Green | September 13, 2011 | 32 comments

Climate report links extreme weather to global warming

source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/09/climate-report-links-2011-e...

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JanforGore
Heat waves, droughts, blizzards and the the rest of the year's U.S. record-breaking extreme weather, likely enjoyed a boost from global warming, suggests a climate report.

Hurricane Irene this year pushed the U.S. yearly record for billion-dollar natural disasters to 10, smashing the 2008 record of nine. In the "Current Extreme Weather and Climate Change" report, released today by the Climate Communication scientific group, leading climate scientists outlined how increasing global atmospheric temperatures and other climate change effects -- triggered by industrial emissions of greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide and methane -- are loading the dice for the sort of extreme weather seen this year.

"Greenhouse gases are the steroids of weather," says climate projection expert Jerry Meehl of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, at a briefing held by the report's expert reviewers. "Small increases in temperature set the stage for record breaking extreme temperature events." Overall, says the report, higher temperatures tied to global warming, about a one-degree global average temperature rise in the last century, have widely contributed to recent runs of horrible weather:

•In 1950, U.S. record breaking hot weather days were as likely as cold ones. By 2000, they were twice as likely, and in 2011 they are three times more likely, so far. By the end of the century they will be 50 times more likely, Meehl says.
•With global warming's higher temperatures packing about 4% more water into the atmosphere, total average U.S. snow and rainfall has increased by about 7% in the past century, says the study. The amount of rain falling in the heaviest 1% of cloudbursts has increased 20%, leading to more flooding.
•Early snow melt, and more rain rather than snow, has led to water cycle changes in the western U.S. in river flow, winter air temperature, and snow pack from 1950 to 1999. The effects are up to 60% attributable to human influence.
Rather than totally triggering any extreme event, global warming just makes it worse, says meteorologist Jeff Masters of Weather Underground, a report reviewer. "A warmer atmosphere has more energy," he says, contributing to heat waves, tornadoes and other extremes. Even heavy blizzards come from an atmosphere packed with extra moisture by global warming he adds. "Years like 2011 may be the new normal."

The report notes scientific disagreement exists over the role of global warming in some severe weather events, such as hurricanes, or the frequency of El Nino weather patterns.

"There's really no such thing as natural weather anymore," says climate scientist Donald Wuebbles of the University of Illinois, who was not involved with the report, but said he largely agreed with its conclusions. "Anything that takes place today in the weather system has been affected by the changes we've made to the climate system. That's just the background situation and it's good for people to know that," Wuebbles says. Although scientists cannot immediately tie what percentage of an extreme weather event relies on global warming to make it more severe, he says. "It's always a factor in today's world."


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32 comments // Climate report links extreme weather to global warming

  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • I don't give a damn. This thread is about the corrolation between global warming and the extreme events we are seeing around the globe. Take your obsession for Al Gore somewhere else. You must be really upset he is doing this. You're the only one bitching about it here.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • 0
      JanforGore  

    • Well there are about three and a half million watching it now. I think pasting this unrelated crap here is juvenile. But what else can you expect.

    • 1 year ago
  • IceKat
  • coolplanet
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  

    • I find it maddening that we are still trying to convince the American (and Australian) public that this is real and life-threatening DECADES after it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
      The rest of the world understands the severity of this problem.
      What more will it take show us that global warming is a greater threat to our present as well as future world? A 20 foot sea level rise in a few years???
      That's what's happening right now, sooner than anyone imagined.
      Goodbye every coastal city on Earth, half of the human population.
      See you in Siberia.....

    • 1 year ago
  • IceKat
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • IceKat:

      Even Al Gore never expected glaciers and sea ice and tundra to melt this fast.
      What we are currently witnessing in the Arctic, Greenland, Siberia and the Antarctic was predicted to happen (in the worst case scenerio) in the mid 2000s.
      Looks like everyone was wrong, especially the deniers like yourself.

    • 1 year ago
  • IceKat
  • coolplanet
    • +1
      coolplanet  
    • IceKat:

      The glass is always half full, right?
      I feel like I'm debating a sixth grader.
      Lowest Arctic ice ever recorded in Sept 2011.
      Historic droughts, fires, floods, tornadoes -- you name it we had it in 2011.
      What is your problem hotdog?

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
  • DEM46
  • IceKat
  • coolplanet
  • JanforGore
  • IceKat
  • maasanova
  • JanforGore
  • maasanova
  • remanns
    • +1
      remanns  

    • Oh well,....added to "Culture". Perhaps we could move to underwater dome cities,.....I always like those in Science fiction . . .

