"Global Cooling"
It sure feels that way from here in Austin, Tx. let me tell you! After many, many months of generally above to much above average temperatures, and well-below average rainfall, up and down the I35 corridor in our area got pounded Saturday morning with widespread 6-hour rainfall totals between 4 to as many as 8 inches, with most of the rain gauges within the corridor running through the county picking up about five inches, on average. Over such an expansive area, that is really an awful lot of water falling all at one time, and flash flooding ensued. Roads literally became rivers, and rivers literally became lakes and waterfalls.
Obviously, these weren't any ordinary wintertime thunderstorms (with a "wintertime thunderstorm" coming across as a bit of an oxymoron, to begin with). No, Austin, and much of South Central Texas, spent the early Saturday morning hours in the juicy warm sector, and just south of a very sharp wind shift line and temperature gradient along the impinging cold front. This resulted in storms much much more like those seen during spring. One city just a little south of Austin even had it's local police station whipped about by a stealthy F1 tornado at around 7AM. Official NWS survey here.
This impressive cooldown is sure to rekindle the fires of some in the vocal minority who assert Anthropogenic Global Warming to be a hoax perpetrated on the masses, and who often like to try to argue that just a few years ago the majoritiy of scientists were warning of an impending Global Cooling. While I don't believe that AGW is a hoax, nor that a consensus of climate scientists were ever forecasting another Global Cooling, interestingly, there truly has been a global cooling at work - and not just during the 1970s, but for a couple of decades now - and yes, it has been attributed to human activities.
Because over the past two years twc_aficionados has taken more interest in discussing Global Warming, perhaps along with a similar trend at The Weather Channel (itself and several of their top mets), this community and TWC may be seen by some as having a bias. Consequently, I think it wise to pass along a link to a highly-respected meteorologist not associated with The Weather Channel, or this community. Dr. Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D., Director of Meteorology for The Weather Underground, has just bloggged an excellent entry on the very real, and most probably human-induced, Global Cooling! Warning: It might not be the kind of cooling you were expecting to read about.
Related:
In a surprising move, Exxon has just acknowledged climate change, and recently cut it's funding of CEI.
"We know enough now - or, society knows enough now - that the risk is serious and action should be taken."
-Exxon Vice President for Public Affairs Kenneth Cohen
From The WSJ Online.
Non-subscribers can go here to read the complete article.
Obviously, these weren't any ordinary wintertime thunderstorms (with a "wintertime thunderstorm" coming across as a bit of an oxymoron, to begin with). No, Austin, and much of South Central Texas, spent the early Saturday morning hours in the juicy warm sector, and just south of a very sharp wind shift line and temperature gradient along the impinging cold front. This resulted in storms much much more like those seen during spring. One city just a little south of Austin even had it's local police station whipped about by a stealthy F1 tornado at around 7AM. Official NWS survey here.
This impressive cooldown is sure to rekindle the fires of some in the vocal minority who assert Anthropogenic Global Warming to be a hoax perpetrated on the masses, and who often like to try to argue that just a few years ago the majoritiy of scientists were warning of an impending Global Cooling. While I don't believe that AGW is a hoax, nor that a consensus of climate scientists were ever forecasting another Global Cooling, interestingly, there truly has been a global cooling at work - and not just during the 1970s, but for a couple of decades now - and yes, it has been attributed to human activities.
Because over the past two years twc_aficionados has taken more interest in discussing Global Warming, perhaps along with a similar trend at The Weather Channel (itself and several of their top mets), this community and TWC may be seen by some as having a bias. Consequently, I think it wise to pass along a link to a highly-respected meteorologist not associated with The Weather Channel, or this community. Dr. Jeffrey Masters, Ph.D., Director of Meteorology for The Weather Underground, has just bloggged an excellent entry on the very real, and most probably human-induced, Global Cooling! Warning: It might not be the kind of cooling you were expecting to read about.
Related:
In a surprising move, Exxon has just acknowledged climate change, and recently cut it's funding of CEI.
"We know enough now - or, society knows enough now - that the risk is serious and action should be taken."
-Exxon Vice President for Public Affairs Kenneth Cohen
From The WSJ Online.
Non-subscribers can go here to read the complete article.