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| | 2000 Weather in the News |
March 2000 Weather in the News
If you are one of the more than 1.6 million people who leave your computers on for extended periods of time without using it, you can help researchers solve problems by crunching data. Several different companies have started farming out their computer work to users worldwide. These users download software that provides a screensaver while the computer processes millions of numbers. Scientists are attempting to find answers to problems, but need more computer power and time than they currently have. By dividing up the calculations and sending out the work, computers that would otherwise be sitting idle are helping to complete the work. One problem has been solved requiring 100 quadrillion computer operations. Another use is in climate modeling. In order to make a prediction for the next 50 years, large numbers of calculations must be performed on the previous 50 years worth of data.
While some scientists are doing climate modeling, others are continuing to debate about global warming. In 1997 and 1998, there was a series of 16 consecutive months with record warmth. Intrigued, Tom Karl, of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C. took a closer look at global warming patterns. He and his colleagues perused data from the past 25 years and found that the planet has been warming at a rate of 2 degrees C per century, instead of 1.5 degrees C as previously thought. With the heating rate of 2 degrees C per century, there was a 1 in 20 chance that there would be 16 record-setting months in a row. While rare events do happen, Karl has theorized that the rate of global warming has actually increased to 3 degrees C per century. Skeptics take a different view on this story. Their point is that in order to get an accurate picture of climate trends, averages must be taken over 20 to 30 years, not just 2.
A tiny organism called the carrot-colored Bow Lake copepod has led scientists to a new discovery about pollutants. Oily, semi-volatile pollutants can travel across the globe for years, evaporating and settling over and over again. However, once they reach a colder region, they don't evaporate. These pollutants can make their way into the water supply and up the food chain. In Bow Lake, Alberta, researchers found that the copepod were highly contaminated, even though they are low on the food chain. Scientists traced 80% of the pollutants found in the organism to water melting from the Wapta Icefield. Recent warm summers increased the melting of the icefield, releasing toxins that may have been there since the 1950s.
On a lighter note, anyone with an interest in boating, fishing, or water sports and with Internet accessibility can now find forecasts especially for them. The Coastal Marine Demonstration Project is experimentally providing marine forecasts for variables such as winds, wave heights, and water temperature. In addition, they can pinpoint local weather events such as pop-up thunderstorms. These forecasts will be available through April 14th. This information can be invaluable to commercial fishermen and commercial ship captains. The website where these forecasts can be found is http://cmdp.wsicorp.com.
Finally, a recent scientific discovery deals with all the racket that snowflakes make when hitting the surface of a body of water. Snowflakes do indeed make a lot of noise when they land, although the sound is not detectable to the human ear. Scientists have noted that when a raindrop or snowflake hits the surface of the water, a tiny amount of air gets trapped between the drop and the water surface, forming a bubble. This bubble oscillates, making a sound at a frequency higher than our ears can detect. While we associate snowfall as being quiet, they can form so much background noise in water that submarine sonar equipment cannot detect ships and even other subs!
May 2000 Weather in the News
New evidence from Colorado seems to indicate that Punxsutawney Phil's climatic clock may be slipping. A long term study from Rocky Mountain Biological Lab has shown that yellow-bellied marmots are now emerging 38 days earlier from their hibernation than they did just 23 years ago. This means that if Phil resided in Boulder, he would always be predicting an early spring. However, chipmunks in central Colorado are sleeping in up to 27 days longer than they did in 1974. These changes in hibernation schedules seem related to climate change in the eastern Rockies, but the mixed behavior changes are confusing ecologists.
Here's another surprising signal. A report on Mid-West climate shows that summer and fall temperatures have cooled by about 5 degrees F over the past century in the region from Ohio to Minnesota. Much of the cooling is due to the change from forested land to farms. The higher rates of evaporation along with the reflectivity of the corn belt has made this area a bit cooler in the warm season. An unrelated earlier study showed that irrigation in the western plains has also helped cool that region.
Many folks in Florida are seeing red and it's not because of the wild fires due to recent hot, dry weather, but rather a massive increase in windstorm insurance. Rates rose by as much as 44% mainly based on computer models of hurricane frequency and damage estimates. The irritating part to Floridians is that five models were approved and used by the Florida Windstorm Underwriters Association and each came up with different answers. The storm of controversy about the method that was used may supercede the worries about the next landfalling super hurricane in the sunshine state.
Speaking of hurricanes, there is a new field of study in the atmospheric sciences called paleotempestology - or the study of ancient storms. A pair of researchers at Louisiana State University have dug deep into the marshes and coastal lakes along the Gulf shores to measure the amount of sand deposited in the bottom of these water bodies. They claim that only a super storm surge could account for the deposits and their data matches the occurrences of known storms in the past 3 centuries. Before that time, they can estimate how often giant hurricanes must have struck the region. A team at Brown University have confirmed the work with studies of sand deposits in salt marshes along the New England coast. Of course, much of this research is being underwritten by large insurance companies who are interested in frequency of serious hurricanes along the East Coast.
Finally, a colorful account of snow. Microbiologists are intrigued by snow algae which help to add a splash of color to snowfields around the world. They have identified 350 species of snow algae and have found that in the Northeast, some forms of algae only grow in regions where at least 80 inches of snow fall in a season. The colors represent the variety of the species, many of which actually swim up through trickles of meltwater to reach the top of a snowmound. Of course, not all colorful snow is algae related as an urban dweller will testify to, and even the watermelon colored snow of the West should not be eaten because of possible potent side effects on the digestive system- if you catch my drift.
