WEST LONG BRANCH — Experts said past weather events in New Jersey cannot serve as a blueprint for how the state prepares for the future.
At the first panel of a “Rebuilding A Resilient New Jersey Shore” conference held at Monmouth University today, panelists said that because of rising sea levels, storms less severe than Hurricane Sandy could lead to larger storm surges.
“Because the sea level has risen and is projected to continue to rise, by 2050 another storm less intense than Sandy will be able to generate a higher storm tide along the coast in the New York/New Jersey metro area,” said Megan Linkin, the Vice President of Global Partnerships for Swiss Reinsurance America Holding Corporation in Armonk, N.Y.
Anthony Broccoli, a professor of atmospheric science and director of Climate and Environmental Change Initiative at Rutgers University, said “the rate of sea level rise will likely accelerate during the rest of the 21st century.”
Broccoli said that the sea has risen about 4 mm per year, which is about 16 inches in the past 100 years.
By 2050, Broccoli said the sea level could rise another 16 inches, but it could vary between 11 and 25 inches.
He said we must “recognize the past is not an adequate guide to what is going to happen in the future.”