On 10 Jan 2004 at 9:28, Randall Young wrote:
> You haven't been keeping up with the news ! The latest thinking is
> that global warming actually makes the weather colder ...
[Step up onto soapbox.]
Randall isn't being facetious. (At least, I don't think so, though I
shouldn't judge his intent from so few words.) Consider the
temperature and energy distribution around the world. You have a
radiation source, i.e. the sun, that distributes energy quite
unevenly over the earth's surface. Hence you will always have big
temperature differences from pole to equator. Storms are one
mechanism to re-equilibrate that energy. Weather is a chaotic system
(chaos theory has roots in meteorology) which normally brings large
fluctuations in temperature to any given place anyway.
Now, at each pole you have massive blocks of ice that will not warm
up rapidly, let alone actually melt. Global warming effects have
been applied far more rapidly than the system can react towards a new
dynamic equilibrium. So one of the results is an increase in the
intensity and frequency of the storms and related wind patterns which
redistribute that energy. Climatologically, this might represent a
larger shift north or south in the intertropical convergence zone.
Essentially, it means that for every cold blast somewhere in the
world, there is a corresponding blast of warm air elsewhere into a
colder region. We'll experience temperatures both hotter and colder
than "normal". The overall result will be that things warm up, but
we as individuals can't see it unless we as a scientific community
take measurements over both time and space. Anyone remember the
summer of '88???
[Come down off soapbox now.]
My Triumphs are feeling lonely.
GO PATS!
--
Jim Muller
jimmuller@pop.rcn.com
'80 Spitfire, '70 GT6+
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