Six to See: Slideshow of Week’s Top Climate News
Crazy, unseasonable weather, air travel, and Obama's budget request all in this week's slideshow of top climate news. … Read More
Study: Arctic Summers Warmest in 600 Years
Scientists have already shown that a warming climate will automatically generate more high-temperature records than a stable one. That’s because individual temperature measurements in a given location form a bell curve, with the greatest number of readings falling into the “normal” range for that location.… Read More
Charting the Arctic’s Future With Logbooks from the Past
Figuring out the future of the rapidly warming Arctic is crucial for climate scientists, largely because changes in the region’s ice — both on land and at sea — can have major consequences for the rest of the planet. Sea ice declined to a record low in September 2012, and scientists have projected that the region will become seasonally ice-free by … Read More
Climate Change Could Lead to More Turbulent Flights
The study addresses clear air turbulence, a sharp upward or downward movement of air that can come literally out of the blue, often as the result of wind shear, with no storms or clouds in view. “It’s not just about knocking your drink over,” said lead author Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Reading, in England, in an in… Read More
Clouds Helped Enhance Greenland’s Record Melting
When scientists saw melting across a whopping 97 percent of Greenland’s icy surface last summer, they were quick to note that such an event is rare, but not unprecedented. The last time it happened was in 1889, so while manmade global warming is clearly involved it isn’t necessarily the entire story. A new new report in Nature on Wednesday has now… Read More
From 2012 to 2013, March Blows Hot, Then Cold
Think of the Arctic as the Northern Hemisphere’s refrigerator. The blocked weather pattern — which some scientists think may be tied to the rapid warming of the Arctic and the subsequent loss of sea ice cover — has opened the refrigerator door, causing cold air to spill out of the freezer that is the Far North and help develop winter storms in the … Read More
Arctic Ice Hits Annual Max and it’s 6th Lowest on Record
The skin of sea ice that covers the Arctic Ocean has reached its maximum extent for 2013, the National Snow and Ice Data Center announced Monday, and the annual melt season has begun. As of March 15, ice covered 5.84 million square miles (15.13 sq. km.) of ocean, the sixth-lowest since satellite observations began in the 1970’s, and 283,000 square … Read More
China Pours Cash into Melting Arctic to Win Influence
China has been cozying up to Arctic countries as part of its effort to secure "permanent observer" status on the Arctic Council, an eight-country political body that decides regional policy. Norway was initially sniffy at the approaches because of the Nobel row, but appears to have changed its tune before a formal decision in May.… Read More
