Archive for the ‘Climate Change’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Weather Weather Everywhere and Not A Plan in Sight

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

It is hard to get people impressed with the size of the disaster flooding over Australia’s north east province of Queensland. Should Texas and California be similarly flooded Americans would think the world was coming to an end. That’s about the equivalence in territory affected, some 350,000 square miles, or half of the entire province.

Weeks of rain destroyed cotton crops, halted coal deliveries, shut mines and prompted BHP Billiton Ltd., Xstrata Plc, Rio Tinto Group and Peabody Energy Corp. to declare force majeure, a legal clause allowing them to miss contracted deliveries.

Missed Royalty Payments

In addition to the rebuilding cost, the state will miss royalty payments from those mines, with Fraser estimating it may take three months for some to resume normal production.

Queensland, which accounts for about 20 percent of Australia’s A$1.3 trillion ($1.3 trillion) economy, expects the impact on the state’s finances to eclipse the A$800 million it spent on natural disasters last year, Fraser said on Jan. 1.

Maybe flooding of such proportions is too abstract? Maybe it’s just water? How about this to get some reality embedded?

Stranded Kangaroo in Queensland Flooding

From Climate Progress

One of the most basic predictions of climate science is that global warming will cause more intense precipitation. As Dr. Kevin Trenberth, head of the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, explained it, “there is a systematic influence on all of these weather events now-a-days because of the fact that there is this extra water vapor lurking around in the atmosphere than there used to be say 30 years ago. It’s about a 4% extra amount, it invigorates the storms, it provides plenty of moisture for these storms and it’s unfortunate that the public is not associating these with the fact that this is one manifestation of climate change. And the prospects are that these kinds of things will only get bigger and worse in the future.”

Last year appears to have been the hottest year on record — and it saw an astonishing amount of intense rainfall from Nashville’s ‘Katrina’ to the great Pakistani deluge.” And so it should be no surprise that the year ends with another unprecedented deluge of “biblical proportion.”

Oh, and by the way, New Zealand is not doing so well, either. The north end of the South Island has had it’s worst flooding in 150 years.

Motueka River in New Zealand five hours apart on December 28, 2010

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: , ,
Posted in Climate Change, Environment | Comments Off

More Warmth More Snow

Tuesday, December 28th, 2010

From Wunderground:

The remarkable Post-Christmas blizzard of 2010 has ended for the United States, as the storm has trekked northeastward into Canada. The blizzard dropped epic amounts of snow during its rampage up the U.S. Northeast coast Sunday and Monday, with an incredible 32″ falling in Rahway, New Jersey, about 15 miles southwest of New York City. The highest populated areas of New Jersey received over two feet of snow, including the Newark Airport, which received 24.1″. Snowfall amounts were slightly lower across New York City. The blizzard of 2010 dumped 20.0″ inches on New York City’s Central Park, making it the 6th largest snowstorm for the city in recorded history, and the second top-ten snowstorm this year. Remarkably, New York City has had four of its top-ten snowfalls in the past decade (highlighted in the list below.) According to the National Weather Service, the top ten snowstorms on record for New York City’s Central Park since 1869 should now read:

1) 26.9″ Feb 11-12, 2006
2) 26.4″ Dec 26-27, 1947
3) 21.0″ Mar 12-14, 1888
4) 20.8″ Feb 25-26, 2010
5) 20.2″ Jan 7-8, 1996
6) 20.0″ Dec 26-27, 2010
7) 19.8″ Feb 16-17, 2003
8 ) 18.1″ Mar 7-8, 1941
9) 17.7″ Feb 5-7, 1978
10) 17.6″ Feb 11-12, 1983

Snow in Manhattan’s East Village December 27, 2010

But what does this say about Climate Change?

Changnon et al. (2006) found that for the contiguous U.S. between 1900 – 2001, 61% – 80% of all heavy snowstorms of 6+ inches occurred during winters with above normal temperatures. The authors also found that 61% – 85% of all heavy snowstorms of 6+ inches occurred during winters that were wetter than average. The authors conclude, “a future with wetter and warmer winters, which is one outcome expected (National Assessment Synthesis Team 2001), will bring more heavy snowstorms of 6+ inches than in 1901 – 2000.”

Interesting map of such storms in the link.

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: , ,
Posted in Climate Change, Environment | Comments Off

Gobal Surface Temperature Keeps Rising: Japan Meteorlogical Agency

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

21 December 2010
Japan Meteorological Agency

Global Temperature in 2010 Most Likely Second Warmest
(preliminary)

The annual anomaly of the global average surface temperature in 2010 (i.e., the average of the near-surface air temperature over land and the sea surface temperature) is estimated at 0.36°C* above normal (based on the 1971 – 2000 average), most likely to become the second warmest record since 1891 (Figure 1, Table 1).

* Note: This value (hence its rank in the record, either) is subject to change, because at the moment of this announcement it is only a preliminary result that was calculated based on temperature observations for the period of January to November in 2010.

High temperature deviations were noticeable especially in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to most of the land surface over the world except in Central Asia (Figure 2).

On a longer time scale, the annual global average surface temperature has been rising at a rate of about 0.68°C per century.

The average temperature over land is expected to hit the warmest record.

