The entire northeast is preparing for the onset of the Hurricane Sandy. Or more specifically, people in the northeast are preparing for the Frankenstorm: Hurricane Sandy mixed with a winter storm coming from the north.
That combination of a hurricane and a nor’easter is weird. And it’s the latest example of weird or abnormally severe weather this year. I’ve found myself wondering what role climate change plays in the Frankenstorm and I’m not alone. Yesterday, NPR published an answer to that question; it’s not the most fulfilling, but it’s honest.
The NPR article says that determining attribution — the idea of whether changes in the climate cause or worsen specific weather events — is still “science on the bleeding edge.” With hurricanes, scientists aren’t yet able to point to specific storms and say with adequate certainty that climate change played a key role, says the NPR article.
A blog post by New York Times writer Andrew Revkin draws a similar conclusion:
“But there remains far too much natural variability in the frequency and potency of rare and powerful storms — on time scales from decades to centuries — to go beyond pointing to this event being consistent with what’s projected on a human-heated planet,” Revkin writes.
So there you have it. The not-so-scientific answer to whether the Frankenstorm is a product of climate change: Maybe.
This article appears in Oct 24-30, 2012.
Each of the three components of this storm can be associated with warming of the atmosphere:
1) warm ocean water feeds main storm
Z arctic storm the result of jet stream bounce from warming pushing air north where it gathers moisture and then bounces back down as a wet storm
3) the high press sure zone pushing the storm to land is the result of warm air in the north.
What more do you need to know?
Each of the three components of this storm can be associated with warming of the atmosphere:
1) warm ocean water feeds main storm
2) the cold arctic storm is the result of jet stream bounce from equatorial warming pushing jet stream air north where it gathers moisture and then bounces back down as a wet storm
3) the high press sure zone pushing the storm to land is the result of unseasonably warm air in the north.
What more do you need to know? Think of the equator as the center of a pot of water with a flame heating it up. The water starts to move. Then add the spin of the earth to create the jet stream and yes, we can expect this to get much worse!
“what more do you need to know”
Well, the cyclic nature of superstorms over the course of the past few centuries are a start. But, hey, who wants to deprive the simple of simplisms at the hour of expediency. For once, NPR decided to report science rather than bumperstickerisms. Would that other leftists could learn from this.
Until then,
C
No “maybe” about it — if climate change concerns you, you better get frackin’.
We thank the right-wing posters on this site, who remind us not only is there nothing “conservative” (note the small “c”) about the right-wing, the right-wing is anti-conservative. “Conserve”; you know, like our natural resources, the environment, the Bill of Rights; a basic prudence; a respect for institutions; an aversion to needless foreign interventions; the value of culture and the social covenants contained therein. Stuff like that – all the stuff the right-wing hates.
BTW, j.a.m, natural gas is a fossil fuel. Your infantile posts remind us of the above truth.
“There has been a series of extreme weather incidents. That is not a political statement, that is a factual statement. Anyone who says there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality,” – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“There has been a series of extreme weather incidents. That is not a political statement, that is a factual statement. Anyone who says there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality,” – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.
Wow. I never would have guessed that Andrew Cuomo was a respected, published and scientifically-established climatologist! Probably for lack of any demonstrable authority in this regard.
The climatologists reached consensus a long time ago. Nobody but the wing-nuts (who are well-financed) pretend otherwise any more. So it’s good that policy makers – as evidenced by Governor Cuomo’s statement are showing the political courage, in the face of the right-wing. So thanks, Craig, once again, for making my point on my previous post, the difference between real and phony conservatism.
“Anyone who says there is not a dramatic change in weather patterns is denying reality” – Cuomo.
LOL. Cuomo’s assertion is spectacularly ignorant and unscientific. Even if you take for granted that climate change is occurring and is driven by human activity, the idea that a statistical change in weather patterns or storm frequency could be discerned by an individual human being through casual observation is preposterous. Such a claim does a disservice to those who do endeavor to study the matter scientifically — as well as anyone else who values science.
But no matter. Who cares whether Cuomo’s rhetoric makes any sense, so long as he’s “courageous” and politically correct.
“Politically correct”: that would be the right-wing on their denial of climate change. It’s become practically a loyalty oath. Can’t deviate from the Limbaugh line.