4 ms·

Is weather not an interesting scientific phenomenon? Are businesses not affected by weather?

wcoenen 5y ago
There are severe weather events around the globe every week, e.g. a typhoon just ravaged the Phillippines and Hong Kong earlier this month. Should all severe weather be discussed on hacker news?
- Karunamon 5y ago
  "What if everyone did it" is almost never a useful discussion. I found this article and the comments interesting. YMMV.
- WalterGR 5y ago
  20 typhoons hit the Philippines a year (https://www.adrc.asia/nationinformation.php?NationCode=608&Lang=en#:~:text=Located%20along%20the%20typhoon%20belt,five%20of%20which%20are%20destructive https://www.adrc.asia/nationinformation.php?NationCode=608&L....) And "The frequency of typhoons in the Philippines have made typhoons a significant part of everyday ancient and modern Filipino culture." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoons_in_the_Philippines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoons_in_the_Philippines) 5 - 6 a year hit Hong Kong according to https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/education/tropical-cyclone/classification-naming-characteristics/00161-typhoon-56-average-number-of-tropical-cyclones.html https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/education/tropical-cyclone/classif.... Re. atmospheric rivers and the US West Coast: "Typically, the Oregon coast averages one Cat 4 atmospheric river (AR) each year; Washington state averages one Cat 4 AR every two years; the Bay Area averages one Cat 4 AR every three years; and southern California, which typically experiences one Cat 2 or Cat 3 AR each year, averages one Cat 4 AR every ten years." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river) And this is a category 5 AR: "The atmospheric river — a band carrying more water vapor than the surrounding air — has been elevated to a Category 5, the highest designation on the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Extreme Weather Lab scale." (https://cbsnews.com/live-updates/california-bomb-cyclone-atmospheric-river-2021-10-24/ https://cbsnews.com/live-updates/california-bomb-cyclone-atm...) You're comparing events that happen 5 - 20 times a year with one that happens less than every decade. In fact: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28982850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28982850 - "130,600 PG&E customers without power as storm drenches Bay Area". From the article: "The storm is tied as the third strongest since 1950 on the Bay Area Storm Index (BASI), and the strongest in 26 years..." So: a less-than-every-decade weather event for California, California's droughts, the fires over the summer, the Atmospheric River's potential to cause mudslides because of the fires, climate change, a large power outage, the Bay Area being the tech capitol of the world, and the strongest storm in the Bay Area in 26 years... Just because it's discussed on the news doesn't mean it's not news-worthy.

There are severe weather events around the globe every week, e.g. a typhoon just ravaged the Phillippines and Hong Kong earlier this month. Should all severe weather be discussed on hacker news?

Karunamon 5y ago
"What if everyone did it" is almost never a useful discussion. I found this article and the comments interesting. YMMV.
WalterGR 5y ago
20 typhoons hit the Philippines a year (https://www.adrc.asia/nationinformation.php?NationCode=608&Lang=en#:~:text=Located%20along%20the%20typhoon%20belt,five%20of%20which%20are%20destructive https://www.adrc.asia/nationinformation.php?NationCode=608&L....) And "The frequency of typhoons in the Philippines have made typhoons a significant part of everyday ancient and modern Filipino culture." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoons_in_the_Philippines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoons_in_the_Philippines) 5 - 6 a year hit Hong Kong according to https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/education/tropical-cyclone/classification-naming-characteristics/00161-typhoon-56-average-number-of-tropical-cyclones.html https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/education/tropical-cyclone/classif.... Re. atmospheric rivers and the US West Coast: "Typically, the Oregon coast averages one Cat 4 atmospheric river (AR) each year; Washington state averages one Cat 4 AR every two years; the Bay Area averages one Cat 4 AR every three years; and southern California, which typically experiences one Cat 2 or Cat 3 AR each year, averages one Cat 4 AR every ten years." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_river) And this is a category 5 AR: "The atmospheric river — a band carrying more water vapor than the surrounding air — has been elevated to a Category 5, the highest designation on the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Extreme Weather Lab scale." (https://cbsnews.com/live-updates/california-bomb-cyclone-atmospheric-river-2021-10-24/ https://cbsnews.com/live-updates/california-bomb-cyclone-atm...) You're comparing events that happen 5 - 20 times a year with one that happens less than every decade. In fact: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28982850 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28982850 - "130,600 PG&E customers without power as storm drenches Bay Area". From the article: "The storm is tied as the third strongest since 1950 on the Bay Area Storm Index (BASI), and the strongest in 26 years..." So: a less-than-every-decade weather event for California, California's droughts, the fires over the summer, the Atmospheric River's potential to cause mudslides because of the fires, climate change, a large power outage, the Bay Area being the tech capitol of the world, and the strongest storm in the Bay Area in 26 years... Just because it's discussed on the news doesn't mean it's not news-worthy.