a reply to:
Hellas
Strange weather phenomena including disrupted weather patterns have been going for a few years. I've been watching the weather and the myriad effects
on a global scale over this time period as well as been hunting for scholarly information on the subject.
For instance, a bit back, there was discussion about young sea lions starving off the coast of California. The most recent information in regards to
the phenomena is attributing it to the presence of red tides (those glowing waves that are basically filling the ocean with neurotoxins). Here's the
dubiously fun part. It's not just off the coast of California where large blooms of red tides are occurring. It's also happening in SW Europe. The
commonality? Negative oscillations in the weather pattern and it's being linked/postulated as being the culprit.
www.sciencedirect.com...
Now load up this and make sure to wait for the map to pop up for the next points. This is a water vapor satellite on a 48 hour loop. When I mention
something
As you can see, some of the weird stuff going on is on a repeat cycle. However, things like stronger typhoons and hurricanes venturing further, are
due to ocean acidification--warming oceans. Our oceans actually fuel the climatic engine and a warmer ocean provides for more fuel. You can see the
formations of typhoons occurring in the Pacific on the radar. Kind of cool, eh?
onlinelibrary.wiley.com...
Droughts, again, frequently tied to those oscillations (ie the "ridiculously resilient ridge" in the Pacific inducing drought in California and
Southern Oregon). That would be the kind of blob of rather dry air off West of the US. It's breaking down these days but it was a pretty strong
ridge of little water vapor previously like what you see over Saudi Arabia currently (and has been there for a bit).
www.nature.com...
link.springer.com...
The variability of what is happening over the oceans is what is occurring with storms and rainfall (either too much or too little) on land across the
globe. The oceanic oscillations have been rather wild over the last couple of years and that is probably the source of the overt--like too much rain
in Calgary and not enough in LA stateside or flooding in the UK. It's also probably linked to the less overt issues that we've been having like the
dying sea lions or beetle infestations in Colorado.
From what my noob self can gather, some of the stuff that is going on is a natural cycle called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. There's a
larger natural cycle that exists that causes climate change periodically and cyclically that bounces between warm and cool. My best interpretation is
that we have additional warming alongside a warm AMO and that's making things a bit snafu both on land and in the sea, for humans, plants and critters
alike.
More migraine inducing links:
www.plosone.org...
www.pnas.org...
I guess the one comfort is that these are but a small handful of articles on the subjects. There are scientists all over the world trying to figure
out what's going on and trying to determine whether we'll reset, if it's all going to linger and stick, and how much is the natural multidecadal cycle
and how much is not.
*I also want to add that other factors being looked at are that the planet is growing increasingly arid and has been for some time. That plus the
predictions of the warm AMO plus additional warming lasting for up to the next 30-90 years could explain why Monsanto has such a fetish for creating
"drought resistant crops".
edit on 9/8/14 by WhiteAlice because: added starred section