Post by nickelson on Jul 22, 2010 0:41:50 GMT 10
A recent spate of extreme record setting weather around the world has got some people wondering if the dreaded climate change has finally struck.
All time record heat in the Middle East and Russia; all time record cold, for the month of July, in California; a freakish mid summer snowstorm in Alberta; and extreme flooding in southern China are just a few examples of the rampage Mother Nature has embarked on.
The big story so far this year has been the heat. In June a massive heat wave struck the Middle East and all time record highs were set in 5 countries. Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, Chad, and Niger all set national records in the period between June 14 and June 22. On July 11 Russia set its all time record high when the mercury soared to 111.2 in Yashkul. That broke the previous national record of 110.8 set in 1940.
Not all has been scorching heat, however, as abnormally cold conditions have also been reported in a number of locations. In San Diego California, July began with an unprecedented string of record low daily maximum temperatures. At one point they had 6 consecutive days where daily high temperatures were the lowest on record, including a high of 64 degrees which tied their all time record low maximum for the month of July. An amazing feat considering weather records for that city go back to 1875.
Near Jasper Alberta employees at the Marmot Basin Ski area were shocked to wake up to snow on the ground on July 13th. Snow continued to fall well into the day and finally accumulated to a depth of 7 inches. The scope and duration of the snowfall was said to be unheard of for mid July.
Meanwhile hundreds of people have died and millions of acres of farmland have been inundated in Southern China from floods that began on May 10th. This will unquestionably go down as one of the worst floods in that nation’s history.
All of the chaos is being caused by what meteorologists call a “perturbed” atmosphere. As the jet stream circles the globe, it encounters a series of high pressure ridges and low pressure troughs. Some years the ridges and troughs have much higher amplitude than normal which results in unusually extreme weather. The 1930s was a decade where the atmosphere was unusually perturbed and a number of memorable weather events took place that set records which still stand to this day.
Source:
theweatherspace.com