For some in New Jersey, rising sea levels are a constant concern.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Provide your readers with interactive tools The goal is to see how future increases in temperature will affect ice melt and, in turn, sea level rise across the Jersey Shore and beyond.
“Increasing carbon dioxide emissions are warming the atmosphere and oceans, melting ice sheets and glaciers on land, and causing thermal expansion of the oceans, resulting in sea level rise along much of the U.S. coastline,” NOAA oceanographer William Sweet told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday.
In 2022, Report from NOAA It noted that human-induced climate change is likely to cause sea levels along the U.S. coast to rise by at least 2 feet by the end of the century.
A NOAA spokesman said this week that based on historical emissions trends, the agency projects that sea levels could rise by about 2.5 to 3.5 feet by 2100.
The agency’s interactive tool will be continuously updated to showcase the latest scenario.
NOAA’s online map shows expected weather conditions for parts of New Jersey along the Jersey Shore, where the state runs parallel to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as inland.
Below is a picture of the devastating damage that two feet of flooding would cause in areas including Tuckerton, Port Republic, Little Egg Harbor Township and Absecon.
New proposed regulations in New Jersey would require new buildings to be constructed five feet above existing flood levels set by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
According to the tool, if sea levels rise by 5 feet, Holly Park, Cedar Beach, and large parts of Ocean Gate would be submerged. In Toms River, even neighborhoods some distance from the nearest waterway, such as Camelot and Parkway Manor, would be expected to flood.
Towns along the Jersey shore, including Margate, Ventnor and Brigantine, would be inundated by rising waters on both sides from nearby small bays and the ocean.
The problems in the north are equally serious. Areas bordering the Hudson River (Jersey City, Hoboken, Weehawken, etc.) They are also facing flooding issues due to rising sea levels.
At the local level, Sweet said viewers can use NOAA’s 2050 sea-level rise trajectory and the 2100 rise scenarios from a federal sea-level rise report from two years ago “in conjunction with the maps to better understand which properties and infrastructure are at increased risk for intermittent flooding and more permanent inundation.”
Housing and flooding
Between 1911 and 2019, sea levels in New Jersey have already risen 1.5 feet along the state’s coast, compared to a global average of 0.5 feet. According to experts at Rutgers University.
“If we continue to emit greenhouse gases, we’re going to see accelerated sea level rise in the future,” Robert Kopp, a climate scientist and professor in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Rutgers University, said Wednesday afternoon about the challenges ahead.
Kopp said that while these emissions cuts would pay dividends later in the century, significant sea level rise is already predicted over the next 20 years.
“That means we have to adapt to sea level rise,” he said, speaking about the massive development taking place along the state’s coastline, “when we think about land use and things like that, when we think about infrastructure and things like that, we have to plan for sea level rise and the climate over the next few decades.”
A Rutgers University analysis provided to NJ Advance Media outlines what future potential flooding could mean for renters and homeowners:
- As of February 2024, of New Jersey’s more than 3 million properties, more than 307,000 are in the 100-year floodplain, meaning land that has a 1 in 100 (1%) chance of flooding each year.
- In this 100-year scenario, over 224,345 of the more than 2.4 million homes would be at risk.
- New Jersey land at risk in a 100-year floodplain scenario has a total true net assessed value of more than $250 billion, of which approximately $156 billion is residential.
NOAA’s Sweet said New Jersey in particular faces a higher-than-average rate of sea level rise due to factors including an increase in tropical and northeast storms. “Subsidence” A gradual or sudden sinking of the Earth’s surface associated with the last ice age.
For further insight into what sea level rise means for your area in New Jersey, check out this map from NOAA. about this website.