Sorry then.

You can't blame the hurricanes on global warming. Hurricanes come in cycles. Its like a 20 to 30 year cycle and they get bad for 10 to 20 years or so and it quiets down again.

From 1992 on:
Andrew: cat 5... biggest hurricane since 1980, thats how far back I went
Opal: cat 3
Fran: cat 3
Bonnie: cat 3
Charley: cat 4
Ivan: cat 3
Jeanne: cat 3
Dennis: cat 3
Katrina: cat 3
Rita: cat 3
Wilma: cat 3

There were others, they were just cat 1 or 2s though.

Katrina to New Orleans was a man made mistake though... the levee failed them. It should've been fixed, they knew it needed fixed, if it were, it wouldn't have been nearly as bad.

nurtured natural disasters

I still feel that Katrina was as massive as it was because of the help it got from global warming. The ocean temperatures are hotter now than normal, because of global warming and the amount of time that Katrina spent in the water before heading towards New Orleans allowed it to get massive. I am not saying global warming CAUSED the hurricane, but I feel it was definitely a helper with as a huge as it was.

On top of that Rita was bad too... reflooded New Orleans and messed up a bit of Texas - right after Katrina. That doesn't seem just like natural hurricane patterns to me.

I don't know the size of any one storm is global warming or not. Off the top of my head, the number of named storms was at an all time high last year. I think that's no coincidence, rather an offshoot of warmer water temps.

It was. The amount of storms we had received last year was unbelievable and stumped many meteorologists. Global warming doesn't necessarily create the storm, but it surely helps it along.

Well if global warming was the case, the storms would be getting progressively worse, and well they've stayed a constant the past 15 or so years, with the worst storm being in 1992, Andrew a category 5. So you would think we'd have more 5's. The rest are just 3's. 3's are bad but come on a 5 is fucked up!

So no I do not think global warming has anything to do with hurricanes.

I don't believe the hype.

I guess you didn't hear when they reported that Katrina was worse than Andrew and that it was the worst hurricane we've had in a very, very long time. The storms are getting worse, it's just not an in-your-face immediate change.

Besides global warming isn't a "hype". It's not like we're doing this to try to get attention and have something to talk about. Glaciers are melting, oceans temperatures are increasing, California is having horrible heat waves they've never had, 2005 was reported to have been the most disasterous and active hurricane season ever and the list keeps going.

If you want to think that's just a "hype"... go for it.

It was only worse because a city that is under sea level already, had a levee that was already fucked up was flooded. The water was going UNDER the levee, not over. So if the levee was fixed properly like they warned beforehand, it wouldn't have been as bad as it was. But yes a 5 is bigger than a 3. So if thats the case, Andrew was a bigger storm, not saying more damage, the storm itself was BIGGER.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_katrina

Hurricane Katrina was a category 5 when it initally reached New Orleans and then decreased to a 3 - it's first impact as a hurricane was a 5 (it's second and third landfall hits were a 3). The amount of damage it did was what made it bigger then Andrew.

Aside from that I am not disagreeing with you about the levees - they were screwed up... really, really screwed up. Yes, they should have been fixed - but they were not. THAT was a mistake, however the fact that it went through water that was unusually warmer than normal (global warming) - it gained way more power than it should have, became a cat 5 and hit NOLA (and Mississippi, Alabama...). So yes, global warming doesn't create the hurricane, but it surely helps it increase in size.

Again, I'm not disagreeing with you - I just feel and there have been scientific reports that global warming has definitely had an immediate part to do with situations weather related being as bad as they are.

Oh shit, it was a 5 then. I did some research on noaa and they had it categorized as a 3, they never said anything about being a 5. So my info was fucked. Sorry.

I've been on the gulf coast for about 9 years now. The news warns every year that this year is going to be worse for hurricane season. We've only actually had 2 years of bad storms in this area. That was 2005 & 2006. They said this year is going to be worse than last year. I don't see it happening. So far we've had 3 named storms. TS Chris being the third. We're watching that one closely. Should be a hurricane by friday. So far its been quiet but its only on the 3rd month of the season. Who knows.

