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Category Archives: Climate
What does the recent cold and snow say about climate change?
It has been quite a week for discussion of global warming.
November has been remarkably cold this year for most of the eastern United States.
In Madison, as just one example, the monthly temperature through Friday has been 6.2 degrees Fahrenheit below normal for the month and, with the prospect of more cold to come, it appears the month will end well below normal. Continue reading
Is climate change caused by human activity?
In a recent television interview, President Trump made the claim that climate scientists who conclude that climate change is a result of human influence on the atmosphere have a “very big political agenda.” The president went on to state, in … Continue reading
Is the Earth’s spin axis drifting?
The Earth revolves around an imaginary line that passes through the North and South Poles, known as the spin axis. As it spins the Earth drifts and wobbles. And now scientists have identified three reasons.
The Earth wobbles on its axis once every 27,000 years, similar to a spinning top. This alters the relationship between the solstices and the distance from the Earth to the Sun. For example, 11,000 years ago the Northern Hemisphere summer solstice occurred at perihelion, when the Earth is closest to the Sun. That is almost the exact opposite of the case today, Continue reading
How is the Arctic sea ice doing?
One of several diagnostic signals of a warming climate is the extent of sea ice in the Arctic, particularly its annual minimum extent which often arrives around the autumnal equinox.
The sea-ice extent is directly measured by satellite data and is available through the NASA-supported National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado-Boulder. Continue reading
How normal was this summer’s weather?
In southern Wisconsin, the average temperature for the summer months — defined as June, July and August — was near normal.
Rainfall was a different story. All of southern Wisconsin had summer accumulated precipitation of more than 16 inches, or 125 percent of normal. For much of the region, accumulated precipitation in August was more than 7 inches, which is more than 175 percent of normal. Continue reading
