From the global warming is just a theory page .... 96 f***ing degrees F in Talkeetna, AK

[Botany]

Melt off the arctic ice pack and shift the jet stream and all kinds of crazy stuff can happen. We really
have "screwed the pooch" to our only home planet.
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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57590963/record-heat-wave-hits-alaska/

Record heat wave hits Alaska

snip

I've been doing meteorology for 30 years and the jet stream the last three years has done stuff I've never seen," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private service Weather Underground. "The fact that the jet stream is unusual could be an indicator of something. I'm not saying we know what it is."

Right now, wind patterns in Alaska are carrying air in from the south and southeast. The state's all-time record high was set on Tuesday in Talkeetna, when temperatures spiked at 96 degrees. The small town's previous high was 91 degrees. In the town of McGrath, temperatures reached degrees. Just a few weeks ago, McGrath residents had to bundle up as temperatures dipped to 15 degrees in May.

snip

The jet stream, or more precisely the polar jet stream, is the one that affects the Northern Hemisphere. It dips down from Alaska, across the United States or Canada, then across the Atlantic and over Europe and "has everything to do with the weather we experience," Francis said.

It all starts with the difference between cold temperatures in the Arctic and warmer temperatures in the mid-latitudes, she explained. The bigger the temperature difference, the stronger the jet stream, the faster it moves and the straighter it flows. But as the northern polar regions warm two to three times faster than the rest of the world, augmented by unprecedented melting of Arctic sea ice and loss in snow cover, the temperature difference shrinks. Then the jet stream slows and undulates more.

[longship]

1. It's not just the warmth, it's the disruptions of normal weather patterns.

A good article. It gets it precisely correct.

The interesting thing about all this is that the observed changes are eclipsing current climate prediction models. That has climate scientists more than a bit alarmed.

The deniers are saying a warmer climate is good, and that CO2 is great for plants. But they ignore the disruptions to how we've built our modern civilization. We grow wheat in Kansas and corn in Nebraska and Iowa. What happens when those areas are no longer able to sustain those crops?

And the one irrefutable data point for warming, sea level, speaks volumes that global climate change is real and very serious. Just ask the Maldives. Or, those living at Far Rockaway or Staten Island.

Thanks for the great post.

[Botany]

4. We have universal gas laws that > 200 years old and have been proven right time after time ....

.... and one of those laws shows that the more CO2 you have in a body of gas the
more heat that body of gas can hold but thanks to billions of dollars by the coal,
gas, and oil industries that have been spent and are still being spent today we have
a large % of people in America who believe that global warming is a hoax.

The science and data is all out there and it is beyond all doubt that we have
changed the world's climate by our use of fossil fuels.

BTW when you get a chance .... Ohio State's Lonnie Thompson is really a great man.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/03/science/earth/lonnie-thompson-climate-scientist-battles-time.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

[longship]

6. Thanks! nt

[Uncle Joe]

2. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Botany.

[SoCalDem]

3. And, I've barely had to use my A/C out here in the DESERT..

Yesterday the high was 67 degrees// We are LOVING it

to you

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

5. Wonder what Sarah Palin has to say about it?

I love when a cold front or a snow storm comes in and all the Conservatives think they are being so damned cleaver by saying "What Global Warming?", but they are silent when it's 97 degrees in Alaska.

[Botany]

7. In some winters in OH we get more snow because of global warming .....

.... because we have more moisture in the air and the Great Lakes and not
freezing over which gives us more "lake effect snow" later on in the season.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

8. Exactly...

I'm in West Central PA, and we get a ton of lake effect snow here too. They are too stupid to realize, that yes, Global Warming IS causing it to snow!

Like I said, they just think they are being so clever and have everything figured out!

[Botany]

9. I flat out will not talk with people who deny ....

... that climate change has a man made cause anymore ..... I can spot their talkling points
a mile away; What about sun spots? What about climate change being a normal function
of the earth? What about anthropogenic carbon?