Summer's Last Gasp?
My wife keeps running marathons. I fear she's practicing to run away from me. Her biggest fear? Warm & windy.
That
won't be an issue for the 2013 Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. After
summer-like warmth into midweek a true taste of October arrives late
week, spilling over into a jacket-worthy weekend. It now looks like the
MSP metro may avoid a frost, but runners can expect 40s and 50s Sunday
morning under a postcard-perfect sky.
Me? I run when chased.
Highs
near 80F are expected into Wednesday over southern Minnesota. Not bad
considering the Twin Cities saw a coating of snow on Sept. 30, 1961.
ECMWF
("Euro") guidance hints at strong T-storms late Wednesday, steadier
rain Thursday, with a cold wind blowing behind this front Friday. It may
be cold enough aloft for the first flakes of the season for the Red
River Valley late Friday; ground temperatures probably too warm for
anything to stick.
Did your pulse rate just spike? Talk about big swings.
More
60s and a few 70s return next week; a better chance of a metro-wide
frost the weekend of October 12-13 - with another surge of 60s by
mid-month.
Will we ease into winter or experience a cold smack across the face? Stay tuned.
More July 30 Than September 30.
We end the month on a warm note, temperatures as much as 15F warmer
than average for late September, with a good shot at 80F in the Twin
Cities, even some low to mid 80s over southern Minnesota. Map above:
NOAA's 4 km. NAM solution for 4 pm today, courtesy of Ham Weather.
Summer Hanging On.
At least over the central USA, as a ridge of high pressure pushes
north, stiff south winds blowing across the Plains into the Upper
Midwest with 80F as far north as the Twin Cities. Unusually wet, cool
weather continues to impact the Pacific Northwest - temperatures still
cooler than average over New England. 84-hour NAM temperature prediction
into early Thursday capable of NOAA and Ham Weather.
Shades of Summer - Then An October Slap.
Soak up the warmth over the next 48+ hours, because a vigorous cold
front arrives Thursday with a good chance of rain; stiff northwest winds
kicking in behind the storm on Friday as temperatures fall thru the 50s
into the 40s up north - maybe a few flurries for the Red River Valley
by Friday evening. Saturday looks brisk, 60s return Sunday with a few
70-degree highs returning next week. ECMWF guidance above: Weatherspark.
Flash Flood Potential Pacific Northwest.
We're getting reports of significant flash flooding near Tacoma and
Portland, as much as 2-4" of additional rain into Saturday, complicating
the flood scenario. A slow-moving front sparks thunderstorms late
Wednesday over the Upper Mississippi Valley, steadier rain possible
Thursday before much colder air pour south. Heavy T-storms will sprout
along the Gulf Coast as well. 5-Day rainfall: NOAA WPC.
Lingering Drought.
53.23% of Minnesota is in moderate drought, up from 51.62% a week ago.
8.94% of the state is in severe drought, including parts of the northern
and eastern MSP metro area. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor 71%
of Minnesota is "abnormally dry". No whining about rain anytime soon.
Ripening Colors.
This upcoming weekend may be a good time to check out colors in the
Brainerd and Alexandria Lakes area; 50-75% of the leaves have turned
from near Detroit Lakes and Moorhead to the North Shore. Map above:
Minnesota DNR.
October: A Favorite Month For Many.
I always enjoy Dr. Mark Seeley's take on weather, climate and trends;
here's an excerpt of a colorful, expertly-crafted description of October
in this week's
WeatherTalk Newsletter: "
I
came across this commentary about October's weather in an 1895 edition
of the Minneapolis Journal...."October is generally a kingly month in
Minnesota. It opens with the usual affluence of sunshine and quickening,
bracing air, which [is} stimulating to the senses. Day after day, the
transformation of summer greenery into the royal and gorgeous tones of
autumn will go on and summer's silent fingering will be overwoven with
pageantry of color which no human art can call into being. The
recessional of the year is grander than the processional...."
Hurricane Season 2013.
Are we out of the woods when it comes to Atlantic, Caribbean or Gulf of
Mexico hurricanes? Not yet, according to an article at
Crusing World - here's an excerpt: "
Given
the contrast between prognostication and reality, we’re out of harm’s
way, right? Absolutely not, says Isaac Ginis, professor at the
University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography. “Regarding
the slow hurricane season so far, it’s not very unusual,” Ginis says.
