Clipmarks | invictus's 'weather' clips

Snow day in the sands of Baghdad

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 20:58:46 GMT

clipped by: invictus

BAGHDAD - The flakes melted quickly. But the smiles, wonder and excited story-swapping went on throughout the day: It snowed in Baghdad.

The morning flurry Friday was the first in memory in the heart of the Iraqi capital. Perhaps more significant, however, was the rare ripple of delight through a city snarled by army checkpoints, divided by concrete walls and ravaged by sectarian killings.

"For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, a 63-year-old retiree from the New Baghdad area.

"When I was young, I heard from my father that such rain had fallen in the early '40s on the outskirts of northern Baghdad," Abdul-Hussein said, referring to snow as a type of rain. "But snow falling in Baghdad in such a magnificent scene was beyond my imagination."

Tags: iraq, baghdad, snow, weather

Ancient records help test climate change

Sun, 16 Sep 2007 01:07:05 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

A librarian at this 10th century monastery leads a visitor beneath the vaulted ceilings of the archive past the skulls of two former abbots.

He pushes aside medieval ledgers of indulgences and absolutions, pulls out one of 13 bound diaries inscribed from 1671 to 1704 and starts to read about the weather.

"Jan. 11 was so frightfully cold that all of the communion wine froze," says an entry from 1684 by Brother Josef Dietrich, governor and "weatherman" of the once-powerful Einsiedeln Monastery.

"But on Jan. 13 it got even worse and one could say it has never been so cold in human memory,"

Diaries of day-to-day weather details from the age before 19th-century standardized thermometers are proving of great value to scientists who study today's climate.

The accounts dispel any lingering doubts that the Earth is heating up more dramatically than ever before

Most historians and scientists delving deep into archives seek accounts of disasters and extreme weather events.

Tags: climate change, history, weather

Hurricane Planet: Is the Worst Yet to Come?

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 21:36:01 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Aug. 22, 2007 — If Earth is running a fever, then hurricanes like Dean and Katrina are her febrile seizures. As the rise in global temperature has accelerated over the last century, these tempestuous spasms have become more frequent and violent.

Each new spinning storm is also finding ever more victims populating its coastal targets — whether it be Mississippi or Madagascar, Kingston or Connecticut — and more ways to trigger trouble thousands of miles inland by way of an ever-more interdependent, globalized economy.

Climatologists and hurricane scientists now have little doubt there is a connection between hurricanes and global warming. Some of the strongest evidence comes from 100 years of records on Atlantic hurricanes — the most complete archive of its kind for any ocean basin. That record shows hurricanes have been increasing in a stepwise fashion since 1900.

Tags: climate change, hurricanes, weather, world

Dean 3rd Strongest Hurricane to Hit Land

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 03:12:14 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Aug. 21, 2007 — Hurricane Dean was the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall since record keeping began in the 1850s, based on its central atmospheric pressure, forecasters said.

Dean was a top-scale Category 5 storm at landfall Tuesday on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Its maximum sustained winds were 165 mph and gusts reached 200 mph. Just before landfall, a Global Positioning System device dropped from a hurricane hunter aircraft found it had a central pressure of 906 millibars, forecasters said.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Only three other Category 5 storms have been known to hit land: the 1935 hurricane, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew had top sustained winds of 165 mph at landfall. Andrew was the second-most expensive hurricane in U.S. history, after Hurricane Katrina.

Tags: hurricanes, tropical storms, hurricane dean, mexico, weather

Is climate change boosting hurricanes?

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 23:15:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

What it tells us, says Mooney, is that the link between climate change and hurricanes is complicated. As he emphasizes again and again, “global warming did not cause Hurricane Katrina, or any other weather disaster.” On the other hand, statistical analysis of the past century’s hurricanes and computer modeling of a warmer climate, nudged along by greenhouse gases, does indicate that rising ocean temperatures could fuel hurricanes that are more intense.

