On the heels of Europe’s remarkable summer of 2003, last autumn and winter were anomalously warm – as much as three standard deviations from normal, likely the warmest in 500 years, according to Luterbacher et. al in GRL. ((Exceptional European warmth of autumn 2006 and winter 2007: Historical context, the underlying dynamics, and its phenological impacts, Luterbacher et al., GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 34, L12704, doi:10.1029/2007GL029951, 2007)) The coolest (pardon the pun) part:
Phenological impacts related to this warmth included some plant species having a partial second flowering or extended flowering till the beginning of winter. Species that typically flower in early spring were found to have a distinct earlier flowering after winter 2007.
A group of climate modelers at Lawrence Livermore and elsewhere has taken issue (in the peer-reviewed literature) with an argument made by Roger Pielke Sr. and others that the models cannot adequately explain variability in ocean temperatures:
Using simulations of 20th century climate performed with 13 numerical models, we demonstrate that the apparent discrepancy between modeled and observed variability is largely explained by accounting for changes in observational coverage and instrumentation and by including the effects of volcanic eruptions. Our work casts doubt on two recent claims: (i) that the 0- to 700-m layer of the global ocean experienced a substantial OHC decrease over the 2003 to 2005 time period and (ii) that models cannot replicate such changes. Our analysis shows that the 2003–2005 cooling is largely an artifact of a systematic change in the observing system, with the deployment of Argo floats reducing a warm bias in the original observing system.
Simulated and observed variability in ocean temperature and heat content, AchutaRao et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 10.1073/pnas.0611375104
Conditions in Georgia are not the worst you’ll find in the southeast, but they look plenty bad – so bad that in this age of cool URL’s, someone down there had the foresight to register GeorgiaDrought.org. From last week’s drought monitor:
In Alabama, 68 percent of the cotton crop, 48 percent of peanuts, and 78 percent of pastures are in poor or very poor condition, as are 60 percent of Florida peanuts and 35 percent of Georgia cotton. The proportion of pastures in poor or very poor condition ranges from almost half to more than three-quarters in six southeastern states (MS, KY, TN, FL, GA, and AL) while four additional adjacent states (WV, IN, SC, and NC) report at least one-quarter of pastures in poor or very poor condition.
In a problem that is pervasive in much of China, over-farming has drawn down the water table so low that desert is overtaking farmland. Authorities have ordered farmers here in Gansu province to vacate their properties over the next 3 1/2 years, and will replace 20 villages with newly planted grass in a final effort to halt the advance of the Tengger and Badain Jaran deserts.
“I don’t want to move,” said Chen Ying, 58, sitting in a sparsely furnished bedroom dominated by a red, wall-sized poster of Mao, the communist founding father who sought to catapult Chinese farming and industry into modernity with the so-called Great Leap Forward.
“But if we keep using the groundwater, it will decline,” said Chen. “We have to think about the next generation.”
The photographer known as bhaskins1 offers up some great evidence that Albuquerque is warming to the idea of throwing its collective bicycle on the train for its morning commute.
. (Check out the other bike photos taken by bhaskins1.)
Here’s the worst part: As I rushed back into the house to tell Liz, I couldn’t stop thinking that this was going to make a good column.
Once again, Philip Roth came to mind. He said nothing that happens to someone who writes for a living is bad because everything that happens is material. He’s right.
The corollary is that nothing that happens to someone who writes happens outside of the context of thinking about writing about it.
real climate II: I saw on yesterday’s bike ride that the Rio Grande is back down, under 1,300 cubic feet per second through Albuquerque, exposing some beautiful sandbars. The official high was 94 F (34.5 C) in Albuquerque, 99 F (37 F) on the urban heat island at my house.
My attempt at sketching in the background behind the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee’s proposed cuts in the U.S. nuclear weapons program:
Nuclear weapons spending has long seemed an entitlement for New Mexico.
With two of the nation’s three nuclear weapons laboratories located here, a big chunk of the U.S. nuclear weapons budget is inevitably spent in the state.
But a restive Congress, uneasy with the way the U.S. nuclear weapons program is managed, is beginning to question that.
The state that has seen a long-running boom in nuclear weapons spending now faces the potential for a bust.
I’ve been wanting to make cool Internet maps for a while, but making them click-by-click by hand was such a chore. The idea is to use Google Earth and Google maps, so people who might want to use the bike trails can zoom in and figure out exactly where they are. It’s worth noting that there already exist some nice resources for this – the city’s bike map and the New Mexico Touring Society’s routes page (“routes” in the left rail of their web site). Both have the significant disadvantage, from my point of view, that they weren’t made by me, and I wanna make stuff myself. 🙂 But if you really want good bike info, go to them.
With my new GPS bike goober, it’s a lot simpler to make the route maps, and more fun, so here goes.
It’s fitting that my first formal entry in the Bike Rides of Inkstain is pretty much the crappiest bike trail in Albuquerque. Along the side of Interstate 40, it is best known for its prodigious goathead farms, and for the homeless guys who sleep in the underpasses. This ride is not without its virtues, including the prairie dogs cheering you on as you zip by like some breakaway rider in the tour. And the skate park, which is always worth a stop for a few minutes. Those kids are some sick ollies, or something. I do not recommend this trail. Unless you happen to be at Tramway and Central and are looking for a quick way back into town.
The trail begins at Los Altos Park, between the skate park and the freeway. Taking the bridge over the freeway, you go left (eastish) toward the mountains. It’s a little less than 3 miles to Central and Tramway, no street crossings, a bit less than 300 feet elevation gain.
– great essays from the statheads at