If you thought 2007 has been a bit over the top weather wise, well, you were right:
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 Organization (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 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a U.N. umbrella group of hundreds of experts, has noted an increasing trend in extreme weather events over the past 50 years and said irregular patterns are likely to intensify.
South Asia’s worst monsoon flooding in recent memory has affected 30 million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal, destroying croplands, livestock and property and raising fears of a health crisis in the densely-populated region.
Heavy rains also doused southern China in June, with nearly 14 million people affected by floods and landslides that killed 120 people, the WMO said.
England and Wales this year had their wettest May and June since records began in 1766, resulting in extensive flooding and more than $6 billion in damage, as well as at least nine deaths. Germany swung from its driest April since country-wide observations started in 1901 to its wettest May on record.
Mozambique suffered its worst floods in six years in February, followed by a tropical cyclone the same month, and flooding of the Nile River in June caused damage in Sudan.
Uruguay had its worst flooding since 1959 in May.
Huge swell waves swamped some 68 islands in the Maldives in May, resulting in severe damage, and the Arabian Sea had its first documented cyclone in June, touching Oman and Iran.
Temperature records were broken in southeastern Europe in June and July, and in western and central Russia in May. In many European countries, April was the warmest ever recorded.
Argentina and Chile saw unusually cold winter temperatures in July while South Africa had its first significant snowfall since 1981 in June.
Warmest on record? Severest weather events? Gee. I can’t imagine why that would be happening, can you? Time to contact one of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s climate experts to soothe our jangled (and weather beaten) nerves. I’m sure it’s all just part of a natural cycle. Or solar activity (caution: pdf file). Or anything other than what humans do. Right?
(cont.)
So enjoy the heat wave everyone. Or the floods, drought, fires, typhoons, monsoons, what have you. It’s just God’s way of messing with your head. I’m sure the Rapture ready crowd already understand this. I mean, who are you going to believe? A bunch of secular, atheistic, Satan-worshiping, one world government scientists or the Book of Revelation, the divinely inspired word of God himself (even if it was written down by his stenographer over 1900 years ago)?
I know who I’m putting my money on. And for God’s sake, whatever you do, don’t listen to a word that comes out of the mouth of this blasphemer:
“There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community,” Gore said at a forum in Singapore. “In actuality, there is very little disagreement.”
Gore likened the campaign to the millions of dollars spent by U.S. tobacco companies years ago on creating the appearance of scientific debate on smoking’s harmful effects.
“This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science,” Gore said. “We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion.” […]
“They’re trying to manipulate opinion and they are taking us for fools,” he said.
Who was it that so famously said: “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again —”? I forget, but I’m sure his words of wisdom have this climate controversy nailed to the wall.
Ps. For those of you who would appreciate a climate scientist’s explanation for non-scientists as to why CO2 emissions lead to a warmer globe, please check out this post at Real Climate, a blog run by some of the leading climate scientists in the world.
First time snow since 1918
Oh Steven, you’re such a silly. All it is is the Wisdom of the Market. Not to worry.
What keeps kicking at my shins is how the weather just seems to be exploding – everywhere – see Chris Mooney on the Arabian Sea Cyclone in June
http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/06/arabian_sea_cyclone_formation.php
Yes, the scientists have a tentative grasp on the progression here and we are all pretty prepared to roll up our sleeves and pitch in, but I’m constantly aghast at how quickly and unpredictably chaotic the weather is becoming. Seems everything is a record and I doubt anyone has computers up to the task of this kind of magnitude in the prediction world.
It shows how very conservative most computer models of global warming have been. Yet, as the Gore article points out there still exists a full blown propaganda campaign by industries that don’t want the reality of global warming messing with their profits. It is that alleged scientific controversy which permits our grand poohbahs in the media to pronounce (in their fair and balanced way) that there is still a debate about the causes of global climate change, when the truth is that the phony global warming denialists have been consistently dishonest and deceitful, while legitimate climate scientists have been fairly accurate in their predictions, erring more on the side of caution than on that of exaggeration.
As one of my Corporate/Management type Buddies said to me last week, as I made a mild reference to a climate crisis topic; “there you go again, why are you liberals always trying to stop progress?”
Here it is August 7th and in Seattle it’s been kind of misting to rainy and 64 degrees most of the day. That’s weird, even for Seattle.
More rain forecast tomorrow.
This is the time of year when we invite people up here to prove that it doesn’t always rain in Slug City. Except, at the moment, it is.
…and pretty soon nature is going to fuck us up really bad.
I for one cannot wait. I’m hoping to lose an entire state to global warming: maybe the jersey coast. maybe delaware. maybe my home state of rhode island.
Why? because I get a kick out of people who cry over spilled milk, and you can damn betcha that once global warming hits home for real in the US, everyone’s gonna be wrionging their hands and saying “what happpppened?”
and i will laugh because we’ve been asking for it for a long time. Yes, I’m a misanthrope.
Omir, ya outta make a trip a little east of you, Wash’s inner valley is quite toasty these days. Of course, no complaints here as last year we had wildfires on 3 sides of us, burning about 300,000 acres. They say the wildfires spread soot all over the snow caps & what’s left of the glaciers adding to their melting.