Category Archives: Climate Change

Europe Is Underwater

There is some massive flooding in Central Europe.  Some areas of Austria got as much rain in two days as they normally get in two and a half months.  There are 100 year floods in many areas, some of which had a 100 year flood back in 2002.  100 years ain’t what it used to be.  The Danube River is higher than it has been in over 500 years.

Once again, we have an abnormal jet stream pattern to blame.  Cold air from the north follows the jet stream down to meet the warm Mediterenan air from the south and lots of rain results along the edges of the jet stream.  How much rain?  Some places got up to 9.8″!

Abnormal is quickly becoming the new normal.  100 year events are happening on an almost monthly basis at this point.  Still no action from Congress on climate change.

106 Degrees In Iowa

Sioux City, Iowa hit 106 degrees yesterday.  This after getting an unprecedented snowfall earlier in the month.  Temperatures rose 77 degrees in only 56 hours.

Chicago officially hit 91 degrees after being at 36 degrees the previous morning.  That makes it the highest temperature swing ever recorded for May.

Many other 100+ degree temperatures were recorded.  The highest was 108 in Broken Bow, Iowa.

The extreme temperatures are due to an extreme jet stream.  There is a huge bow in the jet stream allowing cold air to flood in from Canada and behind that bow is a giant surge of warm air that stretches north to Canada.  The jet stream does look like this from time to time during the summer and it’s usually how the most violent summer storms come to be.  A jet stream configuration like this happening in May is extremely unusual.

Tree Splooge

All the trees here in Chicago are budding and it’s slightly rainy and a bit windy.  That means tree splooge is everywhere.  Those of us who are unlucky enough to have parked outside need a tree splooge towel to wipe off our cars.  Budding trees will have distinctive bud/pollen rings around them come morning.  It’s a little disgusting but it’s all part of the normal cycle.

Spring is kind of amazing.  The world takes on this sickly sweet smell wherever you go.  With all of the trees coming out of hibernation, the carbon dioxide in the air actually precipitously drops.  The earth has a breath rhythm and that breath rhythm is increasing:

co2_data_mlo

Source

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to increased temperatures.  Increased temperatures leads to more erratic weather.  More erratic weather leads to more disasters.

Increased carbon dioxide is only good for plants up to a point just like increased oxygen is only good for humans up to a point.  If oxygen were increasing the way carbon dioxide is we’d be terrified.  Too much oxygen in the air and someone lights a cigarette and the entire world explodes.  Carbon dioxide isn’t as dramatic.  It’s a creeper.  There are so many places to store the excess heat that carbon dioxide creates that people don’t realize there’s something wrong.  But there is something wrong and special interests have hijacked rational debate.

97% of climate scientists say there is something wrong but the 3% that say there isn’t anything wrong get equal (or even more) time in the media.  This creates a dynamic where people believe there is a vigorous scientific debate going on where there really isn’t.

The ice caps are melting dramatically.  Air temperatures are slowly rising.  The ocean is incomprehensibly vast and has the ability to absorb a lot of the generated heat.  At some point, that will end and the air temperature will rise precipitously.  It may already be too late to stop this.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act.

Is It Hot In Here Or Is It Just Me?

Or…It’s getting hot in here so take off all your clothes.

The Earth is getting warmer.  The Earth is getting warmer faster than ever before.  Much faster.  The line of increase has a slope much closer to infinity than it does to zero.  In a rational world, this information would be devastating.  We don’t live in a rational world and we definitely don’t live in a rational country.  Our country is stuck with people who sit on our science committees and think the Earth is 6,000 years old and evolution is “controversial” and climate change is unproven and seem to think that science is a scam like homeopathy.

If we don’t do something soon we are doomed.  And by “we” I mean people living on the coasts mostly.  But there can’t be more than a billion of them so I’m sure it won’t be that big of a deal.  People away from the coasts will just have to deal with alternating torrential rains and droughts and various other weather anomalies.  Again, no big deal.

Gone, Baby, Gone

Good news from the Arctic Ocean!  I’m just kidding, there is never good news from the Arctic Ocean unless you happen to own a shipping company.  The Arctic sea ice is even lower than the direst of predictions.

