Freak Weather

A Message from the Melting
Slopes of Everest. By Cahal Milmo and Sam Relph,
London Independent, July 6, 2007. "The sons of Hillary and Tenzing speak
out about climate change: 'Believe us, it's a reality'... Fifty-four years after

. By Steve Conner, The London Independent, December 29, 2006.

"It has been a hot year. The average temperature in Britain for 2006 was higher than at any time since records began in 1659... Little winter snow in the Alpine ski resorts, continuing droughts in Africa, mountain glaciers melting faster than at any time in the past 5,000 years, disappearing Arctic sea ice, Greenland's ice sheet sliding into the sea... You could be forgiven for thinking that you've heard it all before. You may think it's time to turn the page and read something else. But you'd be wrong. 2006 will be remembered by climatologists as the year in which the potential scale of global warming came into focus.

Greenpeace lamented the loss of lives and the extensive devastation wrought by super-typhoon Reming (international code name Durian) in parts of the Philippines, stressing that the latest extreme weather disturbance to hit the country is a portent of more violent weather events that countries around the world are likely to experience in the future as a consequence of climate change.
“The tragic loss of lives and the massive destruction of properties brought about by the super-typhoon deserves immediate attention and sympathy from the international community. It should also serve as a wake-up call about the need for governments to find ways to avert or mitigate the catastrophic impacts of extreme weather events which scientists predict could become more severe because of climate change. We are calling on governments worldwide to act decisively and urgently on climate change because it is poor countries like the Philippines who bear much of the brunt from such climate impacts,” said Abigail Jabines, Climate and Energy campaigner for Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

Source: AAP, Tuesday August 1, 02:17 PM

Extreme weather conditions have produced a rare cloud formation over Australia's Mawson station in Antarctica.

Meteorological officer Renae Baker captured spectacular images of the nacreous clouds, otherwise known as polar stratospheric clouds, late last month.

Reflecting like an airborne mother-of-pearl shell, the cloud colours are produced when fading light at sunset passes through water-ice crystals blown along a strong jet of stratospheric air more than 10 kilometres above the ground.

A weather balloon measured temperatures down to minus 87 degrees celsius when the photographs were taken.

US: July 31, 2006

MIAMI - Historical data on hurricanes isn't accurate enough to conclude that they are becoming more ferocious or that global warming is to blame, as some studies have suggested, a noted storm researcher said on Friday.

In an article published in the journal Science, Chris Landsea, a leading researcher at the US National Hurricane Center, challenged studies that found a dramatic jump in hurricane intensity in recent years.

The paper is the latest salvo in the debate among climate scientists on whether human-induced global warming is producing stronger hurricanes.

Asian scientists today revealed studies which detail the region's economic losses as well as severe threats to human life and the environment due to climate change. Scientific publications authored by Dr Kansri Boonprakob (Thailand) and Dr Leoncio Amadore (Philippines) each confirm earlier predictions that developing countries in Asia, like Thailand and the Philippines, stand to suffer most from the catastrophic impacts of a warming planet unless mitigation and adaptation measures are taken with urgency.

In the new report "Crisis or Opportunity: Climate Change and Thailand", Dr Kansri said Thailand suffered more than Bt70 billion (around US$ 1.75 billion) in economic losses related to floods, storms and droughts in the period between 1989 and 2002. Majority of these losses came from the agricultural sector where crop yield losses amounted to more than Bt50 billion (around US$ 1.25 billion) during 1991 to 2000.

By Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
FAIRBANKS, Alaska — To the untrained eye, Bonanza Creek forest is breathtaking, a vibrant place alive with butterflies and birds, with evidence of moose and bear at every turn.
But look through forest ecologist Glenn Juday's eyes, and you see a dying landscape.

Since the 1970s, climate change has doubled the growing season in some places and raised state temperatures 6 degrees in the winter and 3.5 on average annually since 1950, says Juday, a professor at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. Drought is stressing and killing spruce, aspen and birch trees.

[New York] (original title: Powerful Hurricanes and Northeasters: Threat to the Big Apple)

With our attention focused on Hurricane Katrina’s devastating blow to New Orleans and its surrounding areas, Hurricane Rita’s wreckage along the Texas and Louisiana coastlines, as well as Hurricane Wilma's destruction in Florida, it’s easy to forget that numerous American cities are at risk for severe damage from extreme weather events, including hurricanes and northeasters. One such metropolis is the United States’ most populous region, the New York metropolitan area, comprised of over 22 million people and encompassing 13,000 square miles (about 34,000 square kilometers).