The North American Monsoon is evidence of some serious Global Warming!

a reply to: Rezlooper

Allow me to correct a couple of things...

As the Earth continues to warm, the atmosphere gets better at holding in water vapor and it has to dump somewhere, which is right on top of our heads in the places we live, sleep and work, disrupting our daily lives in immeasurable ways.

Warmer temperatures do increase the amount of moisture the air can hold. That does not necessarily equal rain. When air cools to the point where it cannot hold any more water vapor (saturation), clouds form. When enough water vapor condenses in the clouds, water falls out of them as precipitation. The saturation point of the air is wholly a function of temperature and is commonly called the "dewpoint."

Precipitation depends on the temperature change, not the absolute temperature.

Where you live, apparently there are warm and cold air masses coming through. If the atmosphere just got warmer overall, you wouldn't see a change in precipitation. And speaking of where you live...

(My apologies for the size... I'm posting from a tablet)

This image, from this site shows that Wisconsin has been below average on rainfall, and is now "catching up." This is a pretty common occurrence with weather in general. Averages are just that: averages. Some years will be wetter; some will be drier; some will be hotter; some will be colder.

And there you have it. In summary... as the earth warms, more water is evaporated from rivers, streams, lakes, oceans and because of the warmer air, humidity holds more water vapor, which then absorbs more infrared energy heating the earth even more. This continues in a feedback loop.

Yes, it is a feedback loop. The thing about feedback loops is that positive feedbacks cannot occur for very long. They are by definition self-destructive. Here's you a nice example of a positive feedback loop.


The bridge was built before seismic design was fully understood. As it turned out, the winds from the Narrows were able to set up eddies that matched the natural harmonics of the bridge. That set up a positive feedback loop. The bridge had been observed swaying horribly before, which should have served as a warning.

Can you point out any time in history that serves as a warning that a positive feedback loop is about to destroy the planet?

Considering the earth is billions of years old, hundreds of millions of which has supported life, how is it possible that ANY positive feedback loop exists?

It's not. We are obviously seeing one aspect of the complete picture.

TheRedneck

a reply to: TheRedneck

Keep in mind when water vapor cools and condenses, heat is released...though figuring out how much heat is released versus how much heat is reflected to space via cloud albedo is a tough one.

michigan here.

Unlike our poster central michigan was very dry in July. May 10th-August 1st had nearly 0 precipitation. I know because I work in construction where rain affects our job sites. No monsoon. Had one hard rain at a job site which is 1.5 hours away.
local weather happens.

considering our states are at the same latitude and are only separated by a lake you would think this giant monsoon would be noticeable.

Now if the OP would have been talking about these past 3 weeks then the OP would have made a basis in reality. It's been wet recently. Enough to catch up.

Basements flood because they are old, cracked and have poor drainage. Dig a trench, install drain tile, connect the drain tile to storm sewer or lead it to daylight if in the country.

In the Midwest, the excessive dew points have been enhanced by the moisture release of expanding corn crops that have been flourishing at higher rate this summer by a good pattern of rain in the region.

I'm not saying global warming doesn't exist, but just pointing out a factor that enhances surfaced based moisture.

Rain pattern is one thing, but enhanced surface based moisture by corn fields in the region is also a factor. Muggy air mass that rises up and enhances rain/storms further.

a reply to: jrod

That's a good point. When water evaporates, the vapor holds heat energy absorbed from its surroundings. When it condenses into rain, it releases this heat into the upper atmosphere. That's a pretty substantial heat transfer.

TheRedneck