Climate science
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Last week in this blog I posted a couple of stories about the unusual number of warm nights experienced in New Orleans and then about questions surrounding the accuracy of the record. In response to these questions, the Louisiana State Climatologist has posted this article about what he found out about the station and…
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EarthSky has an interesting story this week on why leaves change color in the fall. Also includes some beautiful pictures of autumn foliage. Check it out at https://earthsky.org/earth/why-do-tree-leaves-turn-red-in-fall.
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A new study in Nature magazine describes a new very-long-term temperature record assembled by a scientist at Stanford University from 61 different proxy climate records. Proxy records are climate records based on things like tree rings, ocean sediments and ice cores which change depending on climate factors like temperature. The new record shows temperatures for…
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After yesterday’s post on the record number of days with a warm night in New Orleans, some of my meteorologist friends and I have been discussing why there might be such a drastic change. My friend Scott Lindstrom from the University of Wisconsin-Madison posted the graph below, which shows a step function change in the…
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One question that folks who are skeptical about global warming have is whether or not natural solar activity could be affecting the rise in temperature seen in recent decades. A number of research programs have attempted to determine if there is a relationship between sunspots or cosmic radiation and Earth’s temperature. This recent article from…
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In recent years I’ve seen a number of Facebook posts showing photos of massive dust storms moving through the Southwestern US, many of them near Phoenix. A study published this summer by NOAA meteorologists posits that the 2008 recession led to the abandonment of many farms, allowing them to serve as a source of the…
Posted in: Climate science -
While climatologists celebrated the return to autumn several weeks ago, the rest of the world is celebrating the start of astronomical fall today at 10:21 am EDT. Here are some stories about the autumnal equinox and the migration of birds. Enjoy those cooler temperatures soon! EarthSky: All you need to know about the September equinox…