WKU Meteorology

My wife, who is from northern Indiana where winters are fierce, gets very nervous every winter when the Mid-South has near-record warm weather like today with high temperatures flirting with 70 degrees. She always wonders if these spring-like days are due to global warming. I did a little research today and found that not only is 70 degrees in January not that unusual for south-central KY, it actually occurred twice as often during the first half of the 20th century as it did in the second half of the 20th century. (more…)

John Coleman, the founder of The Weather Channel and currently a TV Meteorologist in San Diego, made news recently by calling Global Warming “The greatest scam in history” on his blog that was also linked to a new website ICECAP that features commentary from scientists who are skeptical about Global Warming. Contrary with the recent skepticism, the recent report from the IPCC contains language that suggests man-made Global Warming is a near certainty. So what is the average person supposed to believe? (more…)

Unnoticed in a media environment that treats any anomalous weather event as evidence of global warming is that fact that the frequency of extremely hot days during June and July in Kentucky and Tennessee since 1999 is less than at any time in the past 100 years. (more…)

The scientists at “Real Climate” have posted a number of websites and links for those of you who may have some questions about global warming and climate change. This is definitely recommended reading, as I hear a lot of misconceptions from people about what they know of global warming.

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/start-here/

NOAA has produced a report that shows that while winter (Dec-Feb) across the United States was near normal, globally, the winter of 2006-07 was the warmest such period since measurements began in 1880. You can access the entire report here. It is pretty apparent that this past winter was very warm world-wide when you look at an image like this. The good news is that precipitation was up globally.

Now that the winter of 2006-07 is officially in the books it is clear that this was a winter of extremes. December and January both featured monthly anomalies 5-6 degrees above normal while February was around 7 degrees below normal (the official climate division values are not in yet). Now, as you would expect, there are already stories out there in cyberspace debating whether or not this anomalous winter was influenced by Global Warming. In fact, Elliot Abrams of AccuWeather recently wrote in his blog about Philadelphia…

February was more than 16 degrees colder than January, a stunning turnaround. Some researchers have suggested that with global warming we will see more extremes. Was this part of that, or would it have happened anyway? What’s the best way to answer that question?

Here’s how this researcher would do it. (more…)

During the recent blizzard/tornado event on March 1st, Chicago was in the mid-40s and received over an inch of rain. According to the discussion boards at Easternuswx.com, during the February 28th broadcast of “Abrams & Bettes”, Stephanie Abrams said she “spoke to her elders” in the Chicago area, and that “they could never remember a February where they ever had rain” (in actuality she was referring to the predicted rain for March 1st, but since the show aired February 28th, she forgot the predicted rain would occur in March and not February). She even reportedly asked the on-site reporter from Chicago what his thoughts were on this unusual February rain. (Disclosure: I didn’t see the broadcast, so I can’t verify if this is true). Having lived in Chicago from 1980-1990, I have a good memory of what winter is like and I seem to remember quite a few February rains. But rather than rely solely on my memory (as Ms. Abrams and her elders apparently did), I decided to research the matter for myself. (more…)

The following article is a must-read for all graduate students, undergraduate students, and K-12 teachers with an interest in climate change and global warming. Dr. Kerry Emanuel of MIT, one of the most prolific scientists in the study of the relation between hurricanes and global warming, has produced a very readable (albeit long) article that succinctly describes the history and physics of climate change and global warming. The article represents a balance between some of the global warming hysterics (e.g., global warming will end civilization) and the global warming skeptics (e.g., global warming doesn’t exist). (more…)