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Heavy weather
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Author:  Wayne Stollings [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:24 am ]
Post subject:  Heavy weather

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 7131b.html

Extreme weather makes news, as was demonstrated last month by the blanket coverage of the devastation caused to the east coast of the United States by Hurricane Irene. But was the prominence of the story a feature of modern media hype in a rolling-news world? Hardly. According to a New York Times analysis, when Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Florida in 1992 and killed 22 people, it received twice the traditional news coverage that Irene did.

What is new is that coverage of extreme weather is now often accompanied by a question: is this a consequence of climate change? This question was raised frequently after Hurricane Katrina smashed through New Orleans in 2005. Most climate scientists responded equivocally, as scientists do: climate is not weather, and although all extreme weather events are now subject to human influence, global warming driven by greenhouse gases cannot be said to 'cause' any specific manifestation of weather in a simple deterministic sense.

Author:  Fosgate [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 8:50 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Heavy weather

Meh. You'll be lucky if they even touch on frequency of weather events over the years. Even then, there will be stuff like, "OMG! We had one more hurricane this year vs. last year! You see! It's global warming!"

](*,)

Author:  Johhny Electriglide [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Heavy weather

With "modern" news reporting (i.e.--too many reporters and TV personnel from overpopulation), EVERYTHING is hyped.
Except for facts like the dumbing down of the population from the long term effects of the lowest IQ immigrating here and having too many kids. Our own home grown corn fed dummies, too. Like my fellow Republicans in Iowa (from Col. Alliance for Immigration Reform); 21% believe in AGW, and 35% believe in evolution!
The over 1,000 beyond historic records set this year is faster than the worst case scenario for AGW. Of course, the worst case was influenced by politics---can't have it be too bad now, can we? Irene WAS worse than it would have been, without AGW influence, but not beyond historic with that particular event, or the drought in Texas. I wonder about the fires, though. Those probably ARE beyond historic, whether from AGW or man-caused fires (while Gov. Perry goes to CA and shows his ignorance).

Author:  Wayne Stollings [ Thu Sep 08, 2011 11:58 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Heavy weather

The individual events cannot be shown to have been better or worse due to climate change, but the numbers of incidents and the increased levels seen can be tied to cliamte change. Thus, Katrina, for example, cannot be tied to climate change directly but the trend of more temperature extremes, precipitation extremes, and the like are tied to the changing climate.

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