extreme weather

So Tasmania is in the news, which is where I am living (see here for links).  The stories are about heat and bush fires.  So far, nothing as dramatic as "Black Saturday" four years ago has happened, thank goodness, but conditions are very similar. The post's "featured image" above is of the electronic weather station monitor sitting in my kitchen, taken last Friday.  The official Hobart record was set at 41.8 oC, we had a reading of 43.3 oC (33.5 was the inside temperature).  I have no idea if this device is well calibrated or subject to some particular siting problem (I tried) or if it…
Climate Crocks has a new video out about Sandy and the unusual weather patterns that allowed its formation.     Good stuff! All the pundit chatter and the Bloomberg news coming out on the side of reality does give one hope that from the ashes of Battery Point climate change mitigation policy might rise.  I do however recall the same attention and promise after the Hurricane Katrina debacle, and well, we all know how far that got us. Hope springs eternal, but also "fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice..." Who thinks Sandy and its warning will stick?  
The reality of weather modification is no conspiracy theory.   Or at least, so say the conspiracy theorists.... Hurricane Sandy is being described as the “worst storm in 100 years” and will possibly mutate to super-storm status once it combines with a polar air mass over the eastern United States enabling it to cause widespread damage and chaos, but how convenient is the timing of this “natural” event in regards to the election? Is it possible that the storm is a contrived event designed to throw the election for Obama? Just askin'.... (h/t mandas)  
As pretty much everyone should be aware already, Hurricane Sandy is getting close to landfall in the New Jersey area where it will collide with a strong winter storm coming down from Canada.  It seems no one really knows what will happen, but all the people who should agree it will be very bad.  This storm is huge.  Added into the mix is a full moon causing the highest high tides of the year. As usual, for the most comprehensive coverage of weather events the go-to place is Jeff Master's Weather Wunderground.  The latest posting: Hurricane Sandy has changed little in intensity today, and…
August sea ice extent in the Arctic this year was 640,000 square kilometers below the previous record set in 2007.  It is also already a record monthly low for any month, though that record will not last as it is going to be broken this September when the lowest extent of the year is normally reached. In less than the last two months, multi-year ice declined by 33% and the oldest ice (over 5 years) declined by 54% (and that ice ain't coming back).  While the unusual Arctic Cyclone probably had a noticeable impact on the evolution of this year's (still deepening) record ice loss, it must be…
A really good overview of all the extreme weather we have been seeing this last year from Greenman. I'd say it is about time to say welcome to the new normal. I heartily second Al Gore's call of "bullshit", that is what folks like Bastardi deal in, pure and simple.
Forced climate change causes global warming as a response, not the other way around. We all focus on globally and seasonally averaged mean temperature, and though it is a very coarse measure, there are some justifiable reasons. But as a general focus for those concerned about the human influence on our planetary life support system, is it right? Michael Tobis has a great essay on why it really isn't. If the sentence above doesn't quite get the point across, from the same paragraph: It takes a hell of a kick to move global temperature as much as we are moving it, and the climate system is…
I recently wrote about the tragic bushfires in Australia and how it seems to me that it is reasonable to ask if this would have happened without anthropogenic climate changes. Real Climate has the details on this in their latest post: Bushfires and extreme heat in south-east Australia. The post is by David Karoly, Professor of Meteorology at the University of Melbourne in Australia. He identifies four factors in the fire's ferocity - maximum temperatures, relative humidity, wind speeds and the ongoing drought - and discusses the possible role of climate change in each of them. For three of…
Although there was not much buzz about hurricanes this season (which is not quite over yet), this year has in fact set a few records. I guess since New Orleans (narrowly) escaped Gustav there seems so much less to talk about! Well, New Scientist has an article about some of the things that are worth noticing about the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season. Perhaps the most notable record is "for the first time major hurricanes formed in five successive months, from July through November." Hurricane Paloma reached category 4 this month (November) and battered poor Cuba for the fourth time this…