What do you think about the melting glaciers?
[QUOTE=mhall;525011]As some of you may know I am a bit of a weather watcher and even fancy myself as a half a ss backyard Meterologist, lol. I track weather and events as a hobby, yea I know it's weird. But here is an interesting tidbit about this year you may not have noticed.
Most areas in Kentucky especially the northern section, most of central blugrass region and even the north western parts of our state we have received precipitation either almost exactly or slighty below 50% of the year. Even a few locations that have averaged over half the year.
Here are some hard numbers using measurable precip amounts from my area which are compared to the Kentucky Mesonet site less than ten miles from my house.
January = 18 days of precip
Feb = 15 days of precip
March = 18 days of precip
April = 11 days.....note way less than an average April?
May = 17 days
June = 17 days
July = 15 days
August = 6 days, although there was a biblical rain on the 31st of over 5 inches
Sept = 9 days
Oct = 15 days
Nov = 13 days
Dec as to date no measurable precip but a serious event slated for this week Thursday through Sunday
That is a total of 154 days through 11 months or 337 days so far this year. Or approx 45.7% of this entire year it has either been raining or snowing.
Now I AM NOT a Global warming guy and totally believe weather comes in cycles but I do believe our weather around here has drastically changed in the last 20 years, why I have no idea and believe in mine or your lifetime we may very well see the other extreme to the numbers I have given here.
BTW our temps have been about average this year if not slightly below.
Here is the long and short of it...Buy good rain gear and expect to use it.......ALOT, LOL[/QUOTE]
I'm not that concerned about controlling CO2 emissions. But I was finally convinced that the Earth is getting warmer ON AVERAGE as the Glacial Ice has been melting into the Oceans more lately that before. Large chunks of ice don't melt and fall of the Antarctic Continent unless it's getting warmer.
While I'm not worried about IN flooding I do think that the more energy we have in the atmosphere the more powerful the weather will be. More storms and stronger storms and possibly a shift in the ocean currents over many years and that certainly can affect the weather here in the USA.
There is a current that brings the warmer water up into the Oceans off the East Coast of North American and it's called the Gulf Stream. It's powered by temperature difference between the earth at the Equator and the Earth at the North Pole. The Gulf Current or Stream has an impact on the weather along the East Coast and Europe as well. Similar to the El Nino current along the Pacific Coast. But both El Nino and the Gulf Stream are affected by the Earth's temperatures in various parts of the Earth.
On average the earth is getting warmer. It's the Average of the entire Globe not just a day's temperature extreme in one part of the Earth that bothers me.
And I worry that the warming could accelerate out of control if too much of the ice at the North and South Pole melts and exposed the brown colored darker earth. Ice reflects solar radiation back into space but the darker earth absorbs the radiation more than the white ice. So if the ice melts and the sun's energy hits dark earth instead at the poles then the poles will warm up much faster. That could be the tipping point that some climate scientists are talking about.
What can be done? Not a whole lot unless everyone and every country helps do their part. Good luck getting that done. To me that would be equivalent to herding cats.
Perhaps they can grow more grapes in Canada in 100 years if the Earth keeps warming up. That would mean more wine to drink for everyone. :)
