18 April 2012

Weird Spring Weather- Related To Diminishing Arctic Sea Ice??

Posted by Dan Satterfield

Every meteorologist I know is talking about the crazy weather of the last few months: Records broken by margins I would have dismissed as impossible a few years ago. A Texas summer far worse than the brutal heat of 1980, and now a growing drought nationwide. I’ve attended a couple of very interesting seminars recently, and talked with a lot of fellow meteorologists about it. There seems to be growing evidence that the increased water vapour in the atmosphere and diminishing sea ice are now causing the normal swings of weather to change to a point that is noticeable to the average person.

 

Arctic Sea Ice has diminished considerably over the past 30 years. This from NOAA. Click for more info from the Arctic Report Card 2011.

Research by Dr. Jennifer Francis and others may very well have hit on at least part of the answer.

The disappearing Arctic Sea ice.

I’ve written two posts about this before and now Bud Ward, at the Yale Forum on Climate Change and The Media, has posted a video with some of those I have talked with, including Dr. Francis at Rutgers, and my friend Stu Ostro (Senior Metr. at the Weather Channel). Paul Douglas is also in it. It’s well worth a watch.

You can see all the talk (some amazing research) by Dr. Francis at the Gerberg Weather and Climate Summit in January here: