How Global Warming Can Start an Ice Age October 12, 2015
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, In The News.Tags: Environment, Global Warming, weather
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In the last month, there’s been much attention to a cool patch in the North Atlantic Ocean, where record cold temperatures over the past eight months present a stark contrast to a globe that is experiencing record warmth. And although there is certainly no consensus on the matter yet, some scientists think this pattern may be a sign of long-feared consequences of climate change — a slowing of North Atlantic ocean circulation, due to a freshening of surface waters.
The cause, goes the thinking, would be the rapidly melting Greenland ice sheet, whose large freshwater flows may weaken ocean “overturning” by reducing the density of cold surface waters (colder, salty water is denser). If cold, salty waters don’t sink in the North Atlantic and flow back southward toward Antarctica at depth, then warm surface waters won’t flow northward to take their place.
Now, two new studies just out in Nature Geoscience help to underscore why scientists have a good reason to think this sort of thing can happen — namely, because it appears to have happened in the Earth’s distant past. And not just once but on multiple occasions.
Back in 2007, I posted this sun spot research that predicted that by 2020 we would be cooled by a low solar activity ( a cooler sun) period. http://terryorisms.com/2007/06/23/read-the-sunspots/ 
Extreme Weather – The New Norm May 4, 2013
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, In The News, Video.Tags: amount of rainfall, climate, climate models, Environment, Global Warming, nasa study, Nature, Science, weather
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The climate will swing to extremes as it tries to find a new equilibrium, in response to the warming climate. Siberian winters will be colder, heat waves extended, etc. This report says that if you are in a rainy location, expect more deluges, and if you live in a dry area, expect more droughts. Specifically, the new study found that although the 14 climate models differ when it comes to the amount of rainfall in individual locations such as cities, over larger areas, they all point to the same average picture. That is, for every single degree Fahrenheit the global average temperature climbs, heavy rainfall will increase in wet areas by 3.9 percent, while dry areas will experience a 2.6 percent increase in time periods without any rainfall.
Rain will get more extreme thanks to global warming, says NASA study | The Verge.
Lenticular Clouds Over Mt. Rainier November 7, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Enviroment.Tags: clouds, weather
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Moist air forced to flow upward around mountain tops can create lenticular clouds. Water droplets condense from moist air cooled below the dew point, and clouds are opaque groups of water droplets. Waves in the air that would normally be seen horizontally can then be seen vertically, by the different levels where clouds form. On some days the city of Seattle, Washington, USA, is treated to an unusual sky show when lenticular clouds form near Mt. Rainier, a large mountain that looms just under 100 kilometers southeast of the city. This image of a spectacular cluster of lenticular clouds was taken in 2008 December. Click picture to enlarge. Credit & Copyright: Tim Thompson
via APOD: 2012 November 4 – Lenticular Clouds Over Washington.
Most Powerful Storm Ever Recorded October 13, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.Tags: Hurricane, Typhoon, weather
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On Oct. 12, 1979, Super Typhoon Tip’s central pressure dropped to 870 mb (25.69 inches Hg), the lowest sea-level pressure ever observed on Earth, according to NOAA. Peak wind gusts reached 190 mph (306 kph) while the storm churned over the western Pacific.
Besides having unsurpassed intensity, Super Typhoon Tip is also remembered for its massive size. Tip’s diameter of circulation spanned approximately 1,380 miles (2,220 km), setting a record for the largest storm on Earth. The storm’s huge diameter was exactly the same as the distance from New York City to Dallas.
Accuweather’s Mark Mancuso has the details: Super Typhoon
Tornado Of Fire Caught On Tape In Australia Fire Twister September 19, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, Video.Tags: Australia, Fire Tornado, weather
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THERE’S something mean and magical about Australia’s Outback. An Alice Springs filmmaker captured both when a whirlwind of fire erupted before his eyes.
Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film and Television was scouting locations near Curtin Springs station, about 80km from Ularu, last week when confronted by a fiery phenomenon. He had just finished his tour of the station when workers encountered difficulties with a grader. So he went to help them. A small fire was burning in nearby bushland, so Mr Tangey decided to start filming. He caught the sight of his life. A twister touched down on the spot fire, fanning it into a furious tower of flame.
“It sounded like a jet fighter going by, yet there wasn’t a breath of wind where we were,” he told the Northern Territory News. “You would have paid $1000 a head if you knew it was about to happen.” The column of fire danced about the landscape for about 40 minutes, he said, as he and the station workers stood transfixed. There was talk of making a quick getaway, Mr Tangey said. But everyone was too hypnotised to feel scared – and he continued furiously filming. “The bizarre thing was that it rarely moved,” he said. “These things just stood there because there was no wind to move them … but it was flickering incredibly fast.”
Darwin weather forecaster David Matthews said small twisters were common in isolated areas. But the fiery vortex was highly unusual. “The flames would have assisted by trying to suck in air and that could have helped generate those circular winds,” Mr Matthews said.
via Tornado Of Fire Caught On Tape In Australia Fire Twister – YouTube.
