More flooding--but a pretty sunset

We are living in a new normal.  California is burning, the East Coast is flooding....   No idea why, no need to get alarmed, change our habits, just keep on keeping on.

Last Sunday we had another flooding event, right at sunset with premium fall colors.  Not as bad as the last time, so we could walk between the flooded road and the hillside, and document the beauty.

This week the city unveiled a $50 million plan to "solve" the problems downtown--when the flooding is like this and the only serious effect is a road closed, they have major problems.  The paper didn't report how much time it will buy, and what will happen then.  Politics has a lot of problems with science issues like this, where there is no free lunch and people have to make choices that will effect their pocketbook or their ability to fleece the public.

Enough heady thoughts, just enjoy the fall pictures,  Don't think of it as flooding; it's just reflections and the play of light on the water.

Warriors

Sometimes the warriors are on the water, and sometimes they are on the parade field.

The reviewing stands are empty; both groups of warriors enjoy the fall afternoon for their own benefit.  This week has the last fall parade; the seniors have only 3 more parades after that, and the warrior athletes even less.

If you have a good monitor, the full size below shows a lot more, including the boat's name.

Melissa-Ground Truthing the Flooding Model

Melissa was the first  recent storm that did not do most of its flooding at oh-dark-thirty.  There were two peaks, near sunrise and sunset.  Thus it was the perfect time to verify that the lidar DEMs and my flooding model do a good job predicting flooding.








If you have a good sized monitor, scroll down for a better sized graphic.

Art in the flooding

Just after sunrise.  The road in the foreground is covered by flooding, providing a perfect reflection from the trees.  The clouds in the background look like mountains.

Resilience--the cemetery is at sea level

I watched the flooding at noon and 4 PM Friday, sunrise and sunset Saturday, and early morning Sunday.  We had a mix of sunny and cloudy periods, with some nice lighting effects for photos.

My model for the extent of flooding based on the reported high water mark, reached near sunrise and again at sunset Saturday (the last post shows the tide gauge records).

Noon Friday.  The road along the cemetery is flooding, but not yet closed.

Noon Friday (same time as the fish frenzy a few posts back), and a funeral has to deal with the high water.

Sunrise Saturday.  The aviation park is underwater, with pretty light and reflections.

Saturday.  Turbulence as the water floods over the low wall and onto the road.

Sunday morning.  Ripplies record the force of the water.

No sign of the "seawall" or road.

Waves over the seawall

Student parking.  Flooding has blocked two of the roads into this area, and the remaining road is one way in.

High water park, almost into the pavilion.

Resilience--evidence from the boat show

Last week I went to one of the government web sites with has GIS data on the US coasts.  A number of my links were broken, and after digging around, found most of them.  One now emphasizes "resilience", since that is apparently a term that is agnostic about causes, and lets us keep our heads in the sand and wait for more evidence while we try to burn more of that beautiful black coal that is economically unviable and blackens our lungs.

Within days, the city got to show its resilience as flooding covered downtown.

NOAA has three different tidal prediction sites.  This one uses MSL (mean sea level), which for Annapolis is the same as NAVD which is used for lidar surveys and maps on land.  The peak floods this weekend were at 3.42 feet MSL, which is 1.05 meters.  The blue predictions show that the upcoming harvest full moon had little impact of the high water levels.

A different NOAA site, which has a longer time period but uses MLLW.  Melissa (the storm) is blamed for the steady incress in tide level from Oct 9 to the 12, 

My model for the flooding, superimposed on Google Earth imagery.  Everything around City Dock gets wet.  We ground truthed the model Saturday morning, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning.

Reflections in the standing water make for pretty pictures (and wet boat show attendees).

Water at the main entrance to the Fleet Reserve Club.

Not sure the hotel wanted waterfront on this side of the building.

We heard some of the boat show cleanup crew explaining what caused the flooding.  It was the number of boats they brought in , which displace a LOT of water.   That water has to go somewhere, which must happens to up and into town.  This is politically a much better solution than the climate change excuse we also heard, since if the boats cause it, we won't have to spend any money on the environment.

At the height of the flooding, Alex Haley was confined to a small corner, reading to children surrounded by signs of commercialism.  I wonder if he could be reading about the Lorax, and the role of man in causing the rising water.

Next day the water is gone, for a while, but  capitalism remains.  The water will probably return, and rise higher.

Bird on the wire

Yesterday was warm with variable clouds.  After our trip to record the "record" flooding, we picked up food to grill.  When we got home, there was a rainbow, even though we got essentially no rain--the leaves on the trees have pretty much all dried up, and when we mulched those that had already fallen, they broke up into tiny fragments better than I ever remember.

Feeding Frenzy

Today was a wonderful fall day, with the annual boat show in town, although maybe the high tides could have been a challenge.  I walked back from lunch with the good camera, to see about getting pictures of the high water.

While crossing the foot bridge, I noticed a boiling mass in the water from a distance.

I decided to wait and let the disturbance approach, it being a wonderful day and I had plenty of time until I had to return to the cares of the workplace.  As the mass approached, I could see individual flashes of silver--the camera does a better job of capturing than my naked eye on the bridge.

A pair of seabirds then approached, and dive bombed the water surface.  I wondered if they were trying to use their talons or beaks.   It was impossible to see if they got anything for their efforts, or if they were merely enjoying the day as much as I was.

Upon looking at the photos on my big monitor, I saw success for the birds.

Jug Bay

Jug Bay is a county facility on the Pax River (free admission for veteran's).  There's a long causeway that had a railroad bed extending most of the way across the river, and several boardwalks to get out into the marsh.

It was a cloudy day (we do need the rain, which will hopefully arrive), so the pictures don't come out as well as those from the sun yesterday.

The lidar DSM shows the various features of the forest and the mud flats; the missing data is mostly water, but the NW is where the neighboring county was excised from the data after a small buffer.

Calvert Cliffs State Park

On a sunny fall afternoon, we went hiking at Calvert Cliffs State Park.  The statewide lidar surveys from 2017 provide a great base shape for the hike.  We saw birds, flowers and fruit, and early fall colors--the lack of rain the past month has meant the leaves in our back yard are coming down early