“We had hurricane seasons in the past that started late. The main factor
this year is a stable atmosphere over the tropical Atlantic Ocean where
hurricanes form. Also, dry, dusty air moving off the coast of Africa
caused conditions hostile to tropical cyclone development. From the
hurricane climatology perspectives, storms ordinary form closer to the
U.S. coast later in the season, like Hurricane Sandy last year...”
Image credit: NOAA and
hurricanescience.org.
Researchers: Texas Not Ready For Next Hurricane. Here's a clip from a story at
The Brownsville Herald: "
Five
years after Hurricane Ike slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast, causing
more than $30 billion in damage and killing at least 37 Texans, cities
across the region have trumpeted their rebuilding efforts.
But the tune was very different at Rice University’s Severe Storm
Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center this week,
where experts gathered to discuss the area’s vulnerability to future
storms. It hasn’t improved, they said, and may have even worsened in the
last few years — partly the result of explosive growth in the Houston
Ship Channel that experts fear is occurring without appropriate
hurricane safeguards..."
Photo credit above: Diana Eva Maldonado, The Brownsville Herald. "
A
home on Van Buren Street in Brownsville remains boarded up from
Hurricane Dolly, but today's rain has already flooded the street."
Climate Change Report Leads Meteorologist To Stop Flying. Here's a nugget from
The Toronto Sun: "
A
well-known U.S. meteorologist was so affected by a recent report on
climate change that he has vowed never to fly again. "I realized, just
now: This has to be the last flight I ever take. I'm committing right
now to stop flying. It's not worth the climate," Eric Holthaus tweeted
Friday. Holthaus, who has written about weather for the Wall Street
Journal, also confessed to crying before boarding his flight from San
Francisco Airport. "I've never cried because of a science report
before," he tweeted..." (Image from
fotolia.com).
Climate Stories.
Climate Change: Finally, At Least One Conservative Gets It. Here's an excerpt of an Op-Ed at
The Salt Lake Tribune: "...
Bob
(Inglis) didn’t come to this conclusion by way of a revelation. He
studied the science, traveled twice to Antarctica, talked to the experts
and looked at the evidence. His conclusion: Climate change is real, the
consequences are dire, and we’re to blame. The overwhelming majority of
the world’s credible scientists agree with Bob. In fact, it’s now
nearly a consensus. If we continue to pour carbon into the atmosphere by
burning fossil fuels, we can expect weather like last year’s hurricane
Sandy, this summer’s wildfire season in the West and the recent flooding
in Colorado to become regular occurrences. The climate system of the
Earth has become that unstable. This is not a faith-based belief system.
This is fact. The evidence is overwhelming. A climatologist colleague
of mine summed up the mountain of scholarly literature on the subject
like this: "climate change is real, it’s our fault, scientists agree,
it’s bad, and it’s not too late..." (Image: Wikipedia).
The 5 Most Sobering Reports From The IPCC Climate Report. Climate Central's Andrew Freedman does a good job
highlighting the information you need to know from AR5; here's a clip: "
The first installment in the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest scientific assessment
on climate science came out on Friday, and it’s loaded with dense
terminology, expressions of uncertainty, and nearly impenetrable
graphics. But we'll make it simple for you. Here’s what you need to
know, in number and chart form..."
*
The IPCC AR5 Report Summary is
here, courtesy of The New York Times.
*
IPCC Climate Report: The Digested Read. Here's an overview at
The Guardian.
Alarming IPCC Prognosis: 9F. Warming For U.S., Faster Sea Rise, More Extreme Weather, Permafrost Collapse. Joe Romm at
Think Progress
has more details on the latest report, and how it differs from previous
IPCC summaries. But this is the 5th time in 23 years that the world's
leading climate scientists are pretty much saying the same thing: "
The
UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) now says we are as
certain that humans are dramatically changing the planet’s climate as we
are that smoking causes cancer. So perhaps the best way to think about
the IPCC, which has issued a summary
of its latest report reviewing the state of climate science, is as a
super-cautious team of brilliant diagnosticians and specialists (who,
like many doctors, aren’t the greatest communicators). They are the best
in the world at what they do — the climate equivalent of the Cleveland
Clinic or Mayo Clinic or Johns Hopkins — where you and the rest of
humanity have just gone through a complete set of medical tests and are
awaiting the diagnosis, prognosis, and recommended course of treatment.
