Earth ChangesS


Bell

AMO, The Key Global Climate Indicator

Matt Vooro
IceCap
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:51 UTC
The AMO is an ongoing series of long-duration changes in the sea surface temperature of the North Atlantic Ocean, with cool and warm phases that may last for 20-40 years at a time and a difference of about 1F between extremes. These changes are natural and have been occurring for at least the last 1,000 years. [per NOAA].

The AMO index is calculated at NOAAPSD by using the Kaplan SST data set [5x5], determining the area weighted average over the North Atlantic over 0-70N and then detrending this data. The average AMO index or the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation index went negative or cool in January 2009 The average for the first 5 months this year is about [-0.06] . It has been cooling since 2003. In the past, the very cold seasons of North America and especially the East coast happened when the annual average AMO went cool [ as low as -0.405] in the 1970's.

It seems that this level of cool AMO may be several years off as the AMO cooling rate appears to be still slow. Back in 1964 it took about 8 years before the AMO went to [-0.3] by 1971. Review of other periods for similar rates of decline of the AMO show a spread of about 2-8 years. However the solar activity was much higher during 1964-1972 and things may cool down faster currently with extended solar minimum and anticipated low future solar cycles. If AMO does drop faster, then the cold weather like 1964-1979 may be the norm here much sooner and the East Coast will cool down as well as will the globe. The most sustained number of low AMO levels was during the cold spell of 1902 -1925 and again the 1970's.
Read More...
Hourglass

The chills of Global Cooling

Deroy Murdock
Scripps News
Thu, 09 Jul 2009 01:28 UTC
As cap-and-trade advocates tie their knickers in knots over so-called "global warming," Mother Nature refuses to cooperate. Earth's temperatures continue a chill that began 11 years ago. As global cooling accelerates, global-warmists kick, scream, and push their pet theory -- just like little kids who cover their ears and stomp their feet when older children tell them not to bother waiting up for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Consider how the globe cooled last month:

-- June in Manhattan averaged 67.5 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.7 degrees below normal -- the coldest average since 1958. The National Weather Service stated July 1: "The last time that Central Park hit 85 in May...but not in June was back in 1903."

-- In Phoenix, June's high temperatures were below 100 degrees for 15 days straight, the first such June since 1913. In California's desert, Yucca Valley's June average was 83.5, 8.5 degrees below normal. Downtown Los Angeles averaged 74.5 degrees, five below normal.

-- Boston saw temperatures 4.7 degrees below normal. "This is the second coldest average high temp since 1872," veteran meteorologist and Weather Channel alumnus Joseph D'Aleo reports at Icecap.com. "It has been so cool and so cloudy that trees in northern New England are starting to show colors that normally first appear in September." Looking abroad, D'Aleo noted: "Southern Brazil had one of the coldest Junes in decades, and New Zealand has had unusual cold and snow again this year."
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Another Meteorologist Dissents: 'Does carbon dioxide drive the climate? The answer is no!'

Marc Morano
Climate Depot
Sun, 12 Jul 2009 01:11 UTC
Chief Meteorologist David Paul, a holder of the AMS (American Meteorological Society) Seal of Approval and the upgraded AMS CBM (Certified Broadcast Meteorologist) holds a degree in meteorology and is currently at Louisiana's KLFY TV10, dissented from man-made global warming fears in July 2009.

"Is there a climate crisis? I say, absolutely not!" Paul wrote in a July 8, 2009 article on KLFY TV 10's website. "Does carbon dioxide drive the climate? The answer is no! Natural cycles play a much bigger role with the sun at the top of the list," Paul explained. "There's much more driving the climate than carbon dioxide. There are so many variables at work, known and unknown, that not a single person, or computer model, can predict the future climate for sure," Paul wrote.

"Then there's El Nino Southern Oscillation, the North Atlantic Oscillation, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation, the Arctic Oscillation, the Pacific-North American Teleconnection, Milankovitch forcing, ocean variations, and so on and so forth. Is there any way to model all these variables? Again, the answer is no! The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has tried and failed!" Paul added.
Read More...
Igloo

New Zealand: May the coldest on record, Niwa figures show

Matt Stewart
Wairarapa Times-Age
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:06 UTC
Wairarapa certainly played its part in the record-breaking chill that gripped the country during May, with Martinborough plunged into gloom courtesy of a paltry 92 hours of sunshine.

Niwa senior climate scientist Georgina Griffiths said May "broke records from one end of the country to the other - it was the coldest May on record", and there was nothing much to toast in the South Wairarapa wine village, which registered 69 percent of normal sunshine hours for May - the lowest figure for the town since records began.

"In May, Martinborough was gray, gloomy and depressing," she said.