“Kelvin–Helmholtz instability” Covers Florida Condos February 11, 2012
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Enviroment.Tags: clouds, Florida, Fog, weather
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Panama City Beach, Florida — Fog rolls up along the shore of Panama City Beach, Florida on Feb. 5th, 2012. Maria found this picture, but Peggy Sadler shared
the link below to the full set.
via PhotoBlog – Spectacular ‘cloud tsunami’ rolls over Florida high-rise condos.
Terrifying Cloud Threatens Neighborhood August 4, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos.Tags: Cool photos, Tornado, weather
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The father-of-three said: ‘It was a nice evening and the sun was shining when I suddenly heard claps of thunder, which was strange.
‘My wife went to look out the front door and saw the clouds blowing up from the south.
‘I took one look and headed back into the house to get my camera.
‘We watched the storm for a few minutes when I noticed that the cloud was starting to spin.
‘I got my ladder and climbed up on my roof to get a better view.
‘It never got the momentum to create a tornado, but it did look like it was going to happen before out eyes.
‘We watched for 45 minutes as it slowly moved back into cloud formation.’
via Terrifying moment vast cloud threatened to engulf whole street | Mail Online.
Extreme Weather – The New Normal? February 6, 2011
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, Science & Technology.Tags: Environment, Global Cooling, Global Warming, weather
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2011 Blizzard
The Earth’s northern magnetic pole was moving towards Russia at a rate of about five miles annually. That progression to the East had been happening for decades.
Suddenly, in the past decade the rate sped up. Now the magnetic pole is shifting East at a rate of 40 miles annually, an increase of 800 percent. And it continues to accelerate.
Recently, as the magnetic field fluctuates, NASA has discovered “cracks” in it. This is worrisome as it significantly affects the ionosphere, troposphere wind patterns, and atmospheric moisture. All three things have an effect on the weather.
Forget about global warming—man-made or natural—what drives planetary weather patterns is the climate and what drives the climate is the sun’s magnetosphere and its electromagnetic interaction with a planet’s own magnetic field. At the conclusion of this alarming article comes this prediction…
One of the most stunning signs of the approaching Ice Age is the world’s precessional wobble has stopped.
So, the start of a new Ice Age is marked by a magnetic pole reversal, increased volcanic activity, larger and more frequent earthquakes, tsunamis, colder winters, superstorms and the halting of the Earth’s precessional wobble.
Unfortunately, all of those conditions are being met. (more…)
Blame the Cold Winters on Global Warming December 26, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, In The News.Tags: Environment, weather
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As global temperatures have warmed and as Arctic sea ice has melted over the past two and a half decades, more moisture has become available to fall as snow over the continents. So the snow cover across Siberia in the fall has steadily increased.
The sun’s energy reflects off the bright white snow and escapes back out to space. As a result, the temperature cools. When snow cover is more abundant in Siberia, it creates an unusually large dome of cold air next to the mountains, and this amplifies the standing waves in the atmosphere, just as a bigger rock in a stream increases the size of the waves of water flowing by.
The increased wave energy in the air spreads both horizontally, around the Northern Hemisphere, and vertically, up into the stratosphere and down toward the earth’s surface. In response, the jet stream, instead of flowing predominantly west to east as usual, meanders more north and south. In winter, this change in flow sends warm air north from the subtropical oceans into Alaska and Greenland, but it also pushes cold air south from the Arctic on the east side of the Rockies. Meanwhile, across Eurasia, cold air from Siberia spills south into East Asia and even southwestward into Europe.
Ya Gotta’ Love That Snow December 5, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Humor.Tags: Cool photos, Humor, Snow, weather
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Video of Hurricane Igor from Space September 14, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Enviroment, Video.Tags: clouds, Hurricane, weather
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A time-lapse video of Category 4 Hurricane Igor. Click on the link below and be patient. It is a big file to load.Thanks to mariner Peter Chance.
100913_g15_igor_vis_anim_1931-2033UTC.gif (GIF Image, 960×720 pixels).
253mph is New World Record Wind Gust January 27, 2010
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.Tags: weather
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The concession came three days after the World Meteorological Organization posted a snippet on its Web site saying a panel of experts reviewing extreme weather and climate data turned up a 253 mph gust on Australia’s Barrow Island during Cyclone Olivia in 1996.
That tops the 231 mph record set atop Mount Washington on April 12, 1934. “Somehow it fell through the cracks and the Australians didn’t think it was a big deal,” he said. “We hear that, and it kinds of blows our minds, but of course, we’re weather fans and we’re tuned into that sort of thing.” http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100126/ap_on_sc/us_wind_record_toppled
See The Earth’s Weather At A Glance August 2, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Cool Sites, Enviroment, Streamingvideo.Tags: clouds, Earth, Streaming Video, weather
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Click on this image to see a video composite of all of the cloud movements for the last 24 hours (in 3 hour increments) in relation to the Earth below.