In 1979, there were 16,855 cubic kilometers of sea ice during the sea ice minimum.  In 2012, just 3,261 cubic kilometers.  That’s down 80% in 33 years.  Scientists are now predicting an ice free summer for the Arctic ocean in as a decade from now.

There is very little we can do at this point to save the Arctic ice.  It’s as good as gone.  That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do anything to prevent future warming, though.  We might not be able to save the Arctic, but we can still save ourselves.

Hurricane Sandy: Take Two

The extremely strange weather continues.  There is an extratropical storm rapidly gaining strength in the Northern Atlantic.  This storm is associated with a low pressure system that is normally only found in category four hurricanes.  Luckily, this storm is not predicted to hit land before it falls apart so the only ones in danger are ships.  That doesn’t mean that it hasn’t affected land, though.  It has dumped 6″ of snow in Maryland.  Small potatoes compared to the feet of snow that the recent record breaking Great Lakes cold snap has generated.

Very few extratropical storms have ever been recorded with as low a pressure as this one.  We can expect more of events like this as the planet continues to warm.  We are like ostriches with our head in the sand.  If ostriches actually stuck their heads in the sand.  Which they don’t.  Which, I guess, is strangely appropriate for climate change.  There are lots of people that believe ostriches do stick their heads in the sand even though a little research would prove otherwise and there are lots of people that believe climate change isn’t real even though a little research would also prove otherwise.

The Streak Is Over

Chicago officially had 1.1″ inches of snow today.  That means the new record for longest number of days without at least an inch of snow will stand at 335 days.  For now.

Since it didn’t make it to an inch of snow where I live, I am going to say that the streak hasn’t been broken.  Who does O’Hare Airport think he is pretending to be the official weather station of Chicago?  I declare the official weather station to be my deck!

Bas-Relief Great Lakes

Weather can often provide us with images of striking beauty.  Often, the most beautiful pictures come from the deadliest of storms.  Here, though, we have an image of the Great Lakes in the middle of a cold snap.  That is just gorgeous.  Notice how the lakes appear almost hollow.  The other cool thing is how the clouds look like streamers being blown by the wind.  That phenomenon is called “cloud streets”.  Follow the link for a great explanation of what is going on to make those clouds.

All those clouds are producing large amounts of lake effect snow.  How large?  Up to 38″ in some parts!  After the hottest year on record, the Great Lakes are unusually warm.  Cold air blowing over warm water is a recipe for even more broken records.  More broken records equals more extreme weather.  More extreme weather means more global warming.

Snot Freezing Weather

Yesterday was cold.  Today is snot freezing weather.  That’s when you step outside and take your first breath of cold air and everything inside your nose freezes.  It’s also when you know you really shouldn’t be outside.

This is really the first snot freezing event we’ve had this winter.  Given that it’s already January 22nd, it’s well overdue.  Not that I’ve missed it.  It looks like tomorrow will still be cold but above snot freezing.  One day isn’t so bad.

We’re still waiting for a major snow event.  We’ve already broken the record for latest 1″ snowfall in a season set in 1899.  Additionally, it’s been 330 days without a snowfall of at least 1″.  One month to go before we’ve officially gone a whole year without an inch of snow.  There’s a small chance of snow on Friday, but other than that the forecast is more of the same.

Something ain’t right folks.  It seems like every other day we’re shattering 100 year weather records.  The time to act is now.

Top Ten Weather Stories of 2012

Jeff Master’s WunderBlog has a list of the top weather stories of 2012.  The weather was a mess throughout the world in 2012.

Only including billion dollar or higher disasters, close to 400 people died from weather related injuries in the U.S., over 500 in China, over 400 in Pakistan died in a flood, and 1900 died in the Philippines from Super Typhoon Bopha.  Europe had one of it’s worst cold snaps ever, killing over 800 people.  Santa Claus is going to have to move or invest in floatation devices since ice at the North Pole continues it’s drastic decline.  I would suggest he move to Greenland, but it’s also melting so fast it might actually be green soon.  The Northern Hemisphere experienced record summer heat and is still in a major drought.

Year after year of increasing extreme weather and we continue to do nothing.  It’s not like we can stop polluting today and this stuff will stop tomorrow.  The damage we’re doing today will be felt for a decade or more.  Denialist continue to win the day, though.  I would say evidence for global warming is mounting, but it’s been a mountain of evidence for years.  We’re just adding grains of sand at this point.