To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l
or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
phys-l-request@mail.phys-l.org
You can reach the person managing the list at
phys-l-owner@mail.phys-l.org
When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
than "Re: Contents of Phys-l digest..."
Today's Topics:
1. Finally weather is claimed by climate. (bernard cleyet)
2. Re: Finally weather is claimed by climate. (LaMontagne, Bob)
3. Re: Finally weather is claimed by climate. (Don)
4. Re: Finally weather is claimed by climate. (John Denker)
bc ? Because he lived in Santa Barbara for > 35 years has three friends threatened by fire (two evacuated
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2018 04:27:12 +0000
From: "LaMontagne, Bob" <RLAMONT@providence.edu>
To: "phys-l@phys-l.org" <phys-l@phys-l.org>
Cc: "nancyseese@redshift.com" <nancyseese@redshift.com>
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Finally weather is claimed by climate.
Message-ID:
<BLUPR01MB16500F6763992C0837BE86C8DC190@BLUPR01MB1650.prod.exchangelabs.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
After a week of record cold in New England, the guy who tweets seems to be in the know ?
Bob at PC
________________________________
From: Phys-l <phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org> on behalf of bernard cleyet <bernard@cleyet.org>
Sent: Monday, January 1, 2018 11:06:20 PM
To: phys-l@phys-l.org
Cc: nancyseese@redshift.com
Subject: [Phys-L] Finally weather is claimed by climate.
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2018 10:12:42 -0500
From: "Don" <dgpolvani@gmail.com>
To: <Phys-L@Phys-L.org>
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Finally weather is claimed by climate.
Message-ID: <000101d383dc$2387c320$6a974960$@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
A number of years ago, I read an article in Scientific American which claimed that for people on the east coast of the U.S. (and the west coast of Europe) global warming would not only result in warmer summers but colder winters. I'm hazy on remembering just why the winters got colder, but it had to do with the melting of the (north) polar ice cap which resulted in less reflected (and more absorbed?) sunlight in the arctic winter waters. Somehow, this warming of the arctic waters, in turn, caused the cold "polar vortex" winds to move further south instead of circling the arctic region resulting in colder east coast winters. Does anyone recall better what the argument was, and if climate scientists still think global warming could result not only in warmer summers but also colder winters here on the east coast?
Don
Dr. Donald Polvani
Adjunct Faculty, Physics, Retired
Anne Arundel Community College
Arnold, MD 21012
-----Original Message-----
From: Phys-l [mailto:phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org] On Behalf Of
LaMontagne, Bob
Sent: Monday, January 1, 2018 11:27 PM
To: phys-l@phys-l.org
Cc: nancyseese@redshift.com
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Finally weather is claimed by climate.
After a week of record cold in New England, the guy who tweets seems to be
in the know ?
Bob at PC
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Tue, 2 Jan 2018 09:44:21 -0700
From: John Denker <jsd@av8n.com>
To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Finally weather is claimed by climate.
Message-ID: <6064009a-584c-99ad-21f7-b7155f25d06a@av8n.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
On 01/02/2018 08:12 AM, Don via Phys-l asked:
Does anyone recall better what the
argument was, and if climate scientists still think global warming
could result not only in warmer summers but also colder winters here
on the east coast?
1) It is recommended to use the term /Climate Change/
(rather than "global warming").
Rationale:
a) Different regions have different climates, obviously.
Although the global climate is changing, the /regional/
changes are larger, and not all the same. Furthermore,
most people don't move around much, so they tend to
care mainly about the climate in their own region.
b) Temperatures are part of the story, and long-time
long-distance averages are part of the story, but not
the whole story. There are predicted (and observed)
increases in extreme local weather of all sorts,
including hot spells, cold spells, precipitation
events, etc.
2) Modeling climate change on a region-by-region and
season-by-season basis requires a lot more work than
just modeling the long-time long-distance averages.
This is where the effort has been over the last ten
years, and where it will be going forward.
3) I'm not an expert, but the qualitative story as I
understand it has to do with /blocking/. In the
temperate regions we are accustomed to a succession
of fronts coming through. That leads to alternating
fair weather and cloudy weather, and to alternating
northerly and southerly components to the airflow
(superimposed on the prevailing winds).
Blocking refers to situations when you don't have
this alternation. You get long stretches of the
same weather. This produces extreme hot spells in
the summer *and* extreme cold spells in the winter.
This is a hardship on people and other living things,
since we are sensitive to the conditions here-and-now,
not just to the long-distance long-time averages.
4) I'm sure the twitterati know the difference between
climate and weather; they just pretend not to. Today's
weather is not proof of anything, one way or the other.
However, that being said, today's weather map no fronts
anywhere over the eastern half of the 48 states. That
is consistent with the blocking scenario. It may not
prove the theory, but it suuuuure doesn't disprove it. http://aviationweather.gov/progchart/sfc
5) Keep in mind that there are vested interests that
would suffer trillion-dollar losses if we took serious
action to combat climate change. They would like to
prevent that, even though it means imposing much larger
losses on everybody else.
They don't directly care whether you believe in climate
change or not, so long as you don't /do/ anything about
it.
A trillion dollars is a lot of money. Wars have been
started for less reason. They will stop at nothing to
deceive the public and suborn the congress. A few
dishonest tweets are the least of your worries.
End of Phys-l Digest, Vol 157, Issue 1
**************************************
------------------------------
"A society which reverences the attainment of riches as the supreme felicity will naturally be disposed to regard the poor as damned in the next world, if only to justify making their life a hell in this."
R. D. Tawney