Hamilton's Weather

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by adam

If nobody will sell you house insurance for a property, you are basically agreeing to all associated risks with owning that property. Or do people think that other tax payers should be on the hook?

It is not that they will not sell you insurance, they will not sell you flood insurance. You can get full insurance on everything else for a flood prone house; just don’t claim anything for flooding.
One person interviewed on TV as he ripped out carpets from his basement stated it was his 6th time being flooded out. Duh! What part of you don’t finish the pool do you not get! Why should the city pay because he is to stupid to figure out that you do not finish a flood prone basement or he needs to spend more money on flood proofing his basement before finishing it?

[highwater]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

Lukasik kinda contradicts herself here.

I don't see the contradiction, myself. The impact that unchecked mountain development has on flooding has more to do with the fact that there is less and less open ground to absorb the rainwater, than whether the houses are connected to the sewers or not.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by adam

If nobody will sell you house insurance for a property, you are basically agreeing to all associated risks with owning that property. Or do people think that other tax payers should be on the hook?

And what if nobody will sell you insurance because of repeated flooding over a number of years? What if you have been dutifully paying your taxes and expecting appropriate sewer service, but are now left holding the bag because of the city's demonstrated prolonged negligence?

[SteelTown]

Think we still would have gotten a flood even if the entire sewer line was replaced? I believe so, Red Hill got flooded and it has a brand new sewer line. It's not like 100 to 130mm of rain within a few hours is an every day occurance.

[drpgq]

Originally Posted by BCTed

And what if nobody will sell you insurance because of repeated flooding over a number of years? What if you have been dutifully paying your taxes and expecting appropriate sewer service, but are now left holding the bag because of the city's demonstrated prolonged negligence?

I'm perfectly fine with that. Any number of things could happen that could hinder the value a real estate investment has. If you can't stand the risk, don't buy.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by drpgq

I'm perfectly fine with that. Any number of things could happen that could hinder the value a real estate investment has. If you can't stand the risk, don't buy.

You are fine with negligence on the part of the city? For a good number of people, the risk was supposed to have been mitigated by sewer back-up insurance, but that has been taken away because of inadequate infrastructure.

[BCTed]

Originally Posted by LikeHamilton

It is not that they will not sell you insurance, they will not sell you flood insurance. You can get full insurance on everything else for a flood prone house; just don’t claim anything for flooding.
One person interviewed on TV as he ripped out carpets from his basement stated it was his 6th time being flooded out. Duh! What part of you don’t finish the pool do you not get! Why should the city pay because he is to stupid to figure out that you do not finish a flood prone basement or he needs to spend more money on flood proofing his basement before finishing it?

This person should not have a flood-prone basement. He should have the right to place whatever he wants in his basement without fear of municipal sewage entering his home. As far as I know, there is no such thing as a flood-proof basement.

[FairHamilton]

Originally Posted by BCTed

This person should not have a flood-prone basement. He should have the right to place whatever he wants in his basement without fear of municipal sewage entering his home. As far as I know, there is no such thing as a flood-proof basement.

I agree we should demand the city have sufficient infrastructure to prevent flooding.

Though I also think those who have suffered from repeated flooding should also be required to have reverse flow valves installed. The city offers interest free loans paid through property taxes for lead pipe replacement. Why not offer something similar to all those who've received flood payments from the city?

I realize they are not 100% effective (not much in life is), but I think having these installed would significantly lower flooding. Then if there's flooding again, and the house does not have a valve that person is on their own.

[SteelTown]

The heat is coming....

Warm, humid days scheduled to start Sunday
Rain in the forecast for Hamilton

August 08, 2009
Torstar News Service and The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/614821

The weather forecast is calling for something unusual Sunday: a hot, muggy, summery day.

Given this summer’s unseasonably cool climes, a “typical” balmy August afternoon might come as a shock to the system.

“A hot and humid air mass will make its way into Southern Ontario on Sunday bringing with it the stickiest weather we have experienced so far this summer,” said a special weather statement from Environment Canada.

When the mercury creeps up to 30 C Sunday, with humidity making it feel closer to 40 C, long-dormant air conditioners will sputter to life, Popsicle sales will skyrocket and people will have something new to make small talk about.

In Hamilton, The Weather Network is forecasting light rain Saturday evening and thunderstorms overnight, before the humidity comes with a risk of thunderstorms on Sunday.

Anywhere from 15 to 20 mm of rain could fall on the city from Saturday evening to Sunday afternoon.

“Instead of complaining about the cool and the wet we’ll complain about the heat and the haze,” joked David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. “Notice we’ll still be complaining, though – that seems natural for Canadians.”

