Quote:
Originally Posted by August
It's not just Houston Skybird. Even here 2000 miles away in Massachusetts we're getting winters that remind me of the 1960's and 70's.
Of course according to you that doesn't mean anything either right?
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No, I just do not mistake "weather" with "climate".
For this weekend the weather prediction here says heavy winds and temperatures up to +13°C. Two weeks ago some parts of Germany had temperatures of up to +19°C. Both examples, by nation-wide standards of the past decades, is not only untypical, but is 10-20°C too warm fore this time of the year. In February, we should have occasional snow and sub-zero temps. On the other hand we have had an unusually early winter last years, with very heavy snow, and several weeks too early.
So what?
Regarding snow in Noth America and the typhoon in Austrlia, there are weather cycles that last for years, and that casue the phenomeneons of El Nino and La Nina. These cycles last for years. In how far global temeprature chnages effect both cycles,. is not understood in all detail, but that there is a link: that is not understood to be certain.
There is more landmasses on the Northern half of Earth than on the southern, and there is more water in the South than in the North. The equator line serves as a separator for the rotation direction of some atmospheric processes. Water stores heat for longer, than land, land sees more drasticv and rapic chnages in temperarure exchnage with the air. This is one of the reasons why both hemispheres produce different temperature symptoms if the overall general temperature of the globe is climbing. Also, the oceanic current and by that: the saturation of the air with moisture, is different, and the different thermals in the Northern hemisphere, due to the more share of land, also distribute this moisture differently than in the southern hemisphere.
There are paradoxical effects, yes, but that means not they cannot be explained, it just means that they are the opposite of what at first glance is expected. Also, inner dynamics of climate chnages and weather phenomenens can reach treshold levels at which the symptoms shown so far reverse into their opposite again.
It is a very complex issue, that'Sw hy you cna read about the forming of weather and lcimate in so different sources likle oceanography, astronomy, geology, ecology, physics, geography, even history related research. All these branches add important info and perspectives to the explanation of how climate functions, and how weather is formed. you cannot get the full picture if you leave out even just one.
It is also a very interesting field, I must say, right because it is so diverse. I touched it again quite intensely during my astronomy course this autumn and winter.
P.S. I forgot two very prominent symptoms for global warming: the accelerating thawing of the permafrost soils in Northern Russia, plus the increasing methane levels in the oceans (indicating that the frozen methane on the ocean'S grounds is thawing, too - and that means that even the water in the deep sea is warming slightly). And a biologic indicator for the oceans changing their ph-levels andf temperatures: the decline of many fishes in increasingly huge areas, and the growing plague of jellyfish, seing exotic species showing up in untypical waters in huge numbers, and a general growth of jellyfish plagues in all oceans.