X

Posts

April 20, 2013

+
7:17 AM | Probabilities reveal shape of climate change
David Stainforth from the London School of Economics and his colleagues have developed a new way to analyse weather data and understand whether temperatures have warmed evenly on a local level, showing European trends with less than a 2% chance of happening at random.

Chapman, S., Stainforth, D. & Watkins, N. (2013). On estimating local long-term climate trends, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, 371 (1991) 20120287-20120287. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

March 01, 2013

+
5:26 PM | On Our Radar: Asian Dust and California Snow
Even when two storm systems in the Sierra Nevada carry the same amount of water vapor, scientists found, the presence of dust from Asia in one will cause far more precipitation.
Green
Environment

February 28, 2013

+
10:14 PM | Fossil Critter Pee Reveals Past Climate Change
Ancient urine of a rabbit-like critter is revealing how Earth's climate changed thousands of years ago.
NatGeo News Watch
General Science

February 21, 2013

+
7:23 PM | About to have some winter
So far the winter of 2012-2013 has been pretty much a no show except for some cold temps, but nothing terribly cold.  it has been quite windy, so it's seemed colder.  Basically it's been a brown winter with only 3 inches of snow; no need to even shovel except wanting to keep the sidewalks clear of ice.  Now a big storm seems to be bearing right down on us promising more snow than we've had all winter so far.  From the perspective of precipitation, the area needs the moisture […]
The Phytophactor
Biology | Evolution
+
7:00 PM | Cave deposits reveal permafrost concern
Greenhouse gases currently trapped in the frozen soil risk release past a 1.5°C temperature threshold for melting at the permafrost boundary, found in a 500,000 year record collected by Anton Vaks from the University of Oxford, and his colleagues.

A. Vaks, O. S. Gutareva, S. F. M. Breitenbach, E. Avirmed, A. J. Mason, A. L. Thomas, A. V. Osinzev,5 A. M. Kononov, G. M. Henderson (2013). Speleothems Reveal 500,000-Year History of Siberian Permafrost, Science,

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

February 16, 2013

+
12:02 PM | Extra stations bolster warming-extreme rainfall link
A study calling on 8326 weather stations has confirmed that annual precipitation highs are intensifying by around 7% per 1°C warming, explains University of Adelaide’s Seth West

Westra, S., Alexander, L. & Zwiers, F. (2012). Global increasing trends in annual maximum daily precipitation, Journal of Climate, 2147483647. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

February 12, 2013

+
1:01 PM | The New Tornado Alley Episode 39 by Mark A. Ferguson (Click here...
The New Tornado Alley Episode 39 by Mark A. Ferguson (Click here to directly access the MP3) (Access the full text transcript) The number of tornado sightings on the Canadian prairies in 2012 was the highest it has ever been. For Storm Chasers, this has become a neat opportunity to explore the new Tornado Alley on the Canadian Prairies. But the implications of this drastically changing hydrology go far beyond tornadoes, and some experts are worried the climate is spiraling out of […]
Experimental Podcast
Science Communication | Podcast

February 06, 2013

+
4:12 PM | Falling Snowflakes: vertical or horizontal?
In 2009, researchers at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, of the University of North Dakota, US,  presented (in association with the Instrumentation Sciences Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center) details of their Snowflake Video Imager (SVI). It was fully described in a paper for the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology. The imager, which linked [...]
Improbable Research
Engineering | General Science

January 30, 2013

+
6:50 PM | Crazy weather
Here in the upper midwest, if you don't like the weather just wait a day and it'll change.  Fortunately the predicted ice storm failed to fully freeze leaving the predictors' record of failure for major weather events intact.  Yesterday the high temperature was 64F and new record for January 29th by 3 degrees.  Thunderstorms swept through the region giving us about an inch of badly needed precipitation.  This mid-winter thaw came immediately after the coldest week of the […]
The Phytophactor
Biology | Evolution
+
5:19 PM | Controversial research outlines physics behind how forests may bring rain
It took over two-and-a-half-years for the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics to finally accept a paper outlining a new meteorological hypothesis in which condensation, not temperature, drives winds. If proven correct, the hypothesis could have massive ramifications on global policy—not to mention meteorology—as essentially the hypothesis means that the world's forest play a major role in driving precipitation from the coast into a continent's interior. The theory, known as […]
Featured news from mongabay.com
Conservation

January 16, 2013

+
6:21 PM | New research: extreme precipitation and landslides in 2010
A review of a paper examining the linkages between high levels of landslides in 2010 and large scale rainfall patterns
The Landslide Blog
Geosciences

December 29, 2012

+
11:58 AM | Warming brings home the value of a meal
Research into how climate change affects agriculture, and therefore the food we eat, shows the challenges farmers face and the knock-on costs to the rest of us.

