Hurricane season and the Oil Slick

Back on April 30, I pondered the implications of a hurricane season on the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico. The enormity of the disaster hadn't hit home yet, since it was only days old at that time, and many people casually thought that the slick would be cleaned up by then. No one in their wildest dreams thought that not only wouldn't it be cleaned up, but the the oil would still be pumping by the time hurricane season hit.

Now that hurricane season is upon us, having opened on June 1, let's take a look at the outlook.

The 2010 Hurricane Season in the Atlantic Ocean began on June 1, 2010, and will end on November 30, 2010. Atlantic hurricanes affect the eastern and Gulf coasts of the U.S. and the Caribbean nations. The experts are predicting a busier-than-usual hurricane season for 2010. According to the forecast, there is an 85% change of an above-average hurricane season in 2010. We can expect an "active to extremely active" season. 14-23 named storms (winds 39 mph or higher)8-14 hurricanes (winds 74 mph or higher) 3-7 major hurricanes (winds of at least 111 mph)

So it seems that there will be a steady parade of storms in the Gulf, and only once in 12 years did NOAA's prediction turn out to be an overestimate. Let's take a look at the oil and where it is predicted to be:

The NY Times's simulation reporting shows the oil going around Florida and up the East Coast. The University Corporation's Atmospheric Research showed the oil going around Florida and up the east Coast. The oil is going to escape into the Atlantic, there is no doubt about it. Here is a computer simulation.

But here is science for the third part of this study of oil and hurricanes: wind plastering it all over the United States. It's hard to imagine the effects of wind-driven oil and chemicals on the farmlands in LA, TX, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, but not so hard to imagine there will be some. We know that salt-driven inland has devastating effects on vegetation up to 45 miles inland. (Photo: This satellite-based image shows brown areas along the Texas and Louisiana coasts where vegetation has been killed off by saltwater after Hurricane Ike pushed seawater inland. The brown area in the gulf indicates sediment taken from the coast when surge waters flowed back out.)

But what about the effects far inland? Yes, I said far inland. A NASA study conducted in 23 of the effects of wind-driven salt and plankton from the Pacific hurricanes of 1998 found that the winds had indeed driven them far inland. Like, from California to Oklahoma.

Hurricane Winds Carried Ocean Salt & Plankton Far Inland
Researchers found surprising evidence of sea salt and frozen plankton in high, cold, cirrus clouds, the remnants of Hurricane Nora, over the U.S. plains states. Although the 1997 hurricane was a strong eastern Pacific storm, her high ice-crystal clouds extended many miles inland, carrying ocean phenomena deep into the U.S. heartland. Scientists were surprised to find what appeared to be frozen plankton in some cirrus crystals collected by research aircraft over Oklahoma, far from the Pacific Ocean. This was the first time examples of microscopic marine life, like plankton, were seen as "nuclei" of ice crystals in the cirrus clouds of a hurricane.

National Geographic also studied the effects of hurricane wind-driven salt onto the far inland parts of the US, enough to change the local ecosystem. Answer: yes the hurricanes drive surface items such as salt far inland. It would likely do the same for oil. Wat I wrote back on April 30 was "As the hurricane makes landfall, the oil foam would be plastered on everything for hundreds of miles. When trees, grasses, plants, animals, etc. get pounded with the foamy winds they will get a thin layer of oil. That thin layer of oil mixed with sea water would likely kill any vegetation." If it has been proven that salt carried far inland has devastating effects on the land and trees, then what of the effects of oil?

Thirty-seven percent of the Gulf is already closed to fishing. As the slick grows, that number grows. It was 31% only a few days ago. Fishing is food, and food is already scarce. As the farmlands inland receive chemicals and oil from wind-driven tropical force and hurricane driven winds, from the Gulf AND the east coast, it is not hard to imagine the end time warning of famine in Matthew 24:7 coming to fruition very soon.

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