"In June, the east coast strips of both islands were gloomy while sun shone around the rest of the country, like Hamilton which had record sunshine hours," Ms Griffiths said.

Below normal June sunshine (75 - 90 percent of normal) blighted coastal Otago, coastal Canterbury and the East Cape, she said.

It was wet too with double the normal rainfall for May (about 200 percent of normal) in Wairarapa, Canterbury and Otago while much of Northland, Auckland, Wellington and Southland got at least 150 percent of normal May rainfall.
Read More...
Magnify

US: Searchers shovel Northwest dirt seeking giant worm

Nicholas K. Geranios
Associated Press
Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:44 UTC
Image
© AP Photo/Dean Hare
The giant Palouse earthworm has taken on mythic qualities in this vast agricultural region that stretches from eastern Washington into the Idaho panhandle - its very name evoking the fictional sandworms from "Dune" or those vicious creatures from the movie "Tremors."

The worm is said to secrete a lily-like smell when handled, spit at predators, and live in burrows 15 feet deep. There have been only a handful of sightings.

But scientists hope to change that this summer with researchers scouring the Palouse region in hopes of finding more of the giant earthworms. Conservationists also want the Obama administration to protect the worm as an endangered species, even though little research has been done on it.
Read More...
Hourglass

US: Chicago has its coolest July 8 in 118 years

Tom Skilling
Chicago Tribune
Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:15 UTC
For the 12th time this meteorological summer (since June 1), daytime highs failed to reach 70 degrees Wednesday. Only one other year in the past half century has hosted so many sub-70-degree days up to this point in a summer season -- 1969, when 14 such days occurred.

Wednesday's paltry 65-degree high at O'Hare International Airport (an early-May-level temperature and a reading 18 degrees below normal) was also the city's coolest July 8 high in 118 years -- since a 61-degree high on the date in 1891.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

Toxic Substance Allows Birds to "See" Magnetic Field

Matt Kaplan
National Geographic News
Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:00 UTC
Owl Eyes
© Tim Laman/NGSAn African goshawk is seen on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. Low amounts of a toxic substance give birds the ability to "see" Earth's magnetic field as they navigate on long journeys.
A toxic substance plays a key role in helping birds migrate, a new study says.

Previous research had shown that birds seem to have an internal compass that allows them to "see" Earth's magnetic field. This magnetic vision guides them on long journeys.

Scientists have also studied a protein molecule, called cryptochrome, that drives the chemical processes behind the birds' magnetic abilities.

But what the molecule was reacting with to create birds' special sight has been a mystery - until now.

Due to a laboratory mishap, scientists have discovered that toxic superoxides may be the previously missed ingredient.
Read More...
Bizarro Earth

US: Hairless Mystery Animal Photographed

Loren Coleman
Crpytomundo
Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:07 UTC
The following animal jumped into the trunk of someone's car in Goodhue, Minnesota, near Minneapolis, and was driven home (allegedly) before being photographed.

Hairless animal
© Unknown
Hairless animal II
© Unknown
Read More...
Life Preserver

Boston has Sixth Coldest June on Record

Angela Zalucha
The Tech
Sat, 11 Jul 2009 06:19 UTC
As you are well aware, June was unseasonably cold. The mean temperature for June was 63.3°F, which ties it with June 1982 as the sixth coldest June on record in Boston since records began in 1872. Average temperatures of various sorts are often reported by meteorologists, such as the average high or low for a particular day of the year. A statistical quantity that is often overlooked is the standard deviation. That is, when a record occurs, how statistically unlikely is that event compared with the mean?

Your intuition tells you that the standard deviation for Boston temperatures is probably high, since the weather varies greatly from day to day. In places like Los Angeles, California, or Phoenix, Arizona, however, the temperature is fairly constant on a day-to-day time scale, and so the standard deviation is low. Even from month to month, the standard deviation of temperature may vary. For example, in Boston the standard deviation is higher in January than in July.
Read More...
Alarm Clock

Tasmania as cold as ice: Temperatures plummet eight below average

Brett Dutschke
Weather Zone
Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:01 UTC
Bitterly cold weather has been gripping Tasmania as temperatures plummet as much as eight below average.

Widespread frost has affected much of the state in the last few mornings and has been severe in central and eastern parts. Liawenee has had minimum temperatures of minus seven degrees in the last two days, six degrees below average.

Some valley locations, such as Bushy Park and Ouse, which dipped to minus four on Wednesday morning, failed to get within seven degrees of the average maximum. Bushy Park only reached three degrees and Ouse four. Fog and a lack of wind were the main culprits, hampering any warmth from the sun. For Bushy park this is likely to be its coldest day in more than two years and coldest July day in at least eight years.
Read More...