Weather

[nevrast]

Last night's walk got me thinking about weather

Comments

[cionaudha]

It's been warmer and dryer than usual... except for today when it's slashing rain.

I blame a combination of normal fluctuations and global warming. We typically cycle through dry winters and wet winters, but it was just waaaaaaay too warm this winter. Way, way too warm.

At least, it seemed like a dry winter. I haven't checked the stats.

[nevrast]

I agree that it's normal fluctuations, but made more extreme by global warming. I take some small sick comfort in knowing that, if the sea rises high enough, we'll be sitting on some pretty valuable real estate our here in the middle of the country.

[cionaudha]

Heh. I live two blocks in from the open ocean. One foot of rise might be okay (and at last give me that very desirable waterfront location!), but more than that and I'll be paddling my house westward!
Got room in your back yard for my house? ;-)

[nevrast]

Absolutely! Let the prairie hobbit commune begin!

[sixth_queen]

I love the icon!

[nevrast]

Thanks! It's even one I made myself !

[shilohmm]

It's been warm and we've been breaking records for high temps and lack of snow. No snow at all in January. And when it did snow (in December and Feb(, it thundered, which isn't unknown but is unusual. Night before last we had a HUGE thunderstorm that lasted for hours and rained buckets. My kids normally ignore thunderstorms, when they don't sleep through them, but this one was bad enough middle daughter got spooked and went downstairs to sleep on the couch (that extra level of house was supposed to protect her, I guess).

Some areas around here got over three inches of rain that night, and for the first time in over a year we're above average on precipitation. The farmers like that part...

Sheryl

[nevrast]

We've only had thunder during a snowstorm a couple of times here. Usually when it's snowing, it's way too cold.

We don't get our really good thunderstorms until the hot weather June - August. It seems amazing to me that they're already getting tornados and stuff down south - it seems really early.

[juliebeth]

We're way colder over here than whatever is normal for here. However, my crocuses are soldiering on, and my hyacinths are giving it a go, too.

[nevrast]

Ah, spring! How nice to know flowers are blooming somewhere! We are still buried under a ton of snow, and we got so much of it late in the year that it's going to be a real mess when it melts.

I'm a good six to eight weeks away from the first buds peeping out of the ground.

[mariole]

Something missing from your list might be overdevelopment. They had done studies when I lived in Florida showing that all that concrete--buildings, roads, etc.-- changed the weather patterns. The rising heat deflected the moisture away from the developed areas, leaving them far hotter and drier than Florida normal--which is largely swamp.

I know that many people say, "But the Earth is so big and we are so small! How can we have such a big effect?" Well, we do. We can measure it. It's not mysterious, but I think it calls for people to realize their impact on the world at large, and many people simply don't want to give up what they now enjoy for the greater good.

[nevrast]

I wonder how far that affects weather patterns. We're certainly not overdeveloped here, or anywhere near here, but we're still getting the weird weather.

I would think development affects things as much for how it changes the earth's respiration (lack of trees, change in evaporation patterns, etc.) That all feeds into upper atmosphere patterns, which ciculate globally.

I wish there was an easier answer than trying to convince a whole world to live differently. Me and my granola eating buddies, with our organics and our 'buy locally' and our recycling and our 'no flyers' notices and our low flush toilets and all tha jazz are hardly making a dent.

[mariole]

Yes, that's the problem. You have countries denuding forests so their people can survive, people building like mad, people affecting the blue-green algae in the oceans that provide most of our O2--it's a huge problem. So the system gets out of whack, and then it starts getting a little crazy. We see it now as weird weather. But humans (and our current ecological fellows) require a certain environment to live. We humans are altering that environment. We, and our fellow creatures, will pay the price in the end. Yes, life will go on--it will just be a different form of life after our present ecosystem collapses.

[nevrast]

**Ach!!** I'm having flashbacks to Waterworld! Make it stop!