Eh. When you hear about "record breaking weather!!!!!1!!1!!one!!!", what they tend to fail to mention is that the records only go back to the late 19th century. And if you recall, the planet was just coming out of a "Little Ice Age" at the time.
So yeah, we're going to see warmer weather. Record-breaking, even.
You listed some wonky weather from the last few years, but that's local phenomena. My home-town (Burlington VT) still hasn't seen the record cold of the winter of 1969/1970 broken, nor the record snowfall of 1970/1971. Six years later, when Buffalo NY was inundated, we had a "typical" blizzard-filled winter.
Is it warmer now than it was in the 15th century? We literally don't know. We know about some global trends of that time, but aside from the urban heat island effect (from the sun shining on all that pavement), we don't actually have human activity nailed down to the global warming we're seeing.
But let's not go overboard: there is global warming, and anyone who says otherwise is actively not paying attention. The Arctic ice cap has already receded miles from shore. Ocean levels are definitely rising. And the intensity of hurricanes, mapped across the thirty-some-odd-year intensity cycle, is rising.
But let's not go overboard: there were more named storms this year than any other, but we didn't have the ability to see, measure, or identify tropical depressions worth naming in the mid-Atlantic until only fifteen years ago (and that was at the "trough" of the latest hurricane-intensity cycle).
I far prefer it when everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-25 06:26 pm (UTC)So yeah, we're going to see warmer weather. Record-breaking, even.
You listed some wonky weather from the last few years, but that's local phenomena. My home-town (Burlington VT) still hasn't seen the record cold of the winter of 1969/1970 broken, nor the record snowfall of 1970/1971. Six years later, when Buffalo NY was inundated, we had a "typical" blizzard-filled winter.
Is it warmer now than it was in the 15th century? We literally don't know. We know about some global trends of that time, but aside from the urban heat island effect (from the sun shining on all that pavement), we don't actually have human activity nailed down to the global warming we're seeing.
But let's not go overboard: there is global warming, and anyone who says otherwise is actively not paying attention. The Arctic ice cap has already receded miles from shore. Ocean levels are definitely rising. And the intensity of hurricanes, mapped across the thirty-some-odd-year intensity cycle, is rising.
But let's not go overboard: there were more named storms this year than any other, but we didn't have the ability to see, measure, or identify tropical depressions worth naming in the mid-Atlantic until only fifteen years ago (and that was at the "trough" of the latest hurricane-intensity cycle).
I far prefer it when everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.