Latest Climatology Stories
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Earth's land areas have become more likely to experience an extreme summer heat wave according to a new statistical analysis by NASA scientists. The study, published August 6, 2012, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that the recent bouts of extremely warm summers, including the intense heat wave afflicting the U.S. Midwest this year, are likely the consequence of global warming. According to James Hansen...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online More than half of the contiguous states in the US were experiencing drought by early July 2012, and over 170 all-time American heat records were tied or surpassed during the month of June, according to new research released by NASA scientists on Friday. Many of the record highs experienced during the sixth month of the year surpassed records originally set during the months of July and August, which historically have been hotter...
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa, Aug. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Interstate Power and Light Company (IPL), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation, (NYSE: LNT), outlined today the company's energy resources strategy. Developing a balanced supply of energy resources, along with providing safe and reliable service and maintaining competitive costs are key components of the company's long-term strategic plan. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20020405/LNTLOGO ) "Our energy resources...
WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA and university scientists have made the first measurement-based estimate of the amount and composition of tiny airborne particles that arrive in the air over North America each year. With a 3-D view of the atmosphere now possible from satellites, the scientists calculated that dust, not pollution, is the main ingredient of these imports. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) According to a new analysis...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online As the world’s greatest athletes compete for gold, silver, and bronze in London, new scientific evidence suggests that future summer Olympics could be hosted in a more remote location: Antarctica. An international team of climate scientists has discovered 50 million-year-old fossilized pollen in the seabed off the eastern coast of the polar continent, according to their report published this week in the journal Nature. The...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online In the last 50 years, man has quadrupled his CO2 output, primarily through the burning of fossil fuels. That is a startling and sobering concept. So far, though, Mother Nature seems to be keeping pace. In a new study released August 2, 2012, in the journal Nature, researchers from NOAA and the University of Colorado assert that Earth's carbon sinks continue to soak up roughly half of the carbon output. Carbon sinks are areas of...
Palm trees once thrived on today's icy coasts 52 million years ago Given the predicted rise in global temperatures in the coming decades, climate scientists are particularly interested in warm periods that occurred in the geological past. Knowledge of past episodes of global warmth can be used to better understand the relationship between climate change, variations in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the reaction of Earth's biosphere. An international team led by scientists from the Goethe...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using a fleet of robotic floats, a team of British and Australian scientists have uncovered the mechanism in the Southern Ocean that sequesters around 40 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. A report on the team’s research, which was published this week in Nature Geoscience, showed that “mixed-layer depth, ocean currents, wind and eddies” create plunging currents that draw atmospheric carbon deep into the ocean, where it...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One skeptical climate scientist has changed his beliefs, and now says that human activity is indeed causing the Earth to warm. Prof Richard Muller, who founded the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature (BEST) project, admitted in a New York Times opinion piece on Saturday that he was a "converted skeptic." He admitted that a new study aimed at looking into climate change skeptics' concerns helped alter his beliefs. "Last year,...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online After Columbus sailed to the New World, the burning of forests and fields subsided, a phenomenon that has been attributed to loss of native population by the onset of European diseases carried over by explorers and settlers. But new research led by the University of Utah suggests that global cooling and not population decline resulted in fewer fires because both preceded Columbus in many regions around the world. The team of...
Latest Climatology Reference Libraries
An urban heat island (UHI) is a metropolitan area that is drastically warmer than its surrounding rural areas because of human activities. The phenomenon was first looked into and described by Luke Howard during the 1810s, although he wasn’t the one to name the phenomenon. The difference in temperature is normally bigger at night as opposed to during the day, and it most obvious when winds are weak. Seasonally, UHI is seen during the summer and the winter. The key cause of the urban heat...
Growing Degree Days are another huge part of our lives even though we may not deal with them directly. Growing degree days have to deal with the growing of fruits and vegetables along with other various crops that are grown throughout the United States for our personal use. As we examine the Baltimore Maryland area we can see how the impacts of a normal, El-Nino and La-Nina cycle have an impact on just the one month of March. These numbers are based on 50F which is the base number used for...
If you live in or around Bismarck North Dakota the graph shows you what you can roughly expect when it comes to heating and cooling your house during the ENSO Phases. Bismarck North Dakota, with its northern latitude, does have an impact on what type of heating and cooling it sees. During an Normal Phase the HDD for the region hits about 1348 on average. When the region enters into an El-Nino they can expect the amount of HDD’s to decrease to around 970 which really helps cut down on the...
The above graph highlights how the ENSO has an impact on water temps. Northern Gulf of Mexico during EL-Nino: The first part of March during this EL-Nino cycle saw water temps in the 56-60F range, while the 8-14th saw water temps warm to the 60-64F range. By the third week of March temps had maintained 60-64F. The last week of March the temps dropped back to around 56-60F. Northern Gulf of Mexico during LA-Nina: The first week of March saw water temps approach the 70-72F range, by the...
Honolulu is located in the Pacific Ocean and has a mostly marine time climate. Honolulu has a pretty consistent temperature average from month to month. This is a look at the La-Nina impacts on the local area. January 2010: For the month of January it is typical to see average high temps in the 80’s while overnight lows drop into the 70’s. During the El-Nino event January temps were 60% of the month at the normal, while 40% of the month was marked with above temps and 0% of the month...
