Remember the difference between weather and climate? We know what happens when the weather changes—it’s obvious. Climate is another story. Read on. When it rains, you put on a raincoat or take your umbrella when you go out. It snows: time for high boots, a heavier coat, scarf, and warm gloves. And sunny days, well,
Weather and climate are similar but different. For the most part, they are very distinct phenomena. Below, we talk about the weather first, and then delve into the climate. Weather We measure what’s going on in our atmosphere over a short period of time—usually in a particular place on a particular day—by assessing the weather. Could be
Or do you? It’s time to pay attention to climate change now—as if it wasn’t back in 1800, when our current problems started. We all need to acknowledge that stunning industrial achievements can carry with them enormous unforeseen risks and challenges. Americans should take particular note, because on the whole we are wa-a-a-y behind on this.
Wait a minute—isn’t Mother’s Day on Sunday? Rusty Dawkins tweets this pic of about six inches of May snow in a Rushville, Nebraska back yard. Becky Kellogg of Wunderground.com tells us: May snowfall is nothing unusual for the Rocky Mountains, but pretty much everywhere else, it’s rare. One of the more recent May snowstorms outside
If you must postpone a holiday feast, keep it fresh and safe! (Gavin St. Ours, Flickr creative commons). Whatever your menu, you always need to watch out when guests are late or don’t arrive how you preserve the freshness and safety of your special feast. Let’s assume you’re serving a standard holiday meal: turkey, gravy,
Low-level clouds usually reflect solar energy back into space, as does the white coverage of snow. The albedo of cloud and snow — it’s ability to reflect sunlight back into space — is vitally important for minimising the level of solar energy wandering around inside our atmosphere, heating up our planet. One of the fears
Trees, coral, and ice cores provide us a very reliable method of looking at the past climate, but there isn’t as much human recorded data. New research has analysed scholarly writings from Iraq written during the Islamic Golden Age between 816 and 1009 AD in an effort to reveal more information about our planet’s
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
On their science blog NASA has asked ‘What Happened To All The Snow?’ and it’s a good question, considering that the U.S. is currently experiencing a surprising lack of snow that, come spring time, may have serious consequences for communities reliant upon the snow runoff. “The Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Sierras of California
I recently noticed an inane article in the Daily Mail trying to create another scandal out of climate skeptic Richard Muller’s recent finding that the climate scientists were right after all. Apparently, one of the co-authors, infamous (within climate science circles) Judith Curry was less than enthusiastic about the results. When seeing the news (in
The results of research looking into what will happen to the Australian climate if and when a global increase of 4º Celsius across the world takes place was presented by CSIRO’s Dr Penny Whetton at the Four Degrees climate change conference in Melbourne.
• The last five years have been the warmest since 1880 when monitoring began
• Tree ring data suggest that the summer temperatures over the past few decades have been the highest in 2000 years
• Snow cover in May and June has decrease by close to 20%
• The winter season in the Arctic has been shortened by almost two weeks
• There is worry about the decrease in snow and ice cover in the Arctic that will decrease the amount of solar radiation reflected back out into the atmosphere
• Warming is only expected to continue
• Sea level rise by 2100 is expected to be between 0.9 and 1.6 metres, approximately twice what was predicted by the UN panel on climate change
Iceland is aptly named in this image, taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite on March 9.
Spring has arrived for the northern hemisphere and the snow is beginning to melt. But according to a new study out of the University of Toronto, Scarborough (UTSC), the snow melt brings with it a massive uptick in pollutants.
Here’s a great cartoon from Matt Bors of The Free Press. Funny, but also sad. h/t Climate Progress Related Cartoons: Fox News Serving Up Climate Skepticism Earth is an Oil-Coal-holic The Republican Triple Threat Global Warming — What If It’s a Big Hoax Here Comes Trouble Related Stories: Snow Will Fall Despite Climate Change Why
For the contiguous United States of America, January saw snow reach every one of the 50 states except for Florida. The image comes courtesy of NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite, showing the maximum snow cover for the month. The data shows that about 71 percent of the entire country had
The NASA Earth Observatory Image of the Day for the 24th of February showcases just how much energy is reflected back into space by the planet’s chryosphere, and how much that amount has decreased over the past 30 years. Mark Flanner of the University of Michigan and his colleagues have used satellite data to measure
The European Space Agency posted this image up on their Flickr page a week or so ago, showing the Apennine Mountains with their snowy peaks from space. The diverse and picturesque contours of southern Italy, known for its boot-like shape, take centre stage in this Envisat image. Its varied landscape is made up of sandy
In mid-February 2011, residents along South Korea’s east coast were struggling to dig out from the heaviest snowfall in more than a century. The BBC reported that hundreds of stranded motorists awaited rescue, and hundreds of homes had collapsed under the weight of heavy snow. The South Korean government had deployed 12,000 soldiers to assist
What do you get when you mix below-freezing air temperatures, frigid northwest winds from Canada, and ocean temperatures hovering around 39 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4 to 5 degrees Celsius)? Paved highways of clouds across the skies of the North Atlantic. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite collected this natural-color view
Winter 2010-2011 is tied (so far) with two other years for having the most extreme winter on record in the U.S. It has had three Category 3 (major) or higher snow storms so far according to the Northeast Snowfall Impact (NESIS) scale (which ranks storms on a scale from 1 — “Notable” — to 5 —
NASA has released images of North America covered by the massive winter storm that last week hit 30 states. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) that cover the U.S. weather, GOES-11 and GOES-13 are operated by NOAA, and the NASA GOES Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. creates images and animations
NASA’S Aqua and Terra satellites have captured numerous images of the monster storm that is one of the largest winter storms since the 1950s to affect the United States, affecting 30 states with snow, sleet and rain. A visible image captured by the GOES-13 satellite this morning, Feb. 1 at 1401 UTC (9:01 a.m. EST)
A new study published online in the journal Nature Geoscience has uncovered data that shows over the past 30 years the decreases in the amount of snow and ice covering the Earth’s surface has decreased the reflective capacity of the Earth and exacerbated global warming much more than previous climate models had estimated. “The cryosphere
As has been known for quite awhile, snow does not necessarily mean colder than average — many places have gotten snow for centuries and will continue to get snow even in the midst of global warming. No one has claimed that the whole world is going to turn tropical overnight due to climate change. Furthermore,
If you are planning on visiting Australia for the Christmas holidays, make sure to bring an extra jacket or poncho, because the weird, wonderful and wacky Melbourne weather seems to be catching all across the eastern seaboard of my beautiful country. Monday saw 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow fall on some of our snow
The Australian state of Victoria is looking into following its neighbours into implementing cloud seeding to help refill its dams, which currently average around fifty-percent full. Cloud seeding is a geoengineering project which injects particles into super-cold water laden clouds, thereby increasing the rain- and snow-falls. Dr Steven Siems, a scientist with Monash University, is
Winter in the northern hemisphere fast approaches, and with it the likelihood of deep snow drifts thumping down on your car and making the commute to work a frozen hell. But now, thanks to a new project initiated by the European Space Agency (ESA), daily and weekly snow maps will be made available soon after
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
Continuing our coverage of the EPA’s new Climate Change Indicators in the US report, below are key summary findings regarding snow and ice. Despite what you may have heard in false science circles, we definitely have less snow cover, snowpack and ice than in the past these days.
