Category Archives: Climate

How did this winter compare to average?

Less than two weeks ago, on Feb. 17, Madison reached its annual climatological amount of snowfall — 51 inches — with a 5.2-inch fall. This is yet another wrinkle in what has been a very unusual winter.

Almost everyone remembers the early snowfalls of late October and early November that delivered a total of 16 inches of seasonal snowfall by Nov. 11. Perhaps forgotten, however, is the seven-week snow drought that followed, with the next 1-inch snowfall — 1.5 inches to be exact — finally arriving on Dec. 30. Continue reading

Category: Climate, Seasons

Comments Off on How did this winter compare to average?

What’s up with the Antarctic weather?

On Feb. 6, a record high temperature of 65 degrees was recorded at a research base located at the most northern tip of Antarctica. That beats the previous record of 63.5 set in March 2015.

Then on Feb. 9, the temperature on Seymour Island in the Antarctic Peninsula reached 69.5, setting a new record. This is the warmest temperature measured on the world’s coldest continent. Continue reading

Category: Climate, Seasons

Comments Off on What’s up with the Antarctic weather?

What is geoengineering?

Geoengineering literally means “Earth-engineering.”

It is a term that describes how people could intervene in Earth’s functions to slow down or reverse the effects of climate change. Continue reading

Category: Climate

Comments Off on What is geoengineering?

Is water everywhere?

Evidence of the presence of water in our atmosphere is ubiquitous.

Water occurs in the Earth’s atmosphere in all three of its phases — solid (snow and ice), liquid (rain and dew) and gas (invisible water vapor). Continue reading

Category: Climate, Meteorology

Comments Off on Is water everywhere?

How did 2019 weather align with climate trends?

Government scientists concluded that the globally averaged temperature for 2019 was 1.71 degrees above the 20th-century average. This is the 43rd consecutive year that the global temperature was above the 20th-century average.

This was the second-highest since record keeping began in 1880 and was just 0.07 degrees less than the record value set in 2016. Nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 2005, and the five warmest years have occurred since 2015. Continue reading

Category: Climate, Meteorology

Comments Off on How did 2019 weather align with climate trends?