(It has a big waiting room — called planet Earth.) The diagnosis is that
humans are suffering from a fever (and related symptoms) caused by our
own actions — primarily emissions of carbon pollution. Indeed, team IPCC
is more certain than the last time we came in 6 years ago and ignored
their advice. They are 95% to 100% certain we are responsible for most
of the added fever since 1950..."
Image credit above: "
Humanity's
choice (via IPCC): Aggressive climate action ASAP (left figure)
minimizes future warming. Continued inaction (right figure) results in
catastrophic levels of warming, 9°F over much of U.S."
Friday's Big Global Warming Report: 5 Takeaways. Here's a snippet from a good summary at
National Geographic: "...
Five takeaways from the new report:
1.
On the extreme weather front, the report concludes it is “very likely”
that cold days and nights have decreased, while warm days and nights
have increased, since 1950. More extreme precipitation has also
likely increased worldwide, particularly in North America and Europe.
That means that the top one percent of heaviest rain or snow storms are
heavier now, as compared to then. In other words, when it rains hardest,
it pours harder.
2. The
oceans have warmed with “virtual certainty,” the report concludes, at a
rate of about 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit (0.11 Celsius) per decade since
1970 in the upper 246 feet (75 meters) of surface water. Ocean
warming accounts for more than 90 percent of the heat added to the
atmosphere by global warming in that time, with most of it pumped into
the top 2,300 feet (700 meters) of the oceans. “That doesn't mean the
oceans are saving us,” Stocker says. “It means it would be much worse
without the oceans...”
Photo credit above: "Extreme weather, like this unusually severe downpour in Chengdu, China, has likely increased." Photograph from China Daily, Reuters.
Danish-Owned Coal Cargo Ship Sails Through Northwest Passage.
No, the irony isn't lost on me either. The same science-denialists who
refute climate change must be thrilled that less Arctic ice enables
fossil fuel companies to transport their coal and oil
north of
Canada (and Russia), saving time and money - making it even more
cost-effective for the rest of us to use fossil fuels (that will
continue to shrink the Arctic ice cap over time). Makes perfect sense to
me. Here's an excerpt from Canada's
CTV News: "
A
Danish-owned coal-laden cargo ship has sailed through the Northwest
Passage for the first time and into the history books as the second bulk
carrier to navigate the Arctic route. The Nordic Orion left Vancouver
on Sept. 17 carrying 15,000 tons of coal. Ed Coll, CEO of Bulk Partners,
an operational partner of ship-owner Nordic Bulk Carriers, said Friday
that the freighter has passed Greenland. He said it is expected to dock
in Finland next week after traversing waters once impenetrable with
thick ice. Interest in the Northwest Passage is on the rise as climate
change is melting Arctic sea ice, creating open waterways. The melting
ice could make it a regular Atlantic-Pacific shipping lane..."
Image above:
National Post and Nordic Bulk Carriers.
Why The World Won't Listen.
Our grandkids are going to be pretty irritated with us - all the
science and data and we sat on our hands, debating the "facts",
listening to fossil-fuel-funded deniers babble on, hoping they might
just be right. Here's an excerpt from NewScientist and
Slate that explains how some of this perpetual denial is hard-wired into all of us: "...
How
did the rational arguments of science and economics fail to win the
day? There are many reasons, but an important one concerns human nature.
Through a growing body of psychological research, we know that scaring
or shaming people into sustainable behavior is likely to backfire. We
know that it is difficult to overcome the psychological distance between
the concept of climate change—not here, not now—and people's everyday
lives. We know that beliefs about the climate are influenced by extreme
and even daily weather. One of the most striking findings is that
concern about climate change is not only, or even mostly, a product of
how much people know about science. Increased knowledge tends to harden existing opinions..."