Extraordinary Clouds May 31, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Enviroment.Tags: Cool photos, Environment, weather
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Click Picture for Slide Show
Extraordinary Clouds and The Cloud Collector’s Handbook – Telegraph.
Solar Storm Disaster in 2012? March 25, 2009
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, Science & Technology.Tags: Astronomy, Disaster, Electrical Grid, Energy, weather
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Our modern way of life, with its reliance on technology, has unwittingly exposed us to an extraordinary danger: plasma balls spewed from the surface of the sun could wipe out our power grids, with catastrophic consequences.
The “perfect storm” is most likely on a spring or autumn night in a year of heightened solar activity – something like 2012. Around the equinoxes, the orientation of the Earth’s field to the sun makes us particularly vulnerable to a plasma strike.
The projections of just how catastrophic make chilling reading. “We’re moving closer and closer to the edge of a possible disaster,” says Daniel Baker, a space weather expert based at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and chair of the NAS committee responsible for the report.
According to the NAS report, the impact of what it terms a “severe geomagnetic storm scenario” could be as high as $2 trillion. And that’s just the first year after the storm. The NAS puts the recovery time at four to 10 years.
via Space storm alert: 90 seconds from catastrophe – space – 23 March 2009 – New Scientist.
South-Central USA Most Deadly December 18, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.Tags: Enviroment, weather
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Heat and drought caused 19.6 percent of total deaths from natural hazards, with summer thunderstorms causing 18.8 percent and winter weather causing 18.1 percent, the team at the University of South Carolina found. Earthquakes, wildfires and hurricanes combined were responsible for fewer than 5 percent of all hazard deaths.
The most dangerous places to live are much of the South, because of the heat risk, the hurricane coasts and the Great Plains states with their severe weather, Cutter said.
The south-central United States is also a dangerous area, with floods and tornadoes. California is relatively safe, they found.
via Reuters AlertNet – ‘Death map’ shows heat a big hazard to Americans.
Rogue Wave Hits Maine Harbor November 5, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.Tags: Environ, Surfing, weather
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In 15 minutes, the water rose 12 feet, then receded. And then it happened again. It occurred three times, she said, each time ripping apart docks and splitting wooden pilings.
via Massive waves a mystery at Maine harbor – The Boston Globe
Video – In a Gale Crashing Through 40′ Seas September 28, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment, Video.Tags: storms, Surfing, weather
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Here’s a peek to see what it’s like in the middle of a raging storm, courtesy of the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk in the Western Pacific. To put in perspective, the Kitty Hawk is more than 1,000 feet long and the deck is about 70 feet above the ocean surface. Her cruising speed is 30 knots (34.5 MPH) and she’s probably going about 20 knots in this video. I’m sure they wished they moved that helicopter farther back off the deck before those seas hit.
Winds: 40-50 knots. Seas: 35-45 feet.
What kind of surf would this storm send us? After significant swell decay within the first 1000 miles and a slower rate of decay after 2000 miles from the storm fetch. For most surf spots:
Estimated Surf 1000 miles away: 15-30 foot+ faces
Estimated Surf 2000 miles away: 12-20 foot faces
Estimated Surf 4000 miles away: 8-12 foot faces
Estimated Surf 5000 miles away: 6-10 foot faces
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.701469&w=425&h=350&fv=%26file%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fmedia1.surfline.com%2F2008%2F09_sep%2Fheavy_seas_forecasters_640.flv%E2%84%91%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.surfline.com%2Fforecasters%2Fblog%2Fboat.jpg%26backcolor%3D000033%26frontcolor%3D336699%26lightcolor%3Dff9900%26stretching%3Dfill]
Ike Pictures September 20, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos.Tags: Hurricane, weather
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Click on this link from Randy Marks for a 28 picture slide show.
The short – but eventful – life of Ike – The Big Picture – Boston.com
Tornado Pictures April 1, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Cool photos, Photography.Tags: Lightning, storms, Tornado, weather
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Lightning’s Secrets Revealed March 31, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Enviroment.Tags: Cool photos, Lightning, Science, storms, weather
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Researchers unravel mystery of lightning diversity | NetworkWorld.com Community
For example, most people don’t see lightning see lightning strikes that go from clouds to the ground, but some lightning goes upward, forming blue jets and gigantic jets. Perhaps the most dangerous lightning appears as “bolts from the blue” – lightning that begins upward, but then moves sideways and then downward to hit the ground as much as three miles from a thunderstorm.
About 90% of lightning occurs inside clouds and is not visible to the casual observer, researchers said.
(more…)
Waves of Clouds February 9, 2008
Posted by tkcollier in Streamingvideo, Video.Tags: clouds, sky, weather
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I think Randy Marks put it best upon seeing this time-lapse video of the sky: “Cool! Matches underwater surf video . . .Universe as undulating maya ~~~We are the same as ‘Finding Nemo'”
[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.476916&w=425&h=350&fv=]
