ONE MORE TIME!: Yet another climate post.

by villabolo 28 Replies latest social current

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  villabolo

  

  Rain, winds, record heat hit Northeast on same day

  By DAVID SHARP, Associated Press Writer David Sharp, Associated Press Writer Thu Dec 3, 5:47 pm ET PORTLAND, Maine – A storm packing blustery winds and driving rain knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses in the Northeast on Thursday before giving way to sunny skies and record high temperatures — all in the same morning.

  Utility officials reported sporadic power outages from Maine to New Jersey after wind knocked down trees and power lines early Thursday. Winds reached up to 49 mph in Brunswick, Maine , while the Isle of Shoals off the coast of New Hampshire recorded a 61 mph gust. In New Jersey, wind speeds topped out at 45 mph.

  But the rain and wind that battered the region early Thursday gave way to sunny skies and unseasonably high temperatures by mid-morning.

  In Boston , the temperature hit 69 degrees, breaking the old record of 65 set in 1932. In Portland, the temperature climbed to 68 degrees — crushing the old high of 55 for the date. Providence, R.I., had a record high of 66, and Concord, N.H., set a record at 65.

  "It's not right. It's December. It's supposed to be snowing," said Jennifer Sporzynski, who sat on a park bench Thursday in Portland's Old Port. "I like warm weather — but not in December."

  But for others, the balmy weather was just fine.

  In Boston, joggers ran downtown in shorts and T-shirts, while walkers strolled through the city with jackets tied around their waists.

  David Montero, 36, exited his Downtown Crossing apartment Thursday morning wearing a heavy coat to walk his 2-year-old Boston Terrier named Bolt.

  "I personally would take this all week, if we could have it," Montero said as he watched Bolt play with two other dogs in the Boston Common.

  Still, Montero said he couldn't get over the sight of seeing people in the grassy park exercising in shorts. "Totally bizarro," he said.

  For many, the day started with lashing rain. Central Maine Power, the state's largest electric utility, reported 6,700 customers in the dark at the storm's peak. In New Jersey, more than 10,000 homes and businesses lost electricity. Other northeastern states , including New Hampshire , also suffered power outages .

  High winds disrupted some ferry services from Cape Cod to the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket . Two scheduled passenger ferries and a freight ferry from Hyannis to
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  villabolo

  Continuation . . .

  Hyannis to Nantucket were canceled Thursday morning, while ferries from Woods Hole to Martha's Vineyard were running on a trip-by-trip basis, the Steamship Authority reported.

  Heavy waves pounded the shore, causing beach erosion up and down the Atlantic coast . Coastal flooding closed several roads in New Hampshire at high tide late Thursday morning.

  Jim Brown from the National Weather Service says the cooldown will be nearly as swift as the arrival of the record warmth. Seasonably cooler weather is expected by the weekend in the Northeast.
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  Robdar

  Yawn

  We have odd weather all the time in the midwest. Unusual weather is nothing new anywhere, anytime.
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  Robdar

  I could be wrong but I'm thinking you must be pretty young to be so easily impressed.
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  villabolo

  Robdar:

  "Yawn

  We have odd weather all the time in the midwest. Unusual weather is nothing new anywhere, anytime."

  Robdar, half mile wide tornadoes and 'once in 500 years' floods that drown cities and destroys bridges and causes a shortage of clean water do not happen all the time. If it did there would be a good chance that you would not be posting. Just let those events increase over the next few decades and this nation will not be able to handle it.

  villabolo
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  villabolo

  We have odd weather all the time in the midwest. Unusual weather is nothing new anywhere, anytime."

  And by the way, Robdar, something that happens all the timebecomes normal not odd. In order for something to be odd it has to stand out either in frequency, size or some other quality.

  villabolo
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  JeffT

  Funny, a while back somebody (can't remember who and I'm too lazy to look) posted something about unusually cold weather somewhere and said it showed that "global warming" was bunk. Of course everybody jumped on him and said such things proved nothing.
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  SixofNine

  Honestly villabolo, the weird weather happening in the Northeast, the fact that Dallas got snow before many northern cities this year, those things may very well be a factor of global warming; however, since it's the denier camp that is known for lamely talking about anecdotes as if they were scientific evidence, "dude, it's cold in my neck of the woods this winter, ain' no global warmin' happenin'!" imo you're better off sticking to hard data and basic scientific theory.

  If the local weather is going to change someone's mind, it will be a totally emotional rationale, not because actual scientific evidence convinced them (even if the science would then back them up). These people have contempt for anything that doesn't originate in their "gut".

  I suspect you'll get responses poo-pooing the idea that your news item might be evidence of man-made climate change from some of the same people who have testified that global warming can't be real because it still gets cold in the winter.
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  villabolo

  Dear viewers of this thread, I should have written this as part of my introductory post but the new arrangement keeps throwing a monkey wrench at anything of modest length.

  While this particular post is not intended to be strong proof of anything in the climate change debate it, along with other news that we hear should combine together in our minds and lead us to conclude intuitively that there is something to this issue. Unfortunately we tend to forget what we heard a couple of years ago and thus cannot process the information that is coming to us on a daily basis so that we can make an effective rebuttal.

  For example, how many of the most ardent believers of climate change (forget the deniers) remember that several years ago, within the decade of 1999 and 2009, which deniers claim has been a cooling off period-yes, how many of us remember that tens of thousands of Europeans died from a massive heat wave that affected all of Europe? They were mostly elderly people who had never suffered similar events from previous heat waves because the nights would always cool off. They did not even need air conditioners! In the past that is.

  It's all about gathering enough facts like those and then seeing the pattern behind it. Things are changing whether (all pun intended) we like it or not. And they are changing because of us and staying blind to that very important fact will destroy us. Ah Republicans and Libertarians the party of irresponsibility.

  villabolo
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  villabolo

  SixofNine and JeffT, I probably didn't get my point across because I'm a little tired. The essence of what I'm trying to say is that we are seesawing between extremes, something that climatologists predicted. This is not going to be the permanent weather pattern of the Earth but is considered to be a transition state that will lead up to a tipping point that will produce a permanent climate. The simplest analogy is that of a toy top which while it spins in in one state and while it's on the floor immobile is in another state. But the top does not go from spinning to a complete stop instantaneously. It goes through a transitional state where it wobbles looking like it's going to fall but doesn't quite yet. That is what our weather is like now and perhaps for decades, a helter skelter wobbling state. I'd hate to see it when it, metaphorically speaking, falls down for good.

  Also please note, in my initial posting of that article, that one of the residents said it should be snowing. If it did not snow where it was supposed to and did snow where and when it wasn't supposed to this confusion, deniers be damned, should lead people to believe that something bizarre is going on even if they don't quite understand it.

  As far as suggesting that I stick to hard data I, of course, understand where you're coming from but try presenting graphs and charts to a fifteen year old and you have lost them. I prefer photographs of glaciers and time lapse satellite surveillance of the North Pole which I have already covered in previous threads. I know that it had an effect of the denier camp of JWN because after mentioning it ad naseum I got no reply from them except for one who said that these were "local climate changes" which I was able to shoot down quite easily. These pictures of receeding glaciers, etc, while not data in and of themselves are one of the most important objects of climatologists attention. However important it may be to quantify what the scientist sees common sense should not be frowned at when you're dealing with scientifically uneducated people. Those photos are "baby food" but it will do.

  villabolo out for the night.