Environment

Stop Whining About Hurricane Katrina

hurricane.jpgThe science is in on the effects of temperature and hurricane intensity and it doesn’t implicate Global Warming, but rather just the opposite. It’s time for the perpetual victims of Katrina (not actually that strong of a storm Rita was much stronger) to stop whining about the non-existent connection between warm climate and hurricane intensity.

I read the article Tropical Cyclones (Atlantic Ocean – Global Warming Effects: Intensity) — Summary on the CO2 Science website and these paragraphs jumped out at me:

As a result of these efforts, the two researchers determined that “alternating periods of quiescent conditions and frequent hurricane landfall are recorded in the sedimentary record and likely indicate that climate conditions may have modulated hurricane activity on millennial timescales.” Of special interest in this regard, as they describe it, is the fact that “several major hurricanes occur in the western Long Island record during the latter part of the Little Ice Age (~1550-1850 AD) when sea surface temperatures were generally colder than present,” but that “no major hurricanes have impacted this area since 1893,” when the earth experienced the warming that took it from the Little Ice Age to the Current Warm Period.

Noting that Emanuel (2005) and Webster et al. (2005) had produced analyses that suggest that “cooler climate conditions in the past may have resulted in fewer strong hurricanes,” but that their own findings suggest just the opposite, Scileppe and Donnelly concluded that “other climate phenomena, such as atmospheric circulation, may have been favorable for intense hurricane development despite lower sea surface temperatures” prior to the development of the Current Warm Period. Perhaps, therefore, we have much-maligned global warming to thank for the complete absence of major hurricanes in the vicinity of New York City over the past 115 years.

Emphasis mine.

So the Little Ice Age (Maunder Minimum) brought havoc to the North Atlantic Region and since then the storm intensities have subsided. So it seems that the sunspots influence global temperatures in a manner that’s inversely proportional to the intensity of hurricanes in the North Atlantic.

This is one more scientific clue that the clueless will ignore.

Snowbound Clown-Mobile

trailer-village.jpgWe rented a Cruise America® motorhome for our recent winter vacation. This was the first time we have traveled this way, as booking hotel accommodations is our usual travel mode. Since we wanted to bring our dog with us this time, we decided to try out the RV.

Shortly after we got on the road, Damsel started referring to our cruiser and others we saw on the road as the “clown-mobile.” Damsel figured the billboards painted on all sides of the vehicles made them look like part of a circus parade.

Image: Our clown-mobile in 1½ feet of snow at Trailer Village Campground – click for big

Most of the trip went well, with a couple of instances where all was not as well as it could have been. At the Grand Canyon Trailer Village Campground, we had an incident where we got stuck in the snow making the turn into the row where our campsite was located. After a bunch of digging and throwing a bunch of cinders under the duals, we were still stuck. We finally got the local AAA to pull us out, but we still needed to assist with more cinders and by engaging the motorhome drive. Once free, we got into our campsite and left the next morning without further incident.

The only other ‘incident’ was my choice of routes leaving Death Valley after our visit there – California State Route 190 from Stovepipe Wells to Olancha. It was a winding mountain road, which wouldn’t have been that much of a problem except that the setting sun was directly ahead in the general direction of travel which compromised visibility looking into the curves.

She didn’t mind getting stuck in the snow that much, but Damsel promised to file for divorce if I ever pick a road like SR190 again.

Bright Angel Canyon – Summer and Winter

Bright Angel Creek, part of the greater Grand Canyon complex, empties into the Colorado River just below Grand Canyon Village. The creek formed Bright Angel Canyon in much the same way the Colorado eroded its way through Grand Canyon. When you look down from the Village, you look straight into Bright Angel Canyon.

summer-bright-angel.jpgDuring the summer months, the sun is high in the sky at mid-day and the vivid colors of the sculptures in the canyon are truly inspirational. The sky can be gray with frequent thunderstorms in the area, or it can be blue, with flat-bottomed cumulus clouds floating above the canyon rim. The summers are warm at the South Rim with temperatures ranging between the high 70s and low 90s. When I took this shot of the canyon last summer, the temperature was in the low 80s.

winter-bright-angel.jpgWinter brings a variety of conditions, ranging from fog and low clouds that obscure the canyon, to high winds which chill to the bone. Occasionally, a cold front will bring snowfall that can last for several days and will ice things up pretty good. The latter condition prevailed during our recent visit to the canyon. We stayed in the trailer village overnight and went to the rim to capture this winter view with low sun angle and long shadows. The snow was pretty deep in most places and the roads were pretty icy.

You can click on either image to enlarge.

Lows and Highs

20-mule.jpgWhen we got up this morning, we were in Pahrump, Nevada, near the eastern gateway to Death Valley National Park. We drove from there to Furnace Creek, near the lowest point in the continental United States. The elevation here was about 190 feet below sea level. The actual low spot is about minus 282 feet at Badwater Basin. We stopped at the village and took this picture of the wagons that were hitched to the famous 20 Mule Teams that hauled borax from here to Mojave, a considerable distance to the southwest. We then went from Furnace Creek to Scotty’s Castle, another interesting historical landmark in the park.

mt-whitney.jpgAfter we finished touring Death Valley today, we headed westward along California State Route 190, which took us over two mountain passes with winding and narrow roads. We went over the first pass and descended to Panamint Valley. Then over the White Mountains to descend into the Owens Valley, just east of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where the highest point in the continental United States, Mount Whitney, looms at 14,491 feet above sea level. Mount Whitney in the picture to the left is not the one that looks tallest, since the linear perspective makes the peak to the left look taller. Mount Whitney is the peak among the very jagged peaks near the center and just to the right – it’s the one that looks tallest among those jagged peaks.

Click on either image to enlarge. Photo credits – Damsel.

Winter Canyon from Lookout Studio

As promised, here is one of the photos I took this morning at the Grand Canyon Village. This is looking northeast near Bright Angel Trail Head. The icicles are hanging from the famous Lookout Studio near Bright Angel Lodge.

winter-canyon.jpg

Click the image for large view.

First Snow

First of all, we hope everyone is having a very Merry Christmas.

Our journey on this Christmas Day started in Wickenberg, Arizona. We traveled across the north side of Phoenix, got on Interstate 17 and got as far as Flagstaff. We’re currently parked in an RV campground.

This was the first time our dog, Bear, ever saw snow. She was great with it