Separate Beaufort County reality from forecast on sea-level rise
Your newspaper does a disservice by publishing frightening forecasts of sea levels rising without also providing actual current data.
Fortunately NOAA (and its predecessors) have measured actual sea level in Calibogue Sound four times per day since the late 1800s. The current rate of rise is 3.23 mm per year, or about one tenth the recently published forecast.
Actual sea level data are readily available on the NOAA website. The rate of rise has not changed significantly in the lifetime of anyone living on Hilton Head Island. Moreover, NOAA data do not show sea levels actually rising at anywhere near the published forecast at any place on the East Coast. So consider such alarming forecasts with skepticism.
Tom Tomfohrde
Hilton Head Island
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