Full Report (PDF)

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: ,
Posted in Climate Change, Environment | Comments Off

If We’re Warming Why Is It So Cold?

Sunday, December 26th, 2010

As last year, the climate change deniers are chortling into their snugglies:  If we’re warming (like the commies claim) why is it so cold?  Why has there been record cold in northern Europe?  Why is there snow in Georgia, USA?

The answer is interesting, and instructive.  Sort of like answering the question, If I have a fever why do I get the chills?

In the past two decades, snow cover has expanded across the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, especially in Siberia, just north of a series of exceptionally high mountain ranges, including the Himalayas, the Tien Shan and the Altai.

The high topography of Asia influences the atmosphere in profound ways. The jet stream, a river of fast-flowing air five to seven miles above sea level, bends around Asia’s mountains in a wavelike pattern, much as water in a stream flows around a rock or boulder. The energy from these atmospheric waves, like the energy from a sound wave, propagates both horizontally and vertically.

As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. So the snow cover across Siberia in the fall has steadily increased.

The sun’s energy reflects off the bright white snow and escapes back out to space. As a result, the temperature cools. When snow cover is more abundant in Siberia, it creates an unusually large dome of cold air next to the mountains, and this amplifies the standing waves in the atmosphere, just as a bigger rock in a stream increases the size of the waves of water flowing by.

The increased wave energy in the air spreads both horizontally, around the Northern Hemisphere, and vertically, up into the stratosphere and down toward the earth’s surface. In response, the jet stream, instead of flowing predominantly west to east as usual, meanders more north and south. In winter, this change in flow sends warm air north from the subtropical oceans into Alaska and Greenland, but it also pushes cold air south from the Arctic on the east side of the Rockies. Meanwhile, across Eurasia, cold air from Siberia spills south into East Asia and even southwestward into Europe.

There’s more in the Judah Cohen article in the NY Times

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: , ,
Posted in Climate Change, Environment | Comments Off

390 And Rising

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

A sketch of the founding father of global warming science, Charles Keeling, in today’s NY Times. As a young man he was the first to figure out how to measure the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere.  It was 310 parts per million (ppm).  The year he died, 2005, it had risen to 380 ppm.

The temperature of the air and the ocean, averaged over the world, is following this rise.

At midnight Mauna Loa time, the carbon dioxide level hit 390 — and rising.

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: ,
Posted in Climate Change | Comments Off

Weather Events and Weather Records

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

Let’s see:

Record Setting Cold in in UK

What looks to be the coldest December on record is causing misery for travelers in the United Kingdom and across Europe. Thousands were forced to sleep at Heathrow and Gatwick airports after hotels filled up when most airplanes were grounded due to the ice and snow. Heathrow was shut down Saturday

Record-Setting Storm in Minnesota

December 10–11, 2010, was unusual. Bringing 17.1 inches of snow to the Twin Cities International Airport, the blizzard was the largest December storm on recordfor the Minneapolis/St. Paul region, and the fifth largest snowstorm on record for any time

Panama Canal Closed from Heavy Rains

The Panama Canal closed for 17 hours in early December 2010, only the third time in its 96-year history. Authorities closed the canal after heavy rains raised two artificial lakes associated with it, Alajuela and Gatun, to unprecedented levels.The heavy rains occurred in a persistent low-pressure area along the Intertropical Convergence Zone where winds from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres meet and fuel strong storms. The canal-closing rains in Panama continued a pattern ofheavy rain in Central and South America from the previous month.

Columbia Flooding Affects Millions

Heavy rains have continued to hit Colombia where two million people have been affected by widespread flooding

[Help Colombianos at UNICEF]

Flooding in Southern Spain

Severe winter weather that coated Great Britain and Ireland with snow also caused flooding in southern Spain in early December 2010. One child was killed when a flash flood overwhelmed the vehicle in which he was riding, according to news reports. Meanwhile, roughly two meters (6 feet) of water submerged parts of the historic center of Écija, forcing authorities to evacuate about 3,000 people.

There’s more but this will remind us all what is going on…

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: ,
Posted in Climate Change, Environment | Comments Off

Climate Change – Ravaging Adélie Penguins

Sunday, December 12th, 2010

In a book review of Fraser’s Penguins we get the bare, scary facts.  As with spotted owls or the Abra Malage Toad, the issue is not only the species itself, or its cuddliness or non cuddliness, but the chain of being of which they are a part, as are we.

Bill Fraser has been closely observing and recording the habits of birds near Palmer Station for 35 years. Such depth of experience allowed him to notice some troubling changes. Adélie penguin colonies, and the brown skuas that depend on them for sustenance, were rapidly declining; chinstrap penguins were moving in; and the population of fur seals and leopard seals was on the rise. What was going on?

Laboriously pondering factors biological and meteorological, Fraser eventually linked local Adélie declines with the cascade effects of warmer winter air and sea temperatures along the peninsula. Higher temperatures bring more snow, which delays the start of mating and nesting season, which results in smaller penguin chicks and a higher mortality rate. Warmer seas reduce the extent of sea ice, which krill (penguin food) depend on and Adélies rest upon before launching foraging trips into the Southern Ocean.

Tragedy in Black and White

Print Friendly Print Get a PDF version of this webpage PDF

Tags: , ,
Posted in Books, Climate Change, Science & Technology | Comments Off

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »