Real Climate Science

American earthquake forcaster Jim Berkland warns of a “high risk” seismic window and potential for a massive quake poised to strike somewhere in North America between March 19th to 26th 2011. British astrophyscist and weather forecaster, Piers Corbyn confirms Berkland’s predictions on Climaterealists.com website (March 22, 2011) and warns the dangers are “imminent.”

A ‘Perfect Storm’ of Tides, the Equinox and Closeness of Moon
Berkland, a former USGS Geologist, warns that we are seeing a coincidence of several natural phenomena including the closest approach of the moon since 1992, plus a full moon coinciding with the equinoxal tide. He warns that this convergence of three of the most important tide raising factors is a “seismic window” of additional stresses on the Earth’s crust that may trigger quakes.

http://www.suite101.com/

I was looking through old papers and found this picture from 1976

http://news.google.com/newspapers

http://news.google.com/newspapers

http://news.google.com/newspapers

CO2 is worse than the dust bowl!

Climate change is worrisome, maybe even an emergency. The Dust Bowl was far smaller in scope, but caused vast misery, even as it also inspired some of our nation’s greatest art. Growing up 20 to 30 years afterward, there was a bit of that lingering grit in my family’s conversation. Now, accumulating greenhouse gases may make that grit seem a minor annoyance in comparison.

http://www.summitdaily.com/

The second-biggest story, at 25%, was global warming. Specifically, bloggers focused on the surprising congressional testimony from physics professor, and long-time skeptic of climate change science, Richard Muller. While Muller was expected to present research in opposition to the prevailing views on global warming, Muller instead stated that his work supported the scientific consensus that a warming planet is a significant trend.

http://pewresearch.org/

Muller presented nothing new. Muller’s temperature set barely differs from HadCRUT. What was his purpose in being there?

Reader Phil has been complaining that the Ideal Gas Law doesn’t work. He provided these numbers.

Arctic: T=-23ºC (250 K), P=101 kPa, R=8.314 J/K.mole, d= 1.2 kg/m^3
Tropics: T=27ºC (300 K), P=101 kPa, R=8.314 J/K.mole, d= 1.46 kg/m^3

I pointed out that those numbers don’t make sense. Obviously warm air is less dense than cold air. Then he corrected his numbers :

Arctic: T=-23ºC (250 K), P=101 kPa, R=8.314 J/K.mole, d= 1.46 kg/m^3
Tropics: T=27ºC (300 K), P=101 kPa, R=8.314 J/K.mole, d= 1.2 kg/m^3

Which shows that the Ideal Gas Law (PV=nRT) is a good model for the atmosphere. ‘P’ is fixed by the altitude (within the minor variations that weather generates for PMSL.) ‘n’ is the number of molecules in a vertical column of air, and is also fixed by the altitude. R is a constant. The two variables are V and T, so V tropics / V arctic should be equal to T tropics / T arctic

Density ‘d’ is inversely proportional to volume so

(V tropics / V arctic) == (d arctic / d tropics) == (T tropics / T arctic)

Using Phil’s numbers

(1.46 kg/m^3 / 1.2 kg/m^3) == 1.2 == (300 K / 250 K)

Now isn’t that convenient.

BTW : I attended the Haavaad of the South

The BP oil spill last April blackened the shoreline permanently.

Today in Alabama

http://www.bamabeachcams.com/pinkponypub.aspx

Last summer in Texas

http://dyn.politico.com/

Some very particular things have to happen for an epidemic of plague to break out:

An infectious rodent population must be present, in which an ‘epizootic’ outbreak has been caused by blocked Y. pestis carrying fleas.

The temperature must be between 15-20°C, with 90-95% humidity, since cold and heat retard the flea’s activity, whilst humidity of under 70% kills it. This limits the outbreaks to particular seasons in Europe.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/

(CNN) — It’s the world’s last, great wilderness rich in natural resources, like oil and gas.

But now the frozen seas of the Arctic are being opened up; its vast riches unlocked.

The Yamal is one of Russia’s biggest, most powerful icebreakers, and one of the few ships in the world capable of cutting through the thick Arctic pack ice.

It does it for one reason: to clear a path for other vessels, so they can take advantage of the frozen Arctic.

Escorted by icebreakers, cargo ships and oil tankers crossing the Arctic can shave thousands of miles off a journey between Asia and Europe, saving fuel, and vastly reduce their carbon emissions.

Captain of the Yamal, Alexander Lembrik says the Arctic’s untapped potential is the reason behind the dramatic increase in maritime traffic.

http://edition.cnn.com/

h/t to Marc Morano

Wind speed at NCAR over the last month.

http://www.eol.ucar.edu/

At soccer practice yesterday, balls sitting on the sideline would accelerate into the parking lot.