Climate science
-
With Tropical Storm Dorian strengthening in the Atlantic Ocean and possibly headed for the Southeast over Labor Day weekend, now is a great time to review what the National Hurricane Center’s “cone of uncertainty” means so that you can take appropriate actions if the cone approaches your area. Note that you do NOT need to…
-
Here is an interesting story about the prediction of Atlantic hurricane seasons by a type of bird called a veery, as published in Audubon magazine. A study by an ornithologist showed that in years which turned out to have bad hurricane seasons, the birds finished their nesting seasons early to prepare for their migration to…
-
We know from previous experience that large volcanic eruptions like Mount Pinatubo in 1992 can push aerosol droplets high into the atmosphere, reflecting incoming sunlight and causing a cooling effect that can last for several years. A new research report published this week shows that a mysterious eruption that caused global cooling in the 6th…
-
If you have ever watched “The Day After Tomorrow” movie starring Dennis Quaid, you might have noticed early in the movie that climate scientist Quaid notes that the North Atlantic Ocean Current is slowing down, which helped lead to the climate crisis depicted in the movie. While most of the climate science in the movie…
-
We know from archaeological ruins that there have been great civilizations in the past that seemingly disappeared from view. Some of those may have been decimated by disease or warfare, but some of them almost certainly were harmed by changes in climate such as multi-year droughts that may have made it impossible for them to…
-
One of the surprising things about increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is that higher CO2 levels appear to lead to a decrease in nutrients in the crops. That counters the argument that more CO2 has a fertilizing effect on plants which is often used to minimize the harm from rising levels of greenhouse…
-
Yale Climate Connections has an interesting story about the importance of the Great Smoky Mountains cloud cover on maintaining the local climate through balancing incoming and outgoing energy. Cloud forests at the tops of the ridges are maintained by dense clouds of microscopic water droplets and other areas benefit from the cloudy and moist conditions…