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Density altitude is the biggest factor in aircraft take off on a given runway length, temperature, and altitude. I know this from firsthand experience as I used to be a private pilot – until my hearing got so bad that I decided I was a danger to myself and others. This study published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society claims the number of days with a density altitude issue at some airports will increase per RCP model scenarios in 2050-2070. Of course they are assuming that the RCP models produce an accurate output, and that airplanes of the...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul District, locked a final tow on the Upper Mississippi River Thursday, shutting the navigation channel down for the season because ice conditions on the river are becoming difficult for vessels to navigate. Traditionally, the last tow heading south of Lock and Dam 2 has marked the unofficial end of the navigation season for the Twin Cities portion of the St. Paul District, the Corps said. The navigation season started April 16. The spring start was the second-latest start to navigation in the district's history, the Corps said, as ice thicknesses in Lake...

As we speculate about the next election, a fun thing for us Cowboys fans to do on a "bye weekend" is to speculate that 2016 could be the perfect campaign to revive former VP Al Gore. Let's start by saying that Mr. Gore is the perfect alternative to Hillary Clinton. He is liked by the left and can claim to have "won" an election. Furthermore, I think that a lot of the left knows that Senator Warren is charming but unelectable. There is also a real vacuum in the Democrats' bench. Who else is out there? Gov. Brown of California?...

And you’ll never guess why! Well, unless you guessed “global warming,” which is what you did the moment you saw Al Gore’s name. He cannot and will not shut up about it. And I, for one, don’t want him to.Here’s the President of the Environment: It’s time for a national policy on food. Brilliant essay in today’s Washington Post: http://t.co/bvGjpej5wN— Al Gore (@algore) November 9, 2014 If Al Gore thinks it’s brilliant, it must be hilarious. Let’s take a look!

With the spectacular cold event now spreading over much of the contiguous U.S. (and still expected to bring 30 below zero temperatures in Yellowstone Lake, WY tomorrow morning) the snow forecast for the next 8 days shows only 6 states that should miss snow (graphics courtesy of Weatherbell.com, click for full-size):

The cost of fighting climate change will only climb if industrialized nations don't take steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the United Nations' panel on the matter warned Sunday in its wrap-up report. In its "synthesis report," the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the hundreds of authors involved in the study were even more certain than before that the planet is warming and humans are the cause."If left unchecked, climate change will increase the likelihood of severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts for people and ecosystems," the report said.The report said there are solutions to keeping the rise in...

The Environmental Protection Agency released a grim report Friday that said it must start planning for the worst possible effects of climate change, and predicted a future world filled with rising sea levels, raging wildfires and more severe storms. All of these factors will combine to create droughts, expose humans to dangerous chemicals and create other conditions that will put the human race at risk.

The percentage of US HCN stations to reach 90 degrees was the smallest on record this year, with four of the five coolest years occurring above 350 PPM CO2. The most widespread heat occurred in 1931, when more than 98% of stations were over 90 degrees.

The earliest snow spotting in Chicago is Sept. 25, which occurred in 1928 and again in 1944, according to the National Weather Service. Saturday’s snowflakes mark the third earliest snow sighting since the city began recording.

Environmental scientists want to introduce a new system to prove that adverse weather events are directly linked to climate change to counter global warming sceptics. Under the new plan, a heatwave or major storm will be linked scientifically to man made climate change immediately after the event to prevent critics from blaming it on natural variations in the weather. Scientists want to be able to provide proof of whether an event was caused by climate change within three day rather than the current system which can take up to a year. Experts claim that such a long wait for proof...

The savage heat waves that struck Australia in 2013 were almost certainly a direct consequence of the human release of greenhouse gases, researchers said Monday. It is perhaps the most definitive statement climate scientists have made that ties a specific weather event to global warming. Five groups of researchers, using distinct methods, analyzed the heat that baked Australia for much of last year and continued into 2014. All five came to the conclusion that last year’s heat waves could not have been as severe without the long-term climatic warming caused by human activity. “When we look at the heat across...

Should the U.S. and other nations commit to a major international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? yes. no.

A paper published today in Earth System Science Data Discussions analyzes the 2014 carbon budget and predicts man-made CO2 emissions from fossil-fuels and cement production have increased by 65% since 1990. However, atmospheric levels of CO2 have only increased by 11% since 1990, indicating that ~83% of man-made emissions have been absorbed by natural sinks, far greater than the IPCC belief that natural sinks absorb 50% of man-made emissions. Thus, natural sinks [such as the up to 30% greening of the planet over the past few decades] are expanding faster than the IPCC anticipated, CO2 lifetime in the atmosphere is...

The former vice president believes the politics of global warming are changing.Al Gore says Republicans seeking the White House in 2016 are in a bind on climate change. Asked if it would hurt the GOP nominee to be a climate skeptic or advocate against taking action on global warming, Gore replied: "Oh, yes. Definitely." "In a general election? At the national level, where moderate voters hold the balance? It would be extremely harmful to a Republican candidate," Gore told National Journal in an interview Wednesday. But Gore doubts that a "pro-climate" Republican can get the GOP nod, because "carbon polluters...

The European Union's climate chief says it is a pity Prime Minister Tony Abbott will not attend a major UN climate meeting in New York next week. World leaders including US president Barack Obama and UK prime minister David Cameron will attend the UN secretary-general's Climate Summit on September 23. Mr Abbott will not be attending, despite the fact that he is due to attend a UN Security Council meeting in New York the next day. EU commissioner for climate action Connie Hedegaard said it came as a surprise. "It is, of course, I think, a pity that not everyone...

All right, so we're slightly premature. By one measure - according to Bishop Hill - we're still a month away before "no global warming" achieves its coming of age. But by other measurements, as Matt Ridley notes in the Wall Street Journal, we're already as much as 19 or even 26 years into "no global warming" "depending on whether you choose the surface temperature record or one of two satellite records of the lower atmosphere."

I believe the shooting tape is fake. The voice that is supposedly phone sexing is actual the voice of the shake weight in a South Park episode. Search you tube for South Park shake weight and you will here it for yourself.

Emily Gosden, The Telegraph August 26, 2014 The "pause" in global warming may last another decade before surface temperatures start rising again, according to scientists who say heat is being stored in the depths of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. Global average surface temperatures rose rapidly from the 1970s but have been relatively stable since the late 1990s, in a trend that has been seized upon by climate sceptics who question the science of man-made warming. Climate change scientists have proposed more than a dozen theories to explain the "hiatus", which they say is a "distraction" from the widespread consensus...

It’s been a cool summer so far for many across the U.S. as 1,097 record low temperatures were set in August, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) temperature data. NOAA reports that 1,097 “low maximum” temperature records were broken between Aug. 1 and Aug. 23 at locations across the country this year. This means that these temperatures on the day they were recorded were the coolest on record. After a particularly long and frigid winter, summer for much of the U.S. has been cooler than normal, according to NOAA data. The average temperature for July was just 73.3...

Congratulations to The Australian again for taking the hard road and reporting controversial, hot, documented problems, that few in the Australian media dare to investigate. How accurate are our national climate datasets when some adjustments turn entire long stable records from cooling trends to warming ones (or visa versa)? Do the headlines of “hottest ever record” (reported to a tenth of a degree) mean much if thermometer data sometimes needs to be dramatically changed 60 years after being recorded?One of the most extreme examples is a thermometer station in Amberley, Queensland where a cooling trend in minima of 1C per...