Friday, January 8, 2010

What Did We Do?

The forecast for tonight here is now 16 deg.   I know in other parts of the country it will be colder than that, but here, north of Houston, we are not adapted to that.

January  77318 , Willis, TX            
Normal High: 60°F            =  16 C
Normal Low: 40°F            =    4 C
Normal Average: 50°F      =  10 C

The last time we had it this cold, was in Jan 1990, I think,  that is when we had an unusual ice storm, so we are just not used to this. 
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The Black Blizzard was man made:
“Black Blizzards were the result of years of using improper farming techniques in the plains. Very dry weather also contributed to the Black Blizzards. Despite the years of drought and terrible soil, farmers continued to plow the land. Crops were not properly rotated and areas that shouldn't have been tilled were. Wheat was a hot commodity at the time, so farmers continued to plant massive amounts of it in the same spots year after year.
This misunderstanding of soil erosion caused the ground to become very dry and loose. The Black Blizzards were able to happen because there were no more crops or grasses to hold the soil down. No one was aware of the grave repercussions this would have.”

This is also what happens when they clear cut forests, when will we learn?
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I sure hope this cold isn’t something that we, the conservators of this earth, have done to make this happen.



New York Times says:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/06/science/AP-SCI-Big-Chill.html?_r=1
“Beijing had its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap since 1981. And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South, including Florida's orange groves and beaches.

Whatever happened to global warming?
Such weather doesn't seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn't disprove global warming at all -- it's just a blip in the long-term heating trend.

''It's part of natural variability,'' said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO. With global warming, he said, ''we'll still have record cold temperatures. We'll just have fewer of them.''

Deke Arndt of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., noted that 2009 will rank among the 10 warmest years for Earth since 1880.
Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes, such as heat waves, storms, floods, droughts and even cold spells. But experts interviewed by The Associated Press did not connect the current frigid blast to climate change.

So what is going on?
''We basically have seen just a big outbreak of Arctic air'' over populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere, Arndt said. ''The Arctic air has really turned itself loose on us.''

In the atmosphere, large rivers of air travel roughly west to east around the globe between the Arctic and the tropics. This air flow acts like a fence to keep Arctic air confined.
But recently, this air flow has become bent into a pronounced zigzag pattern, meandering north and south. If you live in a place where it brings air up from the south, you get warm weather. In fact, record highs were reported this week in Washington state and Alaska.”

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But ‘they’ still claim that we are in global warming, as per these two videos:

Shrinking Ice

As global warming raises temperatures, glaciers in the Himalayas are retreating and South Asia's water supply is at risk.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2007/07/16/science/earth/1194817121366/shrinking-ice.html

Bolivia's Glaciers Melt Away

“Bolivia's Chacaltaya glacier - once the "world's highest" ski resort and a crucial source of water for millions of people - melted away in 2009.”
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/12/13/science/earth/1247466103114/bolivia-s-glaciers-melt-away.html
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I sure doesn’t feel like global warming, today.

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