Graphic of the Day - Climate Anomalies 2016

Tonight I saw this graphic tweeted by NOAA on Twitter. Many/most of these facts/incidents/realities I already knew about but some I did not. To zoom in on graphic click on image. The times they be a-changin'.Courtesy of NOAA (all rights reserved).

Quote of the Day - Detective Thorne

Tonight I watched the entirety of the 1973 dystopian movie Soylent Green and was struck by this comment by Charlton Heston's Detective Thorne early in the movie:

"I know. Sol. You told me before. A heat wave all year long. A greenhouse effect. Everything is burning up."
~ Detective Thorne

Indeed, throughout the movie it is made clear that a permanent heat wave is in place in New York City in 2022. This is but one more anecdote that gives the lie to the Conservative myth that climate change advocates in the 1970s were exclusively worried about a coming ice age and global warming was not yet "a thing."

Graphic of the Day - Iceman Leaveth

Image courtesy of The Economist

Note: click on image for enlarged view.

Graphic of the Day - Catastrophic Hieroglyphs

This morning on Twitter I espied this cool modern appropriation/reinterpretation of Egyptian hieroglyphs applied to contemporary concerns about impending and ongoing mayhem. It accompanied the fascinating and insightful article "What the ancient past can teach us about the chaos of 2016." Image by Dom McKenzie (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - CA Reservoir Levels (9/16)

Here is an interesting update to where things stand in regards to reservoir levels throughout the state of California in light of the current historic drought entering its fifth year. Graphic courtesy of Ed Joyce via Twitter (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - Western Wildfire Changes

Recently I found these two informative and accurate graphs on Twitter. Both address a particular aspect of changes in wildfire in the west. These changes are largely due to climate change. My climate change skeptic friends will argue that mismanagement of forests by way of removing natural fire from the natural environment for the better part of the 20th century is the cause of more severe wildfires. While that is a factor, it only applies to forest ecosystems, but is not a factor so much in the chaparral and grasslands where fire patterns are also changing. Others will try to argue that the preponderance of interface zones, particularly in the Western U.S. are to blame for increasing property losses. That, too, is a factor, but also only partly accounts for the problem as property losses are but one measure of a fire's potency while not being a factor in fire frequency and fire ferocity, which are more to the point of these two graphs.

Graphic of the Day - Spring 2016 Came Early

Spring always seems to come early in California to such an extent it feels like a new normal is becoming established.

Graphic of the Day - Climate Changed WX Map

I grabbed this off of the NOAA-NWS main webpage tonight because it so struck me in both its oddness and how often this oddness happens nowadays that used not to not that very long ago. This is a few days into an El Niño Spring and look how weird is this weather pattern! For weeks there has been late winter wildfire problem in the middle part of the nation which is Red Flag Warned (high fire danger) in darker pink. Facing it is a line of duller-pink-marked Winter Storm Warnings (snow and wind, etc.) approaching from the north which is more seasonable weather but it is not seasonable for these two very different types of weather to be so near to one another and especially this early in the year. A new normal appears to be establishing itself year to year now. Image courtesy of NOAA/NWS (all rights reserved).

One Of My Typical Facebook Rants

Karen, first off: STOP! You [climate change] deniers ALWAYS try to divert the subject into arguments which ignore actual observable changes that are taking place (because they are the most damning against your belief system) in favor of obfuscation over data sets of temperatures gathered, computer models, etc.

Then, you posit a hackneyed old Right-wing conspiracy theory along the lines of the John Burch Society about global control of people (as if Conservatives also aren't interested in control via oil companies, etc). You do this while ignoring mountains of observations to go along with the reams of data you can't effectively refute, try as you may.

Your assertion that there is "no unusual pattern of warming" is contradicted by the facts! Those of us who are life-long weather watchers and atmospheric science geeks know this from personal observation.

You mention a short-term and lesser warming in the 1860's as a red-herring because it is not the same order of magnitude AND you make the error of suggesting that internal combustion engines are synonymous with industrialization. There was plenty of industrialization before there were cars and there were internal combustion engines before there were cars and as far back as the 1860s.

The charge that there is a financial incentive to publish research that supports Climate Change ignores the fact there is more money to be made publishing the opposite as the Fossil Fuel Industry will pay any hack his price to publish in support of them. Their problem is there are not enough unethical scientists out there willing to sell their souls to Big Oil & Co. It's not about people not wanting to be bad guys and not speak the truth. It's about truth being rejected out of hand by people like you in favor of a culturally and politically-derived view.

The irony is that the Climate Change denier crowd are the ones praising the emperor for his clothes that are not. Clearly you are unaware of all the changes taking place all around the world all the time that all reflect one single climatic trend and this has all happened relatively quickly. 

Just one example is how fast the Arctic and adjacent regions have changed. The militaries of many nations ringing it have had to adjust to knew and warmer climate regimes. This is why the U.S. military is one of the most climate change-engaged branches of the government. They have to operate in various capacities in zones where things are changing and they see it. It's not a matter of politics but of acknowledging reality. 

The nations bordering the Arctic have already had to conduct negotiations regarding access and navigation routes so as to avoid conflict. Russia is aggressively seeking to develop oil fields on their north that were previously inaccessible due to the old climate. 