Cities Taking Action On Climate Change: Why Mayors Don't Waste Time Debating The Science. If only we had more scientifically rational pragmatists like New York City's Mayor Bloomberg.
LinkedIn has the story - here's an excerpt of Mayor Bloomberg's Op-Ed: "
Mayors
are pragmatists, not partisans; innovators, not ideologues. We are
responsible for delivering results rather than debating politics. As New
York’s great Mayor LaGuardia put it, “There is no Democratic or
Republican to pick up the garbage.” And as the world becomes
increasingly more urban, the importance of bold local action -
particularly on climate change – continues to grow. For the first time
in human history, more than half the world's population is living in
cities, which now produce approximately 70 percent of global greenhouse
gas emissions. That puts mayors and cities on the frontlines of the
battle against climate change. For coastal cities like New York, the
risks of climate change are especially serious: sea levels are expected
to rise by another two and a half feet in the next 40 years, making
storm surges even more powerful and dangerous. And intense storms are
likely to increase as the ocean's temperatures continue to rise..."
Scientists: Global Warming Is Man-Made, Getting Worse. More details from
Voice of America: "
Scientists
say they are more certain than ever that humans are the main cause of
global warming. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said
Friday it is "extremely likely" that global warming was man-made. In its
last report in 2007, the United Nations panel had said it was "very"
likely. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the latest report
another "wake-up call." In a statement Friday, he said "those who deny
the science or choose excuses over action are playing with fire..."
Americans Are Less Worried About Climate Change Than Almost Anyone Else.
Well, Pakistanis are less worried than we are - that's a good start!
Check out the details of the graph above and sobering narrative from
The Washington Post.
7 Stupid Things People Are Saying About Climate Change That Aren't At All True. Cue the repeated head-slaps. After reading the latest IPCC report I needed a good laugh, and
Buzzfeed came through for me - thank God for those animated GIFs: “
Global
warming has stopped.” Nope. Global warming has accelerated, with more
overall global warming in the past 15 years than the prior 15 years. For
each of the last three decades the Earth’s surface has been
successively warmer than any preceding decade since 1850...."
Animated image credit:
media.giphy.com.
Thank You Global Warming. Giant Hornets Are Killing Dozens In China And Eating Bees Across Europe.
Well here's some good news! Don't sweat the thundershowers - hopefully
we won't be tracking these on Doppler in the USA anytime soon.
Quartz has the story - here's a clip: "
A plague of hornets, each the size of a human thumb, have descended on Shaanxi province this summer—at least 28 have been stung to death (link
in Chinese), while another 419 have been injured, according to a local
news report from China Radio Network (CRN), via the New York Times’ Chris Buckley. The death toll from hornet attacks in Ankang city is more than twice the annual average between
2002 and 2005, say the Ankang police, as the Guardian reports. A local
doctor said hospitalizations due to hornet attacks have risen steadily over the years (link in Chinese). Why
the uptick? The population of Asian giant hornets (vespa mandarinia),
as they’re known, has surged largely because of climate change, says the Shaanxi Provincial Forestry Department (link
in Chinese). The average winter temperature in Ankang rose 1.10 ℃ in
the span of a few years alone, allowing more hornets to survive the
winter. And it’s not just China; rising temperatures are behind the
spread of another deadly Chinese hornets species, vespa velutina, in
South Korea and Europe..."
Image credit above: "More killer than a killer bee." Flickr user Thomas H Brown.
Michael Mann: Climate Change Deniers Must Stop Distorting The Evidence. Details at
LiveScience: "...
The
lesson here, perhaps, is that no misrepresentation or smear is too
egregious for professional climate-change deniers. No doubt, we will
continue to see misdirection, cherry-picking, half truths and outright
falsehoods from them in the months ahead as the various IPCC working
groups report their conclusions. Don't be fooled by the smoke and
mirrors and the Rube Goldberg contraptions. The true take-home message
of the latest IPCC report is crystal clear: Climate change is real and
caused by humans, and it continues unabated. We will see far more
dangerous and potentially irreversible impacts in the decades ahead if
we do not choose to reduce global carbon emissions. There has never been
a greater urgency to act than there is now."