Some complaining will likely be warranted, since Sunday could well be the hottest day of the summer so far.

Only one day this summer, June 24, has seen temperatures crest 30 C. Sunday is expected to be muggier, and it could be the first of many sticky days.

“We may have more summer in the next two weeks than we’ve had in the past two months,” Phillips said.

Temperatures are expected to drop slightly by Tuesday, but then climb back into the high-20s later this week.

The belated arrival of summer could be the much-anticipated boon that cottagers and farmers have been hoping for, said Phillips.

“All the rain we’ve had will be evaporating,” he said. “The corn will get sweeter, the tomatoes will get plumper and the grapes will start sweetening up. And the lakes and pools might finally warm up for swimming.”

Though autumn is creeping ever-closer, Phillips says heat-lovers are in store for a brief but powerful blast of summer.

“It may be one of the shortest summers we’ve had on record,” he said. “But at least it will be something different from what we’ve had for a while.

[SteelTown]

Hamilton issues heat advisory today.


http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/619570
^ That's pure gold haha. A true Hamiltonian haha, leopard swim suit, cigarette in one hand, Tim Hortons cup in the sand, her 10 or so kids probably swimming in the water, and over 250 pounds. HAHA

[realcity]

^ hilarious

that doesn't look like a good way to stay cool.

i would say this is where you go

o i forgot we're 'de-malling' because that's such a good urban plan. Even the city website says go to a shopping mall to stay cool.

[mic67]

Well I made it through last summer without using the 5,000 BTU ( thats British thermal units) window AC, although I had ceiling fans. Given the forecast I sweat pretty good installing the window unit. I think that is is designed for about 200sq ft but am using it for 600 sq ft. It is not so much the reduction in temp. - I am monitoring that but the reduction in Humidity making it comfortable. When using the AC with a ceiling fan you get the wind chill effect - think winter, thus reducing the need for greater consumption of power by the AC unit for the same relative effect. In former residences and rental units ceiling fans were installed in all rooms. Canadian tire had 5 paddle 42 inch fans for $25 on sale over a year (off season) ago I bought 5 of them (now priced at about $59). Installing them is no joy, and probably the reason for not getting them, Depending on the install I would charge any where from 70 to 300. For a bedroom besides the floor the only other upgrade possible to the room would be a ceiling fan - really a good/great/best investment.

The unit fit relatively tight and I used plumbing insulation foam to fill in the gaps. You can increase the width by laterally adding it around one another works great.

mic67

[hamtransithistory]

Something doesn't sound right regarding a certain RHCP stormwater pond.

The Hamilton Spectator reported that "According to Environment Canada, 24-hour accumulation in Hamilton is 50.1 mm, 33 mm of which fell between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. today. "

33 mm over 6 hrs is an average of 5.5mm/hr. If the rainfall was fairly evenly spread over the 6 hrs, then this is below even the 2 yr storm described below. I don't have the specs at hand, but I would think that a freeway stormwater pond would be designed using either a 50-yr or 100-yr design storm.

If that 33 mm really all came down in less than 15 minutes, then that's a rate of 132 mm/hr, which may have exceeded the design of the pond.

Of course, It's the rate of runoff that's entering the pond that is the key to all this, not just the rate of rainfall. I don't know the local terrain features such as slope of the land and ground permeability. And we did have flooding 3 days prior, so the ground would still be fairly wet. Wish I was part of the team that'll investigate this pond, I'd like to know what's going on.

Originally Posted by hamtransithistory

A few comments on rain and flooding

Probably the most misunderstood concept is that of the "x-year storm". This does not mean a storm that only happens once every x years, and so if it happens a couple of times in a relatively short while it can't be a "x-year storm"

What it really means is a storm that the probability of it occurring in a given year is 1/x. So the odds of a 100 yr storm is 1/100, or 1%. The reason that it's called a 100 year storm is that over the span of hundreds of years, this should average out to once per hundred years. But you can still have them back to back.

Another thing is that there are several different types of 100 yr storm. Using historical data a model of rainfall in a given area is created. Its called an Intensity-Duration-Frequency curve, or IDF. It describes three things
1)how heavily does it rain (intensity)
2)how long does it rain for (duration)
3)how often does this happen (frequency)

Unfortunately our records do not go far enough back in a lot of cases to give accurate data for very large events, as this part of the world has only been settled for 200 yrs, and accurate record keeping is a lot shorter than that. Large events are generally modelled by extrapolating from the smaller events. Below is data for Hamilton from Environment Canada

