Monthly Archives: June 2010

Summer Arrived Early With a Bang

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Alien sky? No, just cloud boobs: A variation of mammatus clouds after recent Minnesota tornadoes, from the Star Tribune.

Today is the summer solstice!   This means summer is finally here, and no one loves summer like people who live in the north, since we endure so many months of brutally cold weather every winter.  True, that brutally cold weather isn’t quite so brutal anymore, and it doesn’t seem to last as long, and summers seem cooler and wetter than they used to be.  This fits the predictions of global warming.  You would think that a person who lives in the north and endures the winter up here would not worry about global warming, and might even welcome it.  That is the prevailing thought among many people here who do not know what unchecked climate change will bring. And sure, it’s true that I wish it was warmer here.  Unfortunately, climate change is going to make things much more difficult for everyone no matter where they live.  Water shortages and storms will make life a challenge for everyone eventually, including people in the north.

So far, we had a hot spring in Minnesota that cooled down recently, and then we got a rollercoaster of wild weather, with nearly two weeks of rain (odd for June) and then BANG — 34 tornadoes in a single day on June 17th.   This outbreak  of killer tornadoes included at least three F4 tornadoes.   As a local weatherman here wrote in his newspaper column today:

“How could this happen here?  We live in tornado cul de sac, not tornado alley.  How could we experience an entire YEAR’S worth of tornadoes in one day?  As the climate warms and weather patterns shift north we’re seeing more large, violent tornadoes hitting the North Woods.  That seems to be a trend.”

That observation was from Paul Douglas.

People have died all across the country due to major severe weather outbreaks; flash floods, flash rains and tornadoes.  And it’s not just in the US — it’s happening in parts of Europe, Central America, and in China.  Giant sinkholes are appearing all over the world too as the earth just seems to be eroding and collapsing. What’s going on?

It’s likely that our weird and often severe weather is the result of climate change.  Global warming warms not just the atmosphere but also the oceans.  The oceans act like a temperature regulator and right now the oceans are putting warmer-than-ever moisture into the air. It’s fueling storms and seems to be affecting the whole planet’s weather.

The Little Missouri River in Southwest Arkansas experienced a flash flood June 11, with waters that rose over 20 feet in just 5 hours, killing at least 20 people.  And in China, nearly 150 people have died recently from flash floods.

“Floods and landslides triggered by the summer deluge have caused the evacuations of more than 800,000 people, state-run television said.  Earlier media reports said more than 1.4 million people living on [...]