Climate 411

This post is by Lisa Moore, Ph.D., a scientist in the Climate and Air program at Environmental Defense.

Last week, scientists published a study about global warming and hurricanes in the U.S. The authors found a weak downward trend in the number of landfalling U.S. hurricanes, but concluded that future trends will depend on the spatial distribution of ocean warming.

In its coverage of the study, the Miami Herald said that "global warming actually is diminishing the number of hurricanes that strike Florida and the rest of the United States – and the phenomenon is likely to continue." This is not exactly what the study said. Here’s the full scoop.

Atlantic hurricane tracks, 1980-2005.

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The author of today’s post is Sheryl Canter, an Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

It’s been raining a lot in some parts of the world. In Northern India, Bangladesh, and Nepal, the worst rains in decades have devastated tea and rice crops, killed at least 3000 to 4000 people, and affected tens of millions of people since June. Great tracts of land are under water. Crop land has been destroyed; people are hungry. And the weather forecast says rain.

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Torrential rains also have caused severe flooding in Korea, Uganda, and Sudan. In North Korea, over 600 people are dead or missing, 170,000 people displaced, and almost 1 million people affected. In Sudan, 200,000 are homeless from floods. India, itself reeling, sent $250,000 in aid to flood-ravaged Uganda.

Is this all from global warming?

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The author of today’s post, Bill Chameides, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist at Environmental Defense.

A week or so ago I wrote about all the recent extreme weather in the United States. Well, it’s not just happening here. Great Britain is being hit by the worst flooding in decades, and it keeps on raining. A heatwave blanketing south-eastern Europe has killed hundreds of people, and out-of-control wildfires are burning across Greece.

Is this global warming? It’s impossible to say for sure what causes a particular weather event, but global warming does make extreme weather events more likely. Whether or not the events in Europe are due to global warming, I do think the Europeans are, unfortunately, getting a taste of things to come. For more, visit our Web page on global warming and extreme weather.

With all that’s going on in the world, it’s easy to miss weather events. So you may not have noticed that U.S. weather patterns the last few months have been quite extreme and worrying.

From NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center

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Today’s post is by Bill Chameides, Chief Scientist at Environmental Defense.

The hurricane season began on June 1, and we are all waiting with some dread to see what this year will bring. Will it be a relatively mild season like last year, a devastating one like 2005, or something in between? An ominous sign is that we have already seen two tropical storms in the region: Andrea, which formed almost a month before the season began, and Barry, which formed on the first day of the season.

Last week I read that Oman was hit by Tropical Cyclone Gonu. ("Hurricane", "typhoon", and "cyclone" are all names for the same thing.) I know that Asia and Australia are regularly hit by tropical storms, but the Arabian Peninsula? Is that normal? I didn’t know, so I decided to do a little investigating. Here’s what I learned.

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