Alot of my info about global warming and the hurricanes comes from a guy I know, who happens to be a scientist himself and he says its hyped up by the media so much that there is really nothing to worry about. We'll see.

I am sure that it is hyped up by the media, but at the same time I don't think it's something that should be completely disregarded as a situation either. Weather is changing in this world and part of the reasoning is global warming... not the whole reason.

Also, yes I've seen places say it was a CAT 3 and others a CAT 5, but when it was happening it was a CAT 5 going through the Gulf and then decreased to a CAT 3 for it's "second and third landfall hits"... yadda, yadda...

I don't want it to appear that I'm disagreeing with you on the levee situation and I can also understand that the media can be hard to listen to without a grain of salt these days (it seems everything is turned into a joke these days) - but I wouldn't completely dismiss the effects of global warming.

Extreme Conditions Create Rare Antarctic Clouds

Reuters

SYDNEY (Aug. 1) - Rare, mother-of-pearl colored clouds caused by extreme weather conditions above Antarctica are a possible indication of global warming, Australian scientists said on Tuesday.

Known as nacreous clouds, the spectacular formations showing delicate wisps of colors were photographed in the sky over an Australian meteorological base at Mawson Station on July 25.

Australian Antarctic Division scientist Andrew Klekociuk said such clouds are occasionally produced by air rising over Arctic and Antarctic mountains in high polar latitudes during winter.

"You have to be in the right part of the world in winter, and have the sun just below your horizon to see them," he said.

Nacreous clouds can only form in temperatures lower than minus 112 Fahrenheit.

Meteorologist Renae Baker said a weather balloon in the vicinity of the clouds in the stratosphere about 12 miles above the Earth's surface measured temperatures as low as minus 124.6 F.

"That's about as cold as the lowest temperatures ever recorded on the surface of the Earth," Baker, who photographed the clouds, said in a statement.

Klekociuk said the rarely seen clouds, also known as polar stratospheric clouds, were more than just a curiosity.

"They reveal extreme conditions in the atmosphere, and promote chemical changes that lead to destruction of vital stratospheric ozone," he said.

Klekociuk said temperatures in the stratosphere, between 5 and 31 miles above Earth, would be expected to drop as global warming increases. Data collected over the past 25 years had reflected this, he told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"Over that time there has been a small decrease in temperature and that change is actually occurring faster than the warming at the surface of the Earth," he said.

The delicate cloud colors are created at sunset when fading light passes through tiny water-ice crystals blown along on strong jets of stratospheric air.

She said winds at the same height were measured blowing at almost 143 mph.


2006-08-01 03:20 EDT


Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

Good article. Thanks.

I was going to go to a Global Warming rally this past weekend... but it was so hot... I decided not to go.

LOL

It's not a question of believing. It's a FACT. A fact that few people are willing to recognize. People are too lazy to save themselves.

Why can't leaders of the EU, the USA, Japan, China and Russia see that THEY HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION!!? and do something!

The problem exists although we can't see any obvious changes yet.

True, but there are states in this country (and a few other countries are participating I believe) who have signed on to "make a difference"... coincidentally it's the "blue states" so far...

At least more people are acknowledging it now.

it's not a matter of wether you believe in global warming or not, global warming is a FACT, it's happening right now and if we don't do anything about it it will ultimately be our doom.

Panama is a tropical country so naturally it's very hot and it's sunny almost every day but the sun is UNBEARABLE RIGHT NOW!!!! I dislike walking around in the city not because of the walking in itself, because I LOVE walking, it's because of the sun. It is so hot and literally stings in your skin even in the morning.

10 years ago the sun would sting like at 12pm, at the middle of the day, now it's 7:00 am and the sun stings just as bad as if it were 12pm. We are running out of ozone layer so obviously all those gamma rays and all that shabbang is hitting us with all their power and all I can say is that it's unbearable.