As a student of drought, I can’t help but feel a little sheepishly overshadowed by hurricanes – I think it was Steve Bloom who coined the description “charismatic megaweather.”So I was happy to see none other than Jeff Masters, the Weather Underground hurricane guy, recognize drought’s importance in his review of the Al Gore movie, …
From the AGU’s Conference of Experts report on hurricanes and the Gulf Coast: The observed trends in SST and hurricane intensity cannot be explained by natural variability alone.
The “consensus monster” again rears its ugly head.
For the low, low price of a morning newspaper you also get my take on whether or not you can expect a good southwestern monsoon this year. The succinct answer? Dunno…. There are forecasters in the National Weather Service’s Albuquerque office who have never seen a really juicy monsoon. You know the kind— towering late-afternoon …
On Greenland warming (hat tip Benny Peiser)
From the National Weather Service PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ALBUQUERQUE NM 734 PM MDT MON JUN 5 2006 …RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES FOR MONDAY JUNE 5 2006… LOCATION HIGH TEMPERATURE PREVIOUS RECORD ———————————————————— TUCUMCARI 103 100 IN 1980 PORTALES 102 TIED 102 IN 1990 DEMING 101 TIED 101 IN 1996 DEMING AIRPORT 100 99 …
Alex Witze has an excellent news piece in Nature this week summing up the back-and-forth on the hurricane-global warming link. It shows the debate leaning in the direction of those arguing for a link, but also suggests how currently unsettled the issue is, and why. I think she gets it just about right. Over in …
Continue reading ‘Journalism, Hurricanes and Climate Change’ »
Despite a not insignificant investment of brain cells, I admit to continued ignorance of the ways of economics. Perhaps some of the smart people who read this blog can help me understand this: Gasoline demand for the four weeks ending May 26 averaged over 9.3 million barrels per day, an increase over last year, despite …
Various stories on the wire today discuss the Chinese government’s attempts to control expanding deserts. What I found interesting was this bit from the Indepedent: A persistent drought in northern parts of China has only added to the problem, sucking moisture from the soil and making it more easily picked up by the wind, officials …
From NASA’s MODIS satellite, an image of spring drought in northern China: You can also see the same thing in the IRI global standardized precipitation index, though on longer time scales the effect is not apparent.