Paul Simons: Weather Eye
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This summer’s weather seems to have gone crazy. Apart from the floods in Britain, devastating monsoonal floods across much of the Indian sub-continent have killed more than 2,000 people. China is experiencing chronic drought in northern regions and massive floods in other areas. Sudan is often drought-stricken, but this summer has had huge floods.
On Wednesday, a tornado struck New York for the first time in 50 years. In June, the first documented tropical cyclone struck the Arabian Peninsula. In June and July, a large part of Europe, from southern Italy to Bulgaria, was roasted in two blistering heatwaves that set new temperature records in many places and killed hundreds of people.
In the southern hemisphere, rare snowfalls hit Johannesburg and Buenos Aires, and large parts of South America have experienced unusually bitter cold. However, the coldest place on Earth, Vostok in Antarctica, recorded unusually high temperatures this week of minus 48C (–54F), more than 17C (30F) above normal.
It is tempting to blame global warming for extreme conditions but scientists caution that weather fluctuates naturally. However, the first half of this year has been the second-hottest on record worldwide.
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Ed Stef:
The last time Earth was warmer than 5 K than now was 55 million years ago during the Palaeoscene Eocene Thermal Maximum when Arctic waters were near tropical. It was also a time of major extinction for many species. Polar bears had not evolved at that point. Do some research, Google is a very useful tool.
Kieran Morgan, Leeds, UK
The AGW (anthopogenic global warming) climate change theory does not make any definite predictions except that the climate will grow warmer by several degrees over the next 50 to 100 years. No short-term weather events can be seen as either confirming or tending to disprove the theory.
So this debate is irrelevant!
Frank Upton, Solihull,
To all you "climate change" knee jerk freaks out there, read the full article in "the times" todays date:
La Niña could even rearrange the pattern of sea ice around the Antarctic, pushing the ice pack towards the Pacific side of the continent. Already, torrential rains have triggered severe floods across a huge swath of Central Africa, stretching from Senegal in the west to Uganda in the east.
Rupa Kumar Kolli, chief of world applications at the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) in Geneva, predicts that the worst of La Niña is yet to come. âThis La Niña is now in its developing phase and getting stronger, and we can expect it to peak this coming December and January,â he said. Whether this episode of La Niña will make itself felt in Britain and continental Europe this winter is not certain. âWe tend to get a mild end to winter with La Niña, but itâs not a strong signal,â said Adam Scaife, at the Hadley Centre of the Met Office in Exeter.
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Warm waters may
clive, shortlands, kent
Andy Fox - please open your eyes - I quote 'proved to be untrue' - where and by whom? The scientific evidence is overwhelming and the latest reports e.g.
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/09/21/1189881777752.html?s_rid=smh:top5
underpin it.
"The sun is mainly responsible for our naturally changing climate"? How so? please expand...
Unfortunately you have fallen for oil-sponsored 'think tanks'' assertions that there is no problem. The exact same group of people you are blaming for the spread of the alleged climate change lie. A bit paradoxical don't you think?
Nicholas Bernhardt, Tallebudgera, Australia / QLD
Are the floods in Britain really abnormal?
In Yarm, Cleveland, in the high street is a town hall with two plaques showing the height/depth of the flood water in 1881 and 1771. The lower is at chest/head height, whilst the earlier one is at 2.5 m to 3 m above road level, which is way above the current defence levels installed and strengthened in the last 12 years.
So, is it global warming, climate change, or simply natural variations?
And I leave you with: when then Earth was warmer by more than 5 K than it is now, where did the polar bears go? How did they manage? Probably, quite well without human intervention.
Ed Stef, Yarm, Teesside, UK
That's it? Nothing more to say than maybe it is climate change, maybe not? You could at least note the Nature study that convincingly argued for more precipitation in mid-latitudes, exactly as we saw this summer in the UK.
Kit Stolz, California, USA
Climate change due to human carbon emissions has been proved to be untrue and that the sun is mainly responsible for our naturally changing climate. The whole carbon issue is to stop the developing world from developing so that the industrialised countries can use all the oil and not give it to the likes of Africa....it is completely political and people are following the ideology before reading the scientific facts! Wake up!
Andy Fox, Pecs, Hungary