Posted on 05/23/2013 8:19:33 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Yes, climate change is happening. But it's hard to say that the tornado that ripped through Moore, Oklahoma -- or any given tornado, for that matter -- was influenced by climate change.
Scientific research has not made a clear connection between tornadoes and climate change, said J. Marshall Shepherd, climate change expert and professor at the University of Georgia.
There is currently a much better understanding of how climate change increases the risks of droughts, heat waves and precipitation, he said. There are also indications that changing patterns may influence the intensity of hurricanes. But as far as tornadoes: There's just not a lot of information.
As far as the Moore tornado, "This tornadic storm, in my view, probably would have happened irrespective of whether there's climate change or not," Shepherd said. "The question is: Are we increasing the risk and probability of more extreme events in general as our climate differs?"
More research and discussion is needed about future warming and the environments that might produce storms, he said.
Trends in tornado occurrence over the last 50 years do not appear to have changed in conjunction with more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and patterns of rising temperatures, Shepherd said.
Beyond the climate change question, meteorologists don't know a lot about why some thunderstorms produce tornadoes and not others. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, only about 1% of thunderstorms generate tornadoes. However, tornado prediction is advancing and evolving.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
“Yes, climate change is happening.”
Apparently the climate changes all the time, and until the left discovered they could use it for social engineering, we simply called it weather, seasons, cycles, that damnable heat and damnable cold and pleasant days.
Just another science bozo in it for the fat government paycheck
Global Warming on Free Republic
On the latter they sometimes blame low sea ice which is dumber than dumb since the sea / ocean boundary was always somewhere, didn't really affect the jet and moving it won't affect the jet either. Their standard spiel for the Arctic connection is that the reduced Arctic to lower latitude temperature contrast causes the slowdown and therefore the meandering jet.
The basic problem with that theory is that the doomsayers got their models to predict the opposite up until about the mid-2000's. Then there were a poorly written paper or two with the new theory. Once the jet really started meandering in the late 2000's they discarded the early work and went with meandering. The basic problem is that meandering is much more likely to be associated with the low solar minimum in the late 2000's than any other factor.
Whenever I see Arctic mentioned in any of these stories I know they are junk. I know that Alaska has been cooling for more than a decade. I know that Siberia has been cooling for about two decades (strengthening the Siberian high). Sea ice still decreased but that is due a warmer ocean and is a lagging indicator. The cooling from the low solar minimum has yet to be substantially felt due to thermal inertia but will kick in seriously in a decade or two.
Essentially, all negative events convincingly can be portrayed to the low information voter as blamable on conservative ideals and solved by increased government intervention. This is how the progressives have outplayed conservatives and are winning most arguments. The Kenyan Marxist spends most weeks playing this game using speeches to small segments (gays, college students, blacks, Hispanics, etc.) of the population. In total, he’s gained a majority of people who are now convinced they are victims and need HIS help. I’ve yet to see a conservative movement that uses a focused and simple message to counter the progressive approach. Romney certainly wouldn’t have reversed the concept of governmental greatness (look at his record in Massachusetts), and everyone knew this, so enough simply voted for the unabashedly honest progressive instead of the progressive in disguise.
I am up visiting the blue state of Mass and when I look around at the old union guys I wonder how the heck Obama got their votes. It may well be these subtle lies that the world will end in thermageddon unless people vote for him and other enlightened democrats. Regarding Romney, i left Mass before he got elected here, but there is occasionally a protest vote here where they vote in some liberal libertarian or a RINO, but it never lasts. They always end up falling for the lie that free enterprise is causing problems even though their republicans never allow free enterprise.
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