Clip Source: discovermagazine.com

More than 28 tropical storms and hurricanes, including Katrina, were spawned in the Atlantic Ocean in 2005. In fact, the season was so extreme that it instigated an ongoing debate: Has climate change made hurricanes fiercer and more frequent? As Chris Mooney relates in Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle over Global Warming (Harcourt, 2007), proponents of both sides of the dispute have had a field day with this question. Yet the danger of extrapolating from a single catastrophic season became clear in 2006, an unusually quiet year for Atlantic hurricanes. Just 10 storms brewed, only two of which became major hurricanes. So what does this mixed record say about global warming?

The basic scenario goes as follows: Hurricanes—circular storms spinning around a region of low atmospheric pressure—are powered by energy released by spiraling surface winds that draw heat from the ocean. Warmer seas should provide more energy and make hurricanes stronger.

Tags: climate change, global warming, hurricanes, weather, science

Extreme weather breaks records in 2007

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 22:23:31 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: africa.reuters.com

Extreme weather breaks records in 2007

GENEVA (Reuters) - The world experienced a series of record-breaking weather events in early 2007, from flooding in Asia to heatwaves in Europe and snowfall in South Africa, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said global land surface temperatures in January and April were likely the warmest since records began in 1880, at more than 1 degree Celsius higher than average for those months.

There have also been severe monsoon floods across South Asia, abnormally heavy rains in northern Europe, China, Sudan, Mozambique and Uruguay, extreme heatwaves in southeastern Europe and Russia, and unusual snowfall in South Africa and South America this year, the WMO said.

"The start of the year 2007 was a very active period in terms of extreme weather events," Omar Baddour of the agency's World Climate Programme told journalists in Geneva.

Tags: climate change, global warming, weather, science

The Earth fights back

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:40:43 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Never mind higher temperatures, climate change has a few nastier surprises in store. Bill McGuire says we can also expect more earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides and tsunamis

Unlike most apparently intractable problems, which have a tendency to go away when examined closely and analytically, the climate change predicament just seems to get bigger and scarier the more we learn about it.

periods in our planet's history when the climate was swinging about wildly, most notably during the last ice age, it appears that far more than the weather was affected

an increase in volcanic activity, earthquakes, giant submarine landslides and tsunamis

there was a close correlation between how quickly sea levels went up and down during the last ice age and the level of explosive activity at volcanoes in Italy and Greece

how can rising sea levels cause volcanoes to erupt?

answer lies in the enormous mass of the water pouring into the ocean basins

seems to be sufficient to load and bend the underlying crust.

Tags: science, earth, global warming, earthquakes, volcanooes

A Stormy New Century

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 14:10:36 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Big Storms Double Since Last Century

July 30, 2007 — The average number of tropical cyclones per year has doubled since the early 1900s, report scientists.

What’s more, the increase in the average number of storms each year has happened in three distinct steps, rather than in a gradual fashion, and tracks right along with rising sea surface temperatures, says Greg Holland of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). Holland and Georgia Tech’s Peter Webster have published their discovery in the July 30 issue of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

From 1900 to 1930 there were on average six Atlantic tropical cyclones: four hurricanes and two tropical storms. From 1930 to 1940 the average jumped up to ten: five hurricanes and five tropical storms. There was yet another step up in the mid-1990s, bringing the average to 15: eight hurricanes and seven tropical storms.

Tags: climate change, tropical storms, weather

Suicide rate rises in hot weather

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 13:53:12 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Suicide rate rises in hot weather

Sunny weather: Not good news for all

The damp summer may have made us all miserable, but research suggests it is hot weather that really tips us over the edge.

A team from London's Institute of Psychiatry found that suicide rates go up during hot weather.

Analysis of more than 50,000 suicides in England and Wales between 1993 and 2003 showed the suicide rate rose when average daily temperatures topped 18C.

The study appears in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Tags: weather, heatwave, health, suicide

The wettest season of modern times for the UK

Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:24:38 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: comment.independent.co.uk

Leading article: The floods have exerted a salutary effect

Few people in England or Wales will be surprised to learn that this summer has been the wettest of modern times. The Meteorological Office confirmed yesterday that more rain has fallen through May, June and July than over any comparable period since records began. Last month it was the North-east that bore the brunt, with extensive flooding in and around Sheffield and Hull. This month, thousands living in the Avon, Severn and Thames river valleys have been driven from their homes by the water after days of incessant rain. And this time last week, London ground to a halt after a deluge many likened to a monsoon.