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • Johnny_Los_Angeles
  • coolplanet
    • 0
      coolplanet  
    • Johnny_Los_Angeles:

      It will be one humdinger, i can feel it in my bones!
      But that's a good thing as Martha would say.
      It's all about the aboriginal spirit returning.
      Homo cancerous is on his way out.
      Hold on to your panties people!
      Grandmother Earth is arising in her greatest hour.

    • 1 year ago
  • ozzone
    • +3
      ozzone  
    • Image

    • According to Dr.Charles Koven of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a team of international scientists from France, Canada and the United Kingdom, as the Earth’s climate changes and global warming continues to increase there is the potential release of up to 68 billion extra tons of carbon into the air before 2100.

      I think we can safely say that there is enough evidence to be found everywhere one looks UNLESS one DOESN'T WANT to see it.

      http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/arctic-will-transform-greenhouse-gas-sourc...

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +2
      JanforGore  
    • ozzone:

      Yes, and some whose salaries dicatate that we don't look for it either. And it isn't only the CO2, it is the methane being released from permafrost melting because of this. It is for sure frustrating as well when you go back and actually read the history of this and see how many scientists have corroborated this and how many times we were warned about it. And again it comes down to ideology, politics, religion and greed. And I have to admit I had been naive myself thinking that certainly once people know this, especially people in government who swore an oath to serve us and protect the US that they would not hesitate in seeing the urgency of this. We all learn lessons in life however. Mine was in seeing that the place we were looking for action is actually the epicenter of ideology, politics, religion and greed. The least we can hope for now is to work on ways to adapt to this to prolong its effects and that also will require caps on Co2. Unless of course, they don't want to prolong the worst to make it habitable for their children and grandchildren. The only conclusion we can come to is that they actually do want a worse world considering how they use $$$$$ for wars rather than working for a cleaner planet. I hate to say it but depending on how much worse this gets, it may go beyond civil disobedience when crops fail globally and or water supplies dwindle, migration brings about conflict, species disappear replaced by more inhospitable ones and our economy becomes even worse... all because we were caught up in political bias and ideological rhetoric... oh wait, that's already happening. Stupid people.

    • 1 year ago
  • ozzone
    • +2
      ozzone  
    • Image

    • In Arizona, we're now starting to see an increasing frequency of these massive dust storms called haboobs. With all the increasing changes in the weather patterns all around us, how can we justify not increasing the funding needed to monitor these events AND respond to them. People’s lives WILL be at stake. The sooner the politicians take off their ideological blinders, the better prepared we will be for the climatic changes that ARE happening now.

      In my opinion there will have to be a complete change in how emergency first responders and the other governmental organizations operate. They are going to need quick, portable, self-contained response units that can be taken to the areas impacted. One way this can be done is by converting train boxcar containers and retrofitting them for the required task. There are thousands of them in every train yard, pier and dock. For instance, you can have a communication unit (boxcar) for satellite and cellular use with its own power generators and antennas. Another boxcar unit can be used for fire fighters and all their equipment. Furthermore, one or more boxcars can be used for emergency medical treatment.

      The possibilities are endless. They are strong, highly portable and the infrastructure and equipment for handling them is already here. Just look at any shipyard. Hell they even have helicopters built to haul them around already. We have to be ready, I mean like yesterday, because a great big catastrophe IS coming our way and we’re not ready by a long shot.

      http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/massive-dust-storm-sweeps-arizona-117489&cp

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
    • +4
      JanforGore  
    • ozzone:

      We will defintely have to think differently about doing many things from being prepared for stronger storms, severe droughts to finding ways as well to grow food in a way that is sustainable and in line with changing weather patterns. Also safeguarding water supplies, shoring up infrastructure, health services, etc. So yes, cutting funds for preparedness now is not only irresponsible, it should be considered criminal.

    • 1 year ago
  • remanns
  • Arizona_Huey
  • ozzone
    • +2
      ozzone  
    • Arizona_Huey:

      Whoa dude that must have been freaky! How long did it take to clean up? Did it get into the house? If you could, posting any pictures you may have of it would be very informative. Hope the best for you and yours.

    • 1 year ago
  • Arizona_Huey
    • +3
      Arizona_Huey  
    • ozzone:

      There is just a film of dirt on everything! Luckily all of the windows were closed and its only on the furniture outside! I assume the insulation in the attic has some dust on it but I'm not going up there. We just get the hose out and spray it off... the east coast has white outs with snow - we have brown outs with dirt.

    • 1 year ago
  • Vic_Romano
    • +2
      Vic_Romano  

    • I wonder how many more of these reports, coupled with weather-related disasters, it's going to take to convince people that we're really on the brink.

    • 1 year ago
  • JanforGore
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