Wunderground launches new Local Climate Change section
In honor of Earth Day on Sunday, wunderground has launched a new Climate Change Center, which gives people resources to understand how the climate is changing both globally and in their local neighborhoods. I am particularly pleased with our Local Climate Change feature, which allows one to see how temperature and precipitation have changed over the past 100+ years at the nearest station with a long period of measurements. Predictions from climate models on what the next 100 years may bring are overlaid for each station. Data for most U.S. stations goes back to 1895; we have data for a few stations in Europe that extend back to the 1700s. Berlin has the longest period of record in this database, with data back to 1702.
Figure 1. Screenshot of the Local Climate Change page for Washington, DC. Measured temperatures since 1820 are shown in grey. By clicking on the "Show post-1900 trend:" box, we see that the trend since 1900 has been for an increase in temperature of 1.5°C (2.7°F) per century. Moving the thin vertical red line over the image using the mouse shows that the warmest year on record in Washington D.C. was 1991. Predictions for a future with low emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide are shown in yellow; the high emissions prediction is shown in red. Separate tabs are available to examine precipitation and snow.
Skeptical?
Also included in the new Climate Change Center is a section addressing the common skeptical arguments made against climate change. We offer three levels of explanation. The "Basic" level is the default, but one can also see more technical in-depth discussions by clicking on the "See All Explanation Levels" link. The material was developed by physicist John Cook for his excellent skepticalscience.com web site, which is widely referenced in the climate science communication community.
Video 1. I'm featured in this video on extreme weather and climate change done by veteran videographer Peter Sinclair for the Yale forum on Climate Change and the Media this month. I'm also featured in Part 1 of this series. Our new Climate Change Center has a section for climate change videos, which includes a twice-monthly feature from GreenTV detailing the world's notable wild weather events of the past two weeks.
Earth: the Operator's Manual airs Sunday night
Penn State climate scientist Dr. Richard Alley hosts parts II and III of Earth: the Operator's Manual on PBS beginning at 7pm Sunday, April 22--Earth Day. Part I of this excellent series aired in April 2011. The series gives an overview of climate change, but primarily focuses on what we can do to help slow down climate change though smart energy choices. Dr. Alley, a registered Republican, geologist, and former oil company employee, is the Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at the Pennsylvania State University, and one of the most respected and widely published world experts on climate change. Dr. Alley has testified before Congress on climate change issues, served as lead author of "Chapter 4: Observations: Changes in Snow, Ice and Frozen Ground" for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and is author of more than 170 peer-reviewed scientific articles on Earth's climate. He is also the author of a book I highly recommend--The Two Mile Time Machine, a superb account of Earth's climate history as deduced from the 2-mile long Greenland ice cores. Dr. Alley is an excellent and engaging speaker, and I highly recommend listening to his 45-minute keynote speech, "The Biggest Control Knob: CO2 in Earth's Climate History", given at the 2010 American Geophysical Union meeting, via this very watchable recording showing his slides as he speaks in one corner of the video. If you want to understand why scientists are so certain of the link between CO2 and Earth's climate, this is a must-see lecture.
Have a great weekend, everyone, and I'll be back Monday with a new post. I'd like to thank Wunderground meteorologist, Angela Fritz for spearheading the creating the new Climate Change Center; it's a product I'll be referring to frequently in the future, and one we'll be updating in the coming months with data on local sea level rise, fire risk, and drought.
Jeff Masters
Reader Comments
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Apocalypse Theater
It's pretty good and creepy
You got a problem with 2012? :P
Dayum, Nassau had a tornado yesterday? I was in Miami xD
It was a magnitude 5.1.
Earthquake Details
This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.
Magnitude 5.1
Date-Time
Monday, April 23, 2012 at 00:20:40 UTC
Sunday, April 22, 2012 at 06:20:40 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 15.866°N, 89.182°W
Depth 57.2 km (35.5 miles)
Region GUATEMALA
Distances 64 km (39 miles) WNW of Puerto Barrios, Guatemala
124 km (77 miles) NNE of Chiquimula, Guatemala
200 km (124 miles) NE of GUATEMALA, Guatemala
1130 km (702 miles) ESE of MEXICO CITY, D.F., Mexico
Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 16.2 km (10.1 miles); depth +/- 9.3 km (5.8 miles)
Parameters NST=360, Nph=363, Dmin=287.2 km, Rmss=0.75 sec, Gp=112°,
M-type=regional moment magnitude (Mw), Version=A
Source
Magnitude: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Location: USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID usc00099n2
April 21, 2012
The East Pac could have 25 storms this year
El niño in some parts and still la niña in others
32 might be pushing it... I think more like 20-23 storms, maybe 7-9 majors
I've been in a few M5.0
BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RENO NV
559 PM PDT SUN APR 22 2012
THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RENO HAS ISSUED A
* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
WEST CENTRAL CHURCHILL COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL NEVADA...
