A “Godzilla” El Niño could reshape America’s weather-risk map in the coming months, experts say, increasing perils for some homeowners and lowering risks for others. Meteorologists warn that El Niño, a naturally recurring climate pattern associated with warmer waters in the Pacific, will become “very strong” this fall and winter, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). While “no two El Niños are exactly the same,” experts expect much of the West Coast, especially California, to have a higher chance of heavy precipitation and flooding, Scott Handel, lead meteorologist at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, told Newsweek.
And the Northern Rockies and northern Cascades tend to experience a reduced snowpack.” El Niño has traditionally lowered the risk of devastating Atlantic hurricanes by creating atmospheric conditions that make it harder for storms to form. This has historically provided some relief to homeowners on the Southeast coast, especially in a vulnerable state like Florida. But El Niño, as Handel pointed out, is also associated with above-average rainfall across the Southeast and on the West Coast, undermining any benefit made on the Atlantic hurricane front.
According to Handel, flooding is the biggest concern linked to a very strong El Niño this fall and winter for both the West Coast and Southeast. Increased storminess may produce episodes of high winds along parts of the West Coast,” he said. The East Coast is more prone to coastal storms,” he added.
According to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, 86 percent of U.S. properties at high risk of flooding lack flood insurance. It would fall on the NFIP private flood insurers and homeowners without flood coverage,” Dr.
Howard Botts, chief scientist at real estate analytics platform Cotality, told Newsweek. Reinsurers have also been paying closer attention to frequent, smaller weather events like floods and severe storms,” he added. Structures in low-lying areas may be particularly vulnerable,” Denali Pinto, a research data analyst at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, told Newsweek.
He added: “It can flood anywhere it rains, not just in high-risk zones. Earth movement and landslide damage, which often accompanies saturated soil in heavy-rain events, is typically covered by a difference-in-conditions policy but may be restricted in high-risk landslide areas like California. Experts told Newsweek that securing flood insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or a private carrier was the most important thing homeowners could do ahead of this winter season.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
