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.
Steve B, in the comments, points to an AP story about a new study in Science Friday by Fu et al. on what they say is evidence that the jet stream is creeping poleward. They only hint at the implications in the paper, noting that “the poleward shift of the jet streams and the associated …
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was incredibly pleased with the questions we got today for the drought chat over at the ABQJournal web site. My favorite bit: Amanda: Are we able to predict when there will be a serious problem with NM’s water supply? John Fleck: The short answer is “no.” The …
I’m the guinea pig for an on-line chat experiment at the office. My chosen topic is drought science, of course. Join us tomorrow (Thurs. 5/25) at 1:00 p.m. MDT, or send in your questions early.