Epic boreal forest fires in Asia and North America are the summer norm now as are thunderstorms much further north much more commonly in summer. Snow-free sections of the Iditorad Race are more common in more recent decades. 

Warming of permafrost is something that is now having to be dealt with by stakeholders in northern latitudes such as oil companies, highway departments, etc. 

Growing season lengthening, glacial retreat, thermal expansion of the oceans causing rising sea levels, more ice-free ocean leading to more coastal erosion affected Native American coastal communities, etc. etc. ad infinitum ad nauseum. 

You seem ignorant of much reality in favor of a sheltered little worldview driven by petty domestic politics and the Culture War which is used to great effect to distract people on both the Right and the Left. Keep on drinking your Kool-Aid.

Graphic of the Day - El Niño From Hell IV

This is what the ongoing El Niño looked like from Jason-2 ten days ago on January 8, 2016. The previous image HERE was captured December 27, 2015. Notice there is a lot more that is above average than below average in regards to ocean surface temperatures and near-surface temperatures. For more on this check HERE.  Image courtesy of NOAA (all rights reserved).

Graphic of the Day - El Niño From Hell III

This is the latest comparisonal false-color graphic comparing the last powerful El Niño with the ongoing event. This graphic shows departures from normal of sea surface temperatures with blues into purples showing below average temps and reds into whites showing above average temperatures. It is obvious this event is more powerful and pervasive spatially especially as compared to last October when I previously posted this graphic comparison HERE.
Image courtesy of NASA.

Quote of the Day - Climate Change Denier/Holocaust Denier

I was struck by the images in the photogallery HERE which reveal how warm this late autumn/early winter has been in the northern hemisphere and thought to myself:

I have often heard climate change deniers make the conflictingly garbled claim, "There is no climate change happening , but climate change has always happened." It reminds me of a particular type of Holocaust denier who claims, "The Holocaust never happened but I sure wish it would happen again."

Graphic of the Day - El Niño From Hell II

This is the latest comparisonal false-color graphic comparing the last powerful El Niño with the ongoing event. This graphic shows departures from normal of sea surface temperatures with blues into purples showing below average temps and reds into whites showing above average temperatures. It is obvious this event is more powerful and pervasive spatially. Compare this to the previous graphic 2-1/2 months ago HERE.
Image courtesy of NASA.

The Overturning of Ice

Despite the fact this happened in 2008 I only became aware of this incident tonight.... amazing and a bit ominous when everything else that is going on is taken into account.

California Is In Hot Water!

This is the latest false-color imagery showing a color-coded scale high-lighting the departure-from-normal sea surface temperatures the Northeast Pacific Ocean is currently experiencing. It shows that California's adjacent oceanic waters are well above normal which might be connected to the current probable developing El Niño. Image courtesy of NOAA.

Something Never Before Seen

To my knowledge tonight is the first time this pattern and large-scale aerial coverage of Red Flag Warning has ever been seen over California any time of year let alone during the Dead of Winter. Most odd is the presence of such fire conditions in the Northern Sierra Nevada Range and in the temperate rainforests of Northwest California all the way out to the coastline itself. Typically the former is receiving feet of snow this time of year and the latter is receiving feet of rain this time of year.

I was initially unable to secure this image but thanks to USFS Region 5 Predictive Services and Wildland Fire Meteorologist Brenda Belongie of the United States Forest Service in North Ops (Northern California region) we can all view this incredible image. So incredible was this scene that Ms. Belongie saved it for her own edification for which we are all thankful! In an email exchange she told me:

  "Red Flag Warnings issued in January last occurred in the north…..like, uh, never. THAT’s the barn burning, unprecedented part about it up here at least, and it’s very rare if ever been done before in January for the south. Also like you, I don’t recall ever seeing the state under a Red Flag Warning from north to south border, even in the dead (middle) of fire season. And I’ve been around awhile in this business."

Sunken Forest Of Alabama, NOT Atlantis

I only relatively recently became aware of the following story which I found utterly fascinating and a bit haunting. In 2005 Hurricane Katrina moved voluminous amounts of sand in one of undoubtedly many regions of the near-coastal shallows of Gulf of Mexico. This action exposed something rather remarkable in this one special place located about 60 feet under the water's surface and about 10 miles off the coast of Alabama in the undersea extension of the Mobile-Tensaw Delta. The last time this forest was above water was about 12,000 years ago before the rapidly melting glaciers of that era flooded the world's ocean's with their water and consequently drowned this forest. About 4,000 years ago the world's ocean levels stabilized at their current levels. This sunken forest was then buried by sand thus protecting it from both bacteriological decay as well as attack by worms and such. Obviously, this wood is now under attack by all the above sorts of organisms. Be sure to watch the entire short video below whose player is located beneath the following still images.

Large swamp cypress root base.

Tangle of cypress roots.

One such cypress tree base saw Katrina currents excavate beneath it creating a sheltering hollow for these fish.

Picture of the Day - Anazasi Ruins

Anasazi ruins in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Those people saw their civilization end the last time western North America experienced a significant regional climate warming event and associated long-term drought. With increasing certainty it appears another such event is unfolding. What will happen to our civilization? Will it more adeptly adapt to the difficult circumstances or will we suffer the same fate as the Anasazi, to wit, collapse of our civilization? Photo by Kim Patrick Noyes (all rights reserved).