THIS INCLUDES THE CITY OF FALLON...
* UNTIL 645 PM PDT
* AT 552 PM PDT...FALLON NAVAL AIR STATION REPORTED A SEVERE
THUNDERSTORM PRODUCING DAMAGING WINDS NEAR 60 MPH. THIS STORM WAS
LOCATED NEAR FALLON...AND MOVING NORTH AT 10 MPH.
* LOCATIONS AFFECTED INCLUDE...FALLON.
PREPARE NOW FOR HIGH WINDS...HAIL...HEAVY RAIN AND DEADLY LIGHTNING.
DURING A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM...SEEK SHELTER INSIDE A STURDY STRUCTURE
AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.
THIS STORM HAS DEVELOPED VERY QUICKLY...AND WILL PRODUCE A BURST OF
HIGH WINDS...HAIL...HEAVY RAIN...AND FREQUENT CLOUD TO GROUND
LIGHTNING. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST MAY RAPIDLY REDUCE VISIBILITIES TO
BELOW ONE MILE. SEEK SAFE SHELTER...AND STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS AND
GLASS DOORS.
LAT...LON 3971 11892 3968 11861 3936 11870 3938 11893
TIME...MOT...LOC 0058Z 187DEG 11KT 3946 11880
$$
JHW
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
842 PM EDT SUN APR 22 2012
DEZ001-MDZ008-NJZ009-010-012>020-026-027-PAZ067>0 71-230330-
NEW CASTLE-CECIL-HUNTERDON-SOMERSET-MIDDLESEX-WESTERN MONMOUTH-
EASTERN MONMOUTH-MERCER-SALEM-GLOUCESTER-CAMDEN-
NORTHWESTERN BURLINGTON-OCEAN-COASTAL OCEAN-
SOUTHEASTERN BURLINGTON-CHESTER-MONTGOMERY-BUCKS-DELAWARE-
PHILADELPHIA-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF...WILMINGTON...ELKTON...FLEMINGTON...
SOMERVILLE...NEW BRUNSWICK...FREEHOLD...SANDY HOOK...TRENTON...
PENNSVILLE...GLASSBORO...CAMDEN...CHERRY HILL...MOORESTOWN...
MOUNT HOLLY...JACKSON...LONG BEACH ISLAND...
WHARTON STATE FOREST...WEST CHESTER...NORRISTOWN...DOYLESTOWN...
MEDIA...PHILADELPHIA
842 PM EDT SUN APR 22 2012
.NOW...
RAIN WILL CONTINUE THROUGH 11 PM. ANYWHERE BETWEEN ONE-QUARTER
INCH AND ONE INCH OF RAIN IS FORECAST BETWEEN 845 PM AND 11 PM,
WHICH WOULD BRING RAINFALL AMOUNTS FOR THE EVENT SO FAR TO THE
TWO INCH RANGE. TEMPERATURES WILL BE IN THE UPPER 40S TO NEAR 50.
WINDS WILL BE FROM THE NORTHEAST AT 15 TO 25 MPH WITH GUSTS OF 30
TO 40 MPH.
$$
I agree with your points. My quibble was specificly with the misuse of 'pseudoscientific' and 'theory'.
On the other hand, within my memory...
...nobody had ever made such a speculation before. And so no evidence had been gathered, no models had been made for similar previous events. Thus airing the idea might have been useful in spurring folks to gather that kind of data this time around for use in later modeling studies.
I think that would be dependent on a moderate to strong el nino
I doubt it will be that active...maybe in the order of 18-20 storms.
psh not even close... a c+ the physics is terrible and the cgi makes things look extremely fake.
You try making a completely fake movie look real with tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes. :)
The last time Jamaica had anything close to that was 1907 when most of Kingston was destroyed
According to the SPC, the Big April 2012 Florida Severe Weather Event didn't amount to much; no tornadoes and no hail have yet been reported in the state, and fewer than a dozen wind reports were submitted.
Haha, they
Give me 200 million dollars, ill make it easily :)
Thats a nice view
Yesterday's Storm Reports (1200 UTC - 1159 UTC)
I know there are usually overcounting of tornadoes, but do you have undercounting as well?
Did ya have to drag the French into it, roflmao
A 5.1 is quite an earthquake. It will buckle your knees and shake the hell out of everything nearby and if it isn't sound that will be enough to shake it loose. Been through a few of those sized ones and few over 6.6-6.7
Nice temps
This was on WU's page for Truckee, CA (Which is also quite warm today):
... Record high temperature set at Reno Tahoe Airport NV...
a record high temperature of 90 degrees was set at Reno Tahoe Airport NV today.
This breaks the old record of 84 set in 1888.
This also Marks the first time the 90 degree threshold has been
recorded at the Reno Tahoe Airport in the month of April since
temperature observations have been recorded starting on January
1st... 1888.
i'm good...how are you pedley?
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