Laurie T. Johnson and Chris Hope (2012). The social cost of carbon in U.S. regulatory impact analyses: an introduction and critique, Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, DOI:

Schewe, J. & Levermann, A. (2012). A statistically predictive model for future monsoon failure in India, Environmental Research Letters, 7 (4) 44023. DOI:

Schwalm, C., Williams, C., Schaefer, K., Baldocchi, D., Black, T., Goldstein, A., Law, B., Oechel, W., Paw U, K. & Scott, R. & (2012). Reduction in carbon uptake during turn of the century drought in western North America, Nature Geoscience, 5 (8) 551-556. DOI:

Qian, C., Yan, Z. & Fu, C. (2011). Climatic changes in the Twenty-four Solar Terms during 1960–2008, Chinese Science Bulletin, 57 (2-3) 276-286. DOI:

Diffenbaugh, N., Hertel, T., Scherer, M. & Verma, M. (2012). Response of corn markets to climate volatility under alternative energy futures, Nature Climate Change, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

December 22, 2012

+
12:32 PM | 2012’s record events put climate in mind
Wet summers and droughts, deadly storms, Arctic melting and Antarctic freezing. How do climate records in 2012 fit in with the broader picture of climate change?

Villarini, G. & Vecchi, G. (2012). Multi-Season Lead Forecast of the North Atlantic Power Dissipation Index (PDI) and Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE), Journal of Climate, 2147483647. DOI:

Peduzzi, P., Chatenoux, B., Dao, H., De Bono, A., Herold, C., Kossin, J., Mouton, F. & Nordbeck, O. (2012). Global trends in tropical cyclone risk, Nature Climate Change, 2 (4) 289-294. DOI:

Newell, B. & Pitman, A. (2010). The Psychology of Global Warming, Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 91 (8) 1003-1014. DOI:

Rahmstorf, S. & Coumou, D. (2011). Increase of extreme events in a warming world, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108 (44) 17905-17909. DOI:

Liu, J., Curry, J., Wang, H., Song, M. & Horton, R. (2012). Impact of declining Arctic sea ice on winter snowfall, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:

Durack, P., Wijffels, S. & Matear, R. (2012). Ocean Salinities Reveal Strong Global Water Cycle Intensification During 1950 to 2000, Science, 336 (6080) 455-458. DOI:

Schwalm, C., Williams, C., Schaefer, K., Baldocchi, D., Black, T., Goldstein, A., Law, B., Oechel, W., Paw U, K. & Scott, R. & (2012). Reduction in carbon uptake during turn of the century drought in western North America, Nature Geoscience, 5 (8) 551-556. DOI:

Pall, P., Aina, T., Stone, D., Stott, P., Nozawa, T., Hilberts, A., Lohmann, D. & Allen, M. (2011). Anthropogenic greenhouse gas contribution to flood risk in England and Wales in autumn 2000, Nature, 470 (7334) 382-385. DOI:

Min, S., Zhang, X., Zwiers, F. & Hegerl, G. (2011). Human contribution to more-intense precipitation extremes, Nature, 470 (7334) 378-381. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

December 18, 2012

+
8:20 PM | Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2012
Below is a quick review of some of the biggest environmental stories of 2012. The 'top stories' are listed in no particular order. Climate change, overpopulation, consumption, and ecological destruction is pushing planet Earth toward a tipping point according to a major study in Nature released over the summer. This could result in a new 'planetary state' that would be far harsher and bleaker than the current one (beginning around 12,000 years ago), which saw the rise and success of human […]
Featured news from mongabay.com
Conservation

November 29, 2012

+
7:01 PM | Space agencies pinpoint polar ice sheet damage
Greenland & Antarctica lost over 4 trillion tonnes of ice from 1992-2011 - equivalent to 11 mm of sea level rise, the giant Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-Comparison Exercise (IMBIE) has shown by bringing together over 50 years’ worth of satellite data .

Andrew Shepherd, Erik R. Ivins, Geruo A, Valentina R. Barletta, Mike J. Bentley, Srinivas Bettadpur, Kate H. Briggs, David H. Bromwich, René Forsberg, Natalia Galin, Martin Horwath, Stan Jacobs, Ian Joughin, Matt A. King, Jan T. M. Lenaerts, Jilu Li, Antony J. Payne, Hamish Pritchard, Eric Rignot, Helmut Rott, Louise Sandberg Sørensen, Ted A. Scambos, Bernd Scheuchl, Ernst J.O. Schrama, Ben Smith, Aud V. Sundal, Jan H. van Angelen, Willem J. van de Berg, Michiel R. van den Broeke, David G. Vaughan, I (2012). A Reconciled Estimate of Ice-Sheet Mass Balance, Science, Other: 10.1126/science.1228102

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

November 08, 2012

+
2:17 PM | Monsoon instability raises food questions for India
An unstable balance between dry and wet monsoon rain seasons could become important for farming in South Asia as the world warms into the 22nd century, find Jacob Schewe and Anders Levermann from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

Schewe, J. & Levermann, A. (2012). A statistically predictive model for future monsoon failure in India, Environmental Research Letters, 7 (4) 44023. DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

