Earth ChangesS


Bell

ITCZ Creeping Northward over the Past 300 Years

ITCZ
© NASAA satellite view of the ITCZ. Note the clusters of broken clouds aligned just north of the equator (central/eastern Pacific region) in this image.

New research from the University of Washington indicates that the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ), which is a persistent band of showers and heavy thunderstorms that produces heavy rainfall near the equator, has been creeping northward for more than 300 years now. The zone, on average, has been moving northward at just less than 1 mile a year.

The ITCZ normally fluctuates between 3 and 10 degrees north of the equator, depending on the time of the year.

Researchers believe that global warming is probably the reason for this northward trend.

Alarm Clock

Ocean temperatures: The new bluff in alarmism

There has been a change in direction by the alarmists, as shown by their new "Synthesis Report." The independent scientists noticed it during the Wong-Fielding meeting.

The alarmists have abandoned air temperatures as a measure of global temperature, because the air temperature graphs are just too hard to argue with (like the second figure below, from the Skeptics Handbook). Instead they've switched to ocean temperatures, which they often disguise as ocean heat content (a huge number like 15×10²² Joules sounds much more scary than the warming it implies of 0.003° C/year).

All three pages of the Synthesis Report that deal with 'evidence' are about factors or trends that tell us nothing about whether or not the warming is due to carbon emissions. If God put the galaxy in a toaster, sea levels would rise, ocean heat content would increase, and ice would melt.
energy content climate components
© unknown

Notice how the graph above from the Synthesis Report that came out this month doesn't include the last six years of data? Carrier pigeons from the remote worldwide network of Argo buoys make it back to base eventually, but the world's leading team of climate researchers seem to have trouble googling "argo". Not coincidentally, measurements of ocean heat capacity from 2003-2009 aren't the numbers Team AGW were looking for. Indeed Craig Loehle has calculated the ocean has lost about 10% of the gain listed above since since 2003. (More info here).

Monkey Wrench

UK: Giant Naked Goddess to be Carved into Hillside

Image
© PA 400 metre long naked "Green Goddess", which was designed by artist Charles Jencks, and will be carved into the Northumberland landscape.
A 400-yard naked "Green Goddess" is to be carved into the Northumberland landscape, under a new plan revealed by a mining company.

Dubbed the "Goddess of the North", Northumberlandia will be made from two million tonnes of earth dug out from an open cast mine in Cramlington, and tower 112ft into the northern sky.

Document

June was cooler than usual in Los Angeles

Los Angeles - June was especially gloomy in Southern California, with temperatures in Los Angeles below normal every day of the month.

The National Weather Service says the region has gone through "a fairly noteworthy stretch of cool weather."

June's average daily high in downtown Los Angeles was 74.5 degrees, five degrees below normal.

The downtown daily high only reached the 80-degree mark or higher twice in June. The last time it was that cool was in June 1982, when there was only one 80-degree or higher day.

Evil Rays

UAH Global Temperature Anomaly for June 2009 ~ ZERO

June 2009 temp anomaly
© UAH

The was a lot of speculation last year that our global temperature would recover from the huge drops last spring. While there has been some recovery, the overall global temperature trend since 1999 has been the subject of much debate. What is not debatable is that the current global temperature anomaly, as determined by a leading authority on global satellite temperature measurements, says we have no departure from "normal" this month. Given the U.S. Senate is about to vote upon the most complex and costly plan to regulate greenhouse gases, while the EPA suppresses earlier versions of the chart shown below from a senior analyst, this should give some pause to those who are rational thinkers. For those that see only dogma, I expect this will be greeted with jeers. - Anthony

Vader

The EPA Silences a Climate Skeptic

Wherever Jim Hansen is right now -- whatever speech the "censored" NASA scientist is giving -- perhaps he'll find time to mention the plight of Alan Carlin. Though don't count on it.

Mr. Hansen, as everyone in this solar system knows, is the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Starting in 2004, he launched a campaign against the Bush administration, claiming it was censoring his global-warming thoughts and fiddling with the science. It was all a bit of a hoot, given Mr. Hansen was already a world-famous devotee of the theory of man-made global warming, a reputation earned with some 1,400 speeches he'd given, many while working for Mr. Bush. But it gave Democrats a fun talking point, one the Obama team later picked up.

Chalkboard

Cool May, June in New Zealand near 50 year record

Forecasters last night withdrew warnings of thunderstorms.

MetService had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Northland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel and the Bay of Plenty, valid until 10am today but that was dropped last night.

It has also issued a severe weather watch for Otago and Canterbury, as it expects snowfall in these areas.

Weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said a howling wind from the Tasman Sea was moving across northwestern parts of the North Island last night and was expected to reach Bay of Plenty this morning.

"This active front will bring squally showers, which includes the possibility of dangerous gusts, maybe tornadoes, on the northern coasts."

The front is expected to move quickly over the North Island before clearing East Cape by noon today. Some sun may peak through the gloomy weather this afternoon, but bouts of rain are expected throughout the weekend.

Bizarro Earth

Colfax County site of another earthquake

A minor earthquake was recorded in western Colfax County shortly before 1 a.m. June 27, the second such quake to be triggered in the area in the last two months.

The June 25 quake of 3.0 magnitude was recorded as having its epicenter 19 miles north of Cimarron, according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center. The center also placed the quake as being 23 miles northeast of Eagle Nest and 30 miles southwest of Raton.

On April 30, an earthquake of 3.5 magnitude was recorded 19 miles west of Raton.

Attention

Earthquakes hit West Sumatra and N. Sulawesi

An earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale jolted Padang and several neighboring towns in West Sumatra at 3:51 p.m. on Thursday.

The quake caused panic among residents at the affected areas, the local Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said.

It said the quake was recorded around 10 kilometers (km) under the sea off Bungus Teluk Kabung district in Padang.

Earlier in the day, a 5.9 earthquake rocked several parts of North Sulawesi. There were no immediate reports of casualties or material damage.

Ladybug

South Africa: Honey bee disease may be countrywide - survey

Preliminary survey results of bee colonies released on Tuesday point to the unabated spread of a disease, American foulbrood (AFB), throughout the Western Cape and beyond.

AFB is an infectious disease found in honey bees which attacks their larvae and is capable of destroying entire colonies in a year. Early results showed that more than 80 percent of the 45 samples tested came back positive for the disease. Officials are still waiting for more than 450 samples to be tested.

"It's looking increasingly unlikely that eradication and containment will be possible. It's looking increasingly likely that we have a regionwide, even countrywide, problem," said Mike Allsopp, a honeybee researcher with the Agricultural Research Centre (ARC) in Stellenbosch.