Last Saturday, I spent the morning at a DC
Climate Project meeting with two guest speakers,
Joe Romm and Mike Tidwell.
Has anyone noticed that our local weather ... has turned truly screwy? We go from one bizarre weather condition to the next with almost no pause in between for "normal" conditions. It's too wet, too dry, too cold, too warm, too windy - nearly all the time. Hmmm? And scientists and average people all over the world, from Japan to Argentina, report similar strangeness. .... There's just no normal weather anymore. Anywhere. Mike Tidwell Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Mike argues that it is critical to be able to explain what is happening to weather in our own backyards as a way to convince our neighbors and acquaintances of the critical nature of taking action on Global Warming.
Last Saturday, I spent the morning at a DC
Climate Project meeting with two guest speakers,
Joe Romm and Mike Tidwell.
As part of his discussion, Mike focused on the importance of speaking to one's backyard, to changing weather patterns in one's own community as a path toward communicating the implications of Global Warming. Artic ice and salt water intrusion in Bangladesh are simple too remote.
Contemplate for a moment:
What's happening in your backyard?
Well, for me, I have an excellent cheat sheet, as Mike's backyard is pretty much the same as mine.
In the D.C. region nothing illustrates this better than the annual Martin Luther King parade. Last year, tired of the cold and grayness of January, the organizers decided to move the annual parade to early April. The result? This year on January 16th (the official King holiday) it was 70 degrees in D.C. Remember all that freakish winter warmth? Outdoor barbeques broke out all over the city on backyard decks still festooned with Christmas decorations. And on Saturday, April 7th, the date of the "warmer" and more hospitable MLK parade? There was actually snow on the ground. The parade majorettes and tuba players woke up to 34 degrees and a blanket of snow on the ground, the most April snow in DC since 1924.
Okay, yes, weather is always odd. As Mike continues:
And yes, I know: There's always been weird weather that occasionally defies the seasonal norms, sometimes dramatically. It's part of the natural unpredictability of weather. And if you listen to the dismissive climate rants of the Rush Limbaugh crowd, you'll yield to that inner voice that wants to reassuringly say: Don't worry. It's all normal. Everything's okay.
But I challenge you, right now, to recognize that what's happening to our local weather is not normal. There's satellite imagery showing the Greenland ice sheet is imploding, of course, and other data showing that large-scale hurricanes are becoming more frequent in the Atlantic. And if such profound changes are happening at the macro climate level due to global warming, how could they not be happening at the micro regional weather level?
The reality is this: changes are happening to our local weather. Right now. And you've seen the evidence with your own eyes. Just look at the last 13 months in the D.C. region. People so easily forget - and I think many want to forget -- all the weather anomalies of the past few months and years. By doing so we're able to avoid acknowledging the truly disturbing pattern of local strangeness.
First off, anyone remember a year ago March? Who recalls that we had zero - absolutely zero - rain in Washington during that month? No measurable precipitation recorded at Reagan National Airport for all of March 2006. March is normally one of our wettest months of the year in D.C. But March 2006 was drier in D.C. than in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Extremely odd.
Followed by what? Followed by rain in June 2006 the likes of which almost no one in D.C. has ever seen before. A record 14 inches fell for the month at National Airport. An astonishing 8 inches fell in 24 hours in late June.
Followed by what? A blast furnace of heat in July and August in DC and across much of the country. Remember that summer heat? Crops failed throughout the region. Even Christian conservative Pat Robertson was won over, saying the outlandish summer heat wave had finally convinced him that global warming was real. Heat records were set in dozens of states.
Followed by what? More highly unseasonable warmth in the autumn of 2006, especially December, which ranked as the 10th warmest ever in D.C., contributing to a yearlong streak nationwide that made 2006 the warmest year ever recorded in America. That warmth extended to MLK day this year and the strange January blooming of cherry trees in parts of D.C. Remember that headline?
Followed by what? Highly extreme COLD weather in late January and February. In fact, February of this year was the second coldest on record for the region.
Followed by what? Can anyone, anyone, anyone remember an April like the one we've had this year in the region? Snow or the threat of snow throughout the first two weeks of the month? Are you kidding me? Temperatures routinely in the 30s at night? Baseball players bundled up like Eskimos? A blanket of white stuff for the MLK parade? And then the Nor'easter from hell?
Are we getting the picture yet? There's more than just a pattern here. An entirely new and oddball weather regime seems to have fully unpacked its bags. Our weather, quite frankly, has become unrecognizable.
And unless we get off fossil fuels as soon as possible, this weather inconvenience will become a full-blown climate nightmare, scientists warn. Already, Allstate Insurance has stopped issuing new policies in coastal Maryland because of global warming-enhanced hurricanes. And the U.S. EPA says agricultural output could plummet in the region in coming decades due to deepening weather disruptions.
Mark my words, after this current April cold spell ends, there will be another weather novelty soon, perhaps in June and maybe again in August and then in October. Too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, too windy. It's here. It's everyday. It's in our face. And it's time we finally used this daily reminder of a world gone haywire to push our leaders to adopt the clean energy policies we need -- right now -- to re-stabilize our fragile climate and so save our way of life while we still have time.
It isn't just the Artic Ice. It isn't far off poor rice farmers in Bangladesh. This is happening in Mike's backyard. Odd weather is happening in my backyard. It will happen in yours. In all of ours.
Tidwell's words are great, but the framing and discussion approach is magnificent.
Think about building on Tidwell's discussion. What has been happening in your backyard? Can you take Tidwell's approach and write up your neighborhood's weather? If so, that's your next Letter to the Editor.
Weird weather isn't anomaly anymore, this is now the normal.
And we've done it.
And, weird will get weirder if we continue along the path we're on.
Time to choose a better path.
Time to
Energize America toward a sustaiinable energy future.
Ask yourself: Are you doing your part?
Please ... visit Chesapeake Climate Action Network ... and consider supporting efforts and getting engaged. CCAN is having a real, positive impact.
Cross-posted from And ... of course, Daily Kos.
Because El Ninos are usually noticed in the Southern Pacific around December, it was called El Nino for the Christ child.
El Ninos occur every two to seven years and nobody knows why they happen but they are responsible for all kinds of strange weather patterns exactly like the ones we have seen this year. Scientists first noticed this year's El Nino last summer when the active Atlantic hurricane season they had predicted never materialized. El Ninos create high pressure, known as Bermuda highs, off the Florida coast, which is one of their hallmarks. That's why those of us who have lived in Florida know so much about them. El Nino years give Floridians a respite from hurricanes.
But they cause other strange and often unwelcome weather, as you noticed. In Florida, it would cause unusually rainy winters, when it should be dry, and drought-like summers. Or longterm drought, such as the one now in Florida, among other Southern states. For more on El Nino Southern Oscillations, go to:
None of this negates the fact that we are indeed facing global warming and it is dire. But the best way to convince people of global warming is precisely to stick to the real science, including changes in long termn weather patterns like these:
Climate models referenced by the IPCC project that global surface temperatures are likely to increase by 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) between 1990 and 2100.[1] The range of values reflects the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions and results of models with differences in climate sensitivity. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise are expected to continue for more than a millennium even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized.[1] This reflects the large heat capacity of the oceans.An increase in global temperatures can in turn cause other changes, including sea level rise, and changes in the amount and pattern of precipitation. There may also be changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, though it is difficult to connect specific events to global warming. Other effects may include changes in agricultural yields, glacier retreat, reduced summer streamflows, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.