November 04, 2012

+
1:30 PM | 4 of the Newest and Coolest Videos Out of NASA
-----Share this specific url. Share Spread the Love Straight from my YouTube Channel, here are the latest and greatest, some incredible new videos just released on NASA's website. First,   "NASA and Japan Team Together To Launch Satellite (Animation)" Nine U.S. and international satellites will soon be united by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, a partnership co-led by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). NASA and JAXA will provide the […]
Astronasty
Astronomy | Physics
+
12:04 AM | Meteorological factors and autism?
If I had a pound (inflation adjusted y'know) for every time the words 'correlation does not equal causation' were used with autism and related conditions in mind, my piggy bank would probably be rather full by now. Indeed such is the application of this term when referring to the wide (very wide) variety of associations made between this, that and t'other, that a backlash has seemingly emerged to counter its usage as per this Slate article. Cool, clear water @ Wikipedia Of course that's […]

Sophie St Hilaire, Victor Ezike, Henrik Stryhn & Michael A Thomas (2012). An ecological study on childhood autism, International Journal of Health Geographics, Other: Link

Questioning Answers
Psychiatry | Psychology
Citation

October 27, 2012

+
11:13 AM | Climate provides weak power to predict African violence
Though there is a modest link between conflict and rainfall and temperature changes, this has been overplayed in political discussions, according to a detailed analysis by John O’Loughlin from the University of Colorado, Boulder and his team-mates.

O'Loughlin, J., Witmer, F., Linke, A., Laing, A., Gettelman, A. & Dudhia, J. (2012). Climate variability and conflict risk in East Africa, 1990-2009, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

October 06, 2012

+
12:17 PM | Warming weakens deep freeze on Arctic islands
Current Svalbard temperatures are the warmest in 1,800 years say William D’Andrea from Columbia University in New York and his teammates

William J. D’Andrea, David A. Vaillencourt, Nicholas L. Balascio, Al Werner, Steven R. Roof, Michael Retelle and Raymond S. Bradley (2012). Mild Little Ice Age and unprecedented recent warmth in an 1800 year lake sediment record from Svalbard, Geology, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

September 15, 2012

+
6:47 AM | Could pollution be stopping warming’s impact on rain?
Considering both space and time in climate records shows predictions for how rainfall will change are wrong, say Michael Roderick and his teammates from Australian National University, Canberra, who speculate that atmospheric aerosols are to blame.

Fubao Sun, Michael L. Roderick, Graham D. Farquhar (2012). Changes in the variability of global land precipitation, Geophysical Research Letters, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

August 18, 2012

+
11:46 AM | Temperature rises could hamper developing world growth
Annual variations show every 1°C temperature increase shaves 1.3 percent off a poor country’s growth, over the course of a given year, according to MIT economist Ben Olken.

Melissa Dell, Benjamin F. Jones and Benjamin A. Olken (2012). Temperature Shocks and Economic Growth: Evidence from the Last Half Century , American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, DOI:

Simple Climate
Climate Science
Citation

August 09, 2012

+
3:14 PM | CO2-focused breeding can arm crops for food fight
Higher CO2 levels could ensure we have enough food in the face of other climate and population changes, says Lewis Ziska from the US Department of Agriculture, if crop breeding programs tailored to take advantage get enough support
Simple Climate
Climate Science

August 04, 2012

+
1:37 PM | Continued emission growth promises US megadroughts
2000-2004 western US drought was worst in 800 years, but will become normal in future, reversing the region’s absorption of CO2 and worsening climate change, says Christopher Schwalm from Northern Arizona University
Simple Climate
Climate Science

July 02, 2012

+
12:02 PM | The Tricky Business of Counting Rain
A decline in water measurement stations poses challenges for meteorologists and climatologists worldwide.
Green
Environment

May 09, 2012

+
12:40 PM | On Our Radar: A Dry Year So Far
Most areas of the country had below-average precipitation in the first four months of the year.
Green
Environment

April 21, 2012

+
4:00 PM | Ice Jam Floods
When do you expect flooding? It depends very much on where you are, of course, and what causes the flooding. Here in interior Alaska we have two flood seasons, with two quite different mechanisms, and we’re starting into one of them now, at the driest time of the year. Yes, April is our driest month [...]
HomecomingBook
General Science

March 17, 2012

+
3:54 PM | Scenic Saturday: from desert to verdant grassland in 10 miles (and 1000 m)
Why large climatic contrasts occur over short distances on Hawaii - and why this is scientifically important. Continue reading →
Highly Allochthonous
Geosciences

February 09, 2012

+
8:01 PM | A Very Warm January
The average temperature in January in the United States was 36.3 degrees Fahrenheit -- 5.5 degrees warmer than the average for the 20th century.
Green
Environment

December 19, 2011

+
2:48 PM | Is the Russian Forest Code a warning for Brazil?
Brazil, which last week moved to reform its Forest Code, may find lessons in Russia's revision of its forest law in 2007, say a pair of Russian scientists. The Brazilian Senate last week passed a bill that would relax some of forest provisions imposed on landowners. Environmentalists blasted the move, arguing that the new Forest Code — provided it is not vetoed by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff next year — could undermine the country's progress in reducing deforestation.
Featured news from mongabay.com
Conservation
12
38 Results