“The pace of sea level rise accelerated at nearly all measurement stations along the US coastline in 2019, with scientists warning some of the bleakest scenarios for inundation and flooding are steadily becoming more likely”.

Where was it the worst?

“The highest rate of sea level rise was recorded along the Gulf of Mexico shoreline, with Grand Isle, Louisiana, experiencing a 7.93mm annual increase, more than double the global average. The Texas locations of Galveston and Rockport had the next largest sea level rise increases”.

In one year only!

It’s generally “rising” more on the east coast than the west as the land is gradually sinking to the east. So the “sea level rise” is relative to the height of the land, so if the land is also sinking, it appears worse.

Why does the rise seem to be accelerating?

“Researchers at Vims said that the current speed-up in sea level rise started around 2013 or 2014 and is probably caused by ocean dynamics and ice sheet loss. Worldwide, sea level rise is being driven by the melting of large glaciers and the thermal expansion of ocean water due to human-induced global heating”.

Let’s see how long it takes to get to 1 cm/year in the Gulf of Mexico. And then 2 cm/year. And so on.

And then add to that more extreme coastal storms and higher storm surges.

Yikety frick!

[Photo credit: Dan Meyers at Unsplash]