What's up with the Weather anyways?
The typical New Yorker is saying, "I got your Global Warming, right here!"
And unless you were paying attention, you might tend to agree with them.
El Nino may send storms south again this weekend
By Tom Wharton, The Salt Lake Tribune - Feb 25, 2010
"A lot of energy will be going south again on storms for the weekend," said Mark Struthwolf, a forecaster for the National Weather Service's Salt Lake City office. "We will see some precipitation but the lion's share will be mainly in central and southern Utah. That is typical of an El Nino year."
http://www.istockanalyst.com/...
So it's El Nino, eh, that's up with the Weather, at least in Utah ...
Well what about the East Coast? The record snowfalls there -- THAT is because of Warm Water in the Pacific Ocean, too?
Yup.
Northeast Under Siege With Second Winter Storm
Ayinde O. Chase, AHN Editor - Feb 25, 2010
New York, NY, United States (AHN) - More heavy snow and strong winds are expected for the nation's Northeast. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning that began at 6 a.m. and goes through 6 p.m. on Friday.
[...]
Friday's storms are just the latest from an El Nino-driven weather pattern resulting in record snows from Washington to Philadelphia. The El Nino weather phenomenon can be understood as a warming of the Pacific Ocean that occurs every two to five years and lasts about 12 months.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/...
How does the warm water in the Pacific Ocean, create Snow Storms on Eastern U.S.? Well for one thing, it drives the Jet Stream further south. And Storms usually to follow that 'river of wind' in the upper atmosphere.
And El Nino fuels that's river of wind too, with extra moisture, and extra punch. Then just add Arctic Air from the north pole (aka. 'Alberta Clippers') -- and Viola! you've got the Recipe for super-strong Snow Storms in unusual places. Like Texas, like Alabama, like D.C., like New York City.
But don't take my word for it -- listen to a guy who does Weather Forecasts for a living:
Drew Explains El Nino's Affect On Our Weather (Video Clip from a TV Weather person)
Feel like we just keep seeing wave after wave of winter weather?
Chief Meteorologist Drew Michaels says blame El Nino.
What is this 'El Nino' thing, anyways?
Origins—Ground Zero
by Mark Hoover, PBS Nova
What is El Niño? In a narrow sense, it's a giant puddle of heated water that sloshes across the Pacific Ocean. From NASA satellites, we can see the big picture; a massive pool of warm seawater, half again as large as the United States, builds in the western Pacific over a period of months. This gargantuan wedge of warm sea contains 20 or 30 times as much water as all the Great Lakes put together.
In one sense, it's like an iceberg; most of it is submerged, but part of it sticks out above the sea's surface, as the wedge floats in the surrounding ocean. Partly because warm water is less dense than cool water, and also partly because El Niño waters are less salty than normal seawater. (It's always raining over an El Niño, and the rainwater dilutes the sea.) Both of these conditions contribute to buoyancy.
A sharp temperature and density change—called the thermocline—floats about 100 meters below the surface, and marks the bottom of this warm "iceberg." The top layer of water may protrude 150 or more centimeters above sea level. This isn't so hard to picture if you think about tides, which also pile water up above sea level.
http://www.pbs.org/...
PBS Nova: El Niño site
Here's NASA take on El Nino:
Visualizing El Nino From NASA Scientific Visualization Studio
http://www.youtube.com/...
Well that sounds kind of scary. Even if, El Nino is NOT a direct result of Global Warming. (It isn't -- not yet anyways ...)
But what happens if Climate Change causes this El Nino, "Puddle of Heated Water" to get warmer? to get wider? to get deeper?
What then? Would a 200 Meter deep Puddle, be TWICE as strong?
What happens if Climate Change causes this El Nino to get stronger, more persistent, and to effectively never go away?
What then? Would a 200 Meter deep Puddle, last TWICE as long?
What happens on that day that the Oceans heat up -- through and through?
Will our fearless leaders sit up and take notice then? Will they ACT then?
But on the plus side, I guess, this year's El Nino has put an end to the drought in Texas -- effectively by drenching that dry rangeland with repeated rounds of rain, and even snow.
The long drought is over
Sean Gaffney - February 19, 2010
The long Texas drought that wrecked farm fields from McAllen to Austin for more than two years has officially ended, according to Texas A&M University.
El Niño-related rainfall that had soaked fields and lifted most of the Rio Grande Valley out of the drought by November 2009 has now officially erased drought conditions across most of the Lone Star state, said John Nielsen-Gammon, a climatologist and professor of atmospheric sciences at A&M.
"Two consecutive La Niña winters helped make this drought particularly severe, while the current El Niño conditions have helped to end the drought," Nielsen-Gammon said in a news release.
http://www.themonitor.com/...
At least the Drought is over, in W-land. Yee-Haw!
And the kids on the East Coast haven't seen so many Snow Days, since anyone can remember. That's 'evidence' that proves something. I think.
Doesn't it? ... maybe that Science is all bunk, eh?
Because it snowed SOOOOOOOOOOOO much this winter!
