I know a cyclone is not a correct description but it started with a C.
The concern is that mega storms could dump rain on a mostly arid environment leaving a vulnerable population of high density at risk
At least it is being discussed.
Remember how we were saying that what happened in Brisbane could happen to us? That might get tested sooner than you think. In the not-too-distant future, California could be at risk for Old Testament-level storms that could do four to five times the damage of a major earthquake. A recent scientific conference took a good hard look at this possibility, and what could be done.
A two hundred year storm is not really out of the question and with the changes we have seen already it could be much worse than that. How? Bringing those storms ever fifty or twenty years for instance.
What are the chances? Some meteorologists are dismissing these concerns as hooey, but then, a lot of meteorologists don't believe in climate change. USGS calls the situation "hypothetical, but plausible," and says that such catastrophic storms happen in the California area about once every 100 to 200 years. The last one was 1861, so we're smack in the middle of that time frame -- and at any rate, it's never too early to make plans so we don't get caught with our pants down.
What are the chances? Some meteorologists are dismissing these concerns as hooey, but then, a lot of meteorologists don't believe in climate change. USGS calls the situation "hypothetical, but plausible," and says that such catastrophic storms happen in the California area about once every 100 to 200 years. The last one was 1861, so we're smack in the middle of that time frame -- and at any rate, it's never too early to make plans so we don't get caught with our pants down.
Californians have learned to expect earthquakes the way Floridians expect hurricanes. (A minor earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1, rattled windows in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area about a week ago.)
The existing engineering systems that dispose of floodwater are so efficient that the effects of moderate storms often go unnoticed, Dr. Jones said. So while many Californians know whether they live or work close to an earthquake-prone fault and what to do should there be a serious quake, few realize that the state could be hit by storms that at their worst could rival the largest hurricanes that devastate the Gulf Coast and the southeastern Atlantic Seaboard.
Yet vast floods have also been documented, both through tree-ring data and more modern historical records. Marcia K. McNutt, the director of the geological survey, said that 150 years ago, over a few weeks in the winter of 1861-62, enough rain fell to inundate a stretch of the Central Valley 300 miles long and 20 miles wide, from north of Sacramento south to Bakersfield, near the eastern desert.