet its value as a natural marine habitat is recognized nationally and internationally.
The council is composed of 19 members who represent a variety of community interests, including fishing, diving, conservation, science, education, state agencies, federal agencies, and the public-at-large. The sanctuary is currently seeking applicants for the following seats and terms:
· Citizen-At-Large, 2-year term
· Conservation, 3-year term
· Research (non-living resources), 3-year term
· Sport Diving, 3-year term
· Sport Fishing, 3-year term
Applicants do not need prior first-hand experience within the sanctuary, but they should be very familiar with their constituents’ regional interests and how they relate to, or benefit, the management of Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Anyone with the desire and ability to effectively represent their respective community’s interest in the management of the sanctuary is encouraged to apply, regardless of where they live within the region.
Applications are due by Nov 3, 2021. For more information, including a copy of the application, please visit the Gray’s Reef Sanctuary Advisory Council recruitment webpage at https://graysreef.noaa.gov/management/sac/council_news.html or contact Scott Kathey, Advisory Council Coordinator at scott.kathey@noaa.gov or 912-598-2381.
If you have feedback, questions, concerns, or just like what you see, let us know at thecurrentga@gmail.com.
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