DURATION 2 YR 5 YR 10 YR 25 YR 50 YR 100 YR
5 MIN 107.5 139.4 160.5 187.2 206.9 226.6
10 MIN 76.2 101.8 118.7 140.1 156.0 171.8
15 MIN 61.7 82.7 96.6 114.2 127.2 140.1
30 MIN 41.4 55.2 64.4 75.9 84.5 93.0
1 H 25.1 35.4 42.3 50.9 57.3 63.7
2 H 14.9 21.5 25.9 31.4 35.5 39.6
6 H 6.4 9.0 10.7 12.9 14.5 16.1
12 H 3.7 5.0 5.9 7.1 7.9 8.8
24 H 2.1 2.9 3.4 4.0 4.5 4.9

What this describes is that for any given year in Hamilton, the odds are 1/100 (1%) that a storm lasting 5 minutes will rain at a rate of 226.6 mm/hr, a storm lasting 10 minutes will rain at a rate of 171.8 mm/hr, and so on. So there are several different types of 100 year storm, depending on how long each one lasts. Notice that these are rates of rainfall, not amount of rainfall. To get the amount, multiply the rate by the duration (226.6 mm/hr * 5/60 hr =18.9 mm)

The amount of runoff created by a rainstorm depends on a lot of different factors.
-intensity of the rainfall (Heavy rainfalls don't have a chance to soak into the ground)
-slope of the terrain (water ponds on flat ground, races away on steep slopes)
-type of ground (asphalt is virtually waterproof, while dirt will soak up water)
-how wet the ground already is
-density of vegetation (tall grass will help hold back water, short grass doesn't)

As was mentioned in today's Spectator, a 50 yr rainstorm can produce a 100 yr flood, depending on if the ground is wet. But comparing old floods to current ones is not that helpful, because we've altered the landscape so much in the last few decades by development. Storms that caused heavy flooding 100 years ago may not cause it today, and vice versa.

[c@taract_soulj@h]

We've had three heavy rains, one last year and two this year (in about a week) that have shut down the Red Hill Parkway...is this normal with so much rain in such a short period of time, or do we need to dig deeper trenches around the roadway to accomodate mother nature? My philosophy is that no one really considers flooding as the first major mishap but there's a first for everything I suppose.

[c@taract_soulj@h]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Hamilton issues heat advisory today.


http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/619570
^ That's pure gold haha. A true Hamiltonian haha, leopard swim suit, cigarette in one hand, Tim Hortons cup in the sand, her 10 or so kids probably swimming in the water, and over 250 pounds. HAHA

c@taract_souljah likes this ...umm, the description anyways lol mind you if you're a true Hammertonian

[realcity]

I think that might be Burlington's Beachway Park

[SteelTown]

Brace yourself......

Fierce windstorm heading to Ontario

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/ar...ing-to-ontario

Batten the hatches.

A fall storm the likes of which most of Ontario has not seen since the night the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank 35 years ago is headed for central Ontario, bringing warnings about high winds and gusty conditions for Hamilton, Halton and Niagara.

Environment Canada said early Tuesday the unseasonably intense, cyclonic storm rolling out of Minnesota into Northwestern Ontario tonight will affect most of the province

To put it bluntly, the agency says “both the wind and the werewolves will be howling over the next couple of days, as a pre-Halloween storm scares the province.”

The U.S National Weather Service in Romeoville, Ill., said the storm has a projected central pressure, a measure of its atmospheric strength, forecast to be 28.35 inches. That would make it the second most severe system to strike the Great Lakes, the service says.

Waves on Lake Superior could reach nine metres.

The Edmund Fitzgerald sank Nov. 10, 1975, in Lake Superior about 17 miles north-northwest of Whitefish Point, Mich., taking 29 lives. That storm had a central pressure of 28.95 inches. The strongest storm recorded in the lakes was the “Great Ohio Blizzard” of January 1978, which had a central pressure of 28.05 inches.

For Hamilton, Halton and Toronto the winds mean there may be some difficulty driving in gusts reaching 80 km/h.

Wind warnings may follow later today.

[SteelTown]

Gonna get tons of snow tonight. It's the first snow blizzard warning since 1993.

[SteelTown]

Possible Hamilton tornado

http://chch.com/index.php/home/item/...milton-tornado

Officials from Environment Canada will be the the Hamilton area today looking for signs of tornado touchdowns.

Emergency Management Ontario declared a red alert around 1:30 this morning after Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for the Hamilton area.

Hundreds of trees were damaged, hydro lines were knocked down and underpasses flooded as an intense band of thunderstorms moved through the area.

Environment Canada will focus their search for tornado damage on the West Mountain and in North Hamilton.

[SteelTown]

That storm woke me up around 1:00am. Rain was pounding against my window.