Tags: climate change, floods, britain, disasters, weather

Hurricanes Brewing in Mediterranean?

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:46:00 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

Hurricanes Brewing in Mediterranean?

July 19, 2007 — Climate change models tailored to investigate some strange storms in the Mediterranean suggest that global warming could lead to hurricanes forming in that sea. If so, countries around the Mediterranean could be in for the most violent weather in centuries.

Most hurricanes form in the tropical Atlantic, rarely reaching Europe. But warming oceans could encourage them in the relatively landlocked Mediterranean, say the authors of a new study.

"It should be a matter of concern," said Miguel Gaertner, a researcher at the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo, Spain. "The consequences could be quite dangerous."

Tags: climate change, hurricanes, mediterranean, weather

Huge telescope set to scour skies

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:27:46 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Huge telescope set to scour skies

The GTC sits above the clouds on a high peak on La Palma

One of the world's largest optical telescopes is set to peer into space for the first time.

Installed on a 2,400m-high (7,900ft) peak on the Canary Island of La Palma, the huge telescope consists of a mirror measuring 10.4m (34.1ft) in diameter.

The Spanish-led Great Canary Telescope (GTC) is extremely powerful and will be able to spot some of the faintest, most distant objects in the Universe.

The "first light" ceremony will take place on Friday.

If the initial test run is successful, GTC's team expect it to be up and running for the scientific community within the next 12 months.

The enormous array has taken seven years to construct; its installation has been hampered by poor weather and the logistical difficulties of transporting equipment to such an inaccessible location.

Tags: astronomy, space, telescopes, science

Cold weather hits South America

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 01:20:22 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: Extreme weather at both north and south hemispheres.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Cold weather hits South America

Wet snow fell for several hours in Buenos Aires

A cold snap is continuing to grip several South American nations, reportedly killing three people.

The temperatures plunged to -22C (-8F) in parts of Argentina's province of Rio Negro, while the capital, Buenos Aires, saw snow for the first time since 1918.

Two exposure deaths were reported in Argentina and one in Chile.

In Bolivia, heavy snowfall blocked the nation's main motorway and forced the closure of several airports, local officials said.

In Argentina, several provinces in the Andes have been placed under a storm alert, the national weather centre said.

But thousands of people cheered in the streets of Buenos Aires as the capital saw its first snow in nearly 90 years.

Tags: climate, weather, south america

Global Warming Q & A From NASA

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:57:15 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: earthobservatory.nasa.gov

On May 11, 2007, the Earth Observatory published Global Warming, a fact sheet outlining the basic principles behind the science of global warming. This follow-up article of questions and answers is based on questions from readers and other common questions about global warming. Many scientists and writers contributed to this article.

What does NASA have to do with global warming?

If Earth has warmed and cooled throughout history, what makes scientists think that humans are causing global warming now?

Has the Sun been more active in recent years, and could it be responsible for some global warming?

Haven’t satellites actually observed cooling temperatures in the lower atmosphere?

Are the ozone hole and global warming related?

Are the unusual or extreme weather events in my area caused by global warming?

Are there natural processes that will amplify or limit global warming?

What if global warming isn’t as severe as predicted?

Why is global warming a problem?

Tags: climate change, global warming, reference, nasa

Heat wave hitting the West

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 21:18:11 GMT

clipped by: invictus

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

West sizzles as temperatures soar

LOS ANGELES - A heat wave sizzling across the West showed little sign of letting up Thursday, with Las Vegas forecast to tie a record high and even northern Idaho expected to top 100 degrees.

"You can become dehydrated really quick before you know it. You step outside and, 'wow,'" said Charlie Schlott, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Las Vegas.

In Las Vegas, the temperature reached 100 by 9 a.m., well on its way to the forecast record high for the day of 116, according to the National Weather Service. The mercury last reached 116 on the date in 1985.

Tags: climate, weather, heat wave, america