A firefighter pauses at the $2013 Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, August-September 2013 (Calfire photo on facebook). President Obama released the federal budget for 2015 last week. Overall, it involves the lowest deficit ($514 billion) of his five-year tenure in office and restores some funding cut in last year’s sequester. Parts of the new
The World Meteorological Association (WMO) announced on Monday that the El Niño and La Niña climate patterns are unlikely to show themselves during the first half of 2013. Currently, neutral conditions continue in the tropical Pacific, and model forecasts and expert opinions currently predict the chance of El Niño and La Niña developing during the first half
For many parts of the United States, the heat has been unbearable this year. As a matter of fact, the U.S. is on track for 2012 being the hottest year ever (well, since the modern record-keeping begun back in the 1800’s anyway). With the current trend over the past 10 months, weather experts are predicting
The El Niño climatic event has long been a driving factor in the way of life of the average Australian, especially if you live away from the city. Dry conditions spread across much of the country, and increase the likelihood of extreme bushfires. Now, a new study has found that any “flavour” of El Niño can
The winter of 2009-10 on the East Coast of the U.S. was dubbed Snowmagedon due to the massive 54.9 inches of snow that fell on the Baltimore-Washington area between December and February. NASA scientists quickly set out to discover what set of conditions allowed for such an unprecedented winter. This is one of those stories
A new study has revealed the effect that El Niño and La Niña are likely to have on the New Zealand climate in the coming decades with a continuation in the global climate change. “As the world continues to warm New Zealand is likely to experience the impacts of El Niño and La Niño events
If you follow climate science, you probably are well aware of the fact that even after you turn of the fossil fuel spicket, it takes awhile for the effects of the greenhouse gases to go away. All the more reason to act now, before things get completely out of control. Now, if you aren’t very aware of this issue above, this full post below by Meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters of WunderBlog should bring the point home:
by Rob Painting of Skeptical Science As a recent SkS post by Dana Nuccitelli has pointed out global warming hasn’t stopped, despite a recent lull in global surface temperatures. The oceans, which are the main heat sink for global warming, have scarcely skipped a beat in soaking up heat. The hiatus in global surface temperatures appears to
Dr. Jeff Masters, a world-leading meteorologist, just finished a compilation of what he considered 2010’s top 20 extreme weather events. All in all, he considers 2010 to be the most extreme year for weather since records began and, unfortunately, with a good understanding of climate change, he hints at what we could be in for if we don’t turn things around quickly.
Researchers led by members of the University of Pittsburgh have extracted a sediment core from the lakebed of Castor Lake in north central Washington which provides a six thousand year climate record of the region. What they have found is that the traditionally rain-soaked region of the American Pacific Northwest is not going to be
Lake Baikal is the world’s largest, oldest, and deepest lake, the most voluminous freshwater lake in the world, and with an average depth of 1700 meters it contains 20% of the world’s unfrozen surface freshwater. And thanks to three generations of Russian scientists, Lake Baikal is also providing scientists with insights into the ways that
There was a sudden change from an El Niño phase to La Niña in July 2010 which led many forecasters to believe that there would be warm temperatures throughout the Southeast of America. However, the region has been experiencing an extremely cold winter, as a result of the interruption of the North Atlantic Oscillation. “There
Researchers from the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England, have concluded that man-made global warming would probably not greatly change the influence had on the environment by inter-annual climate instances such as El Niño – Southern Oscillation (ENSO) or the Arctic Oscillation/ North Atlantic Oscillation (AO/ NAO). “Even in the warm Cretaceous period, the patterns
It won’t come as a big surprise, but La Niña – or “the girl” in Spanish – is to blame for recent extreme weather events that have taken place in Africa and Australia. Scientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), part of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, expect “moderate-to-strong” La Niña conditions
A report from the UN’s weather agency, the World Meteorological Organization, has reported that the current La Nina event will last through the first quarter of 2011, and possibly into the second quarter. However, the report noted that “the strength of the event is likely to decrease during the course of the coming 4 months.”
The American National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has released their annual Winter Outlook, stating that a strong La Niña will strengthen and stay throughout the northern winter, playing the role of dominant climate factor. “La Niña is in place and will strengthen and persist through the winter months, giving us a better understanding of
Scientists have detected a new type of El Niño that is forming in the warmer waters of the central-equatorial Pacific Ocean, causing the El Niños to become more common and stronger. Researchers found that the intensity of El Niños has nearly doubled in the central Pacific. The research, conducted by Tong Lee of NASA’s Jet
America’s winter just passed might be melting in the current heat, but the snow that fell was not affected by climate change or a warming planet. New research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters found that the heavier than normal snows that fell along the east coast of America, making it the snowiest winter
