MIKE O’BRIEN
UK Daily Mail
Aug 27, 2011
The intensity of Hurricane Irene and the extent of the flooding on the East Coast could be made worse by a new moon and high temperature of water in the Atlantic, scientists warn.
During new and full moons, the sun, Earth, and the moon are arranged in a straight line, with the sun and moon intensifying each other’s gravitational pull on Earth.
Meteorologist Jeff Masters, director of the Weather Underground website, said the result is more severe tidal fluctuations.
That means low tides are lower than usual and high tides are higher.
Due to these so-called spring tides, any town that sees the hurricane pass by during one of the two daily high tides is especially in danger of heavy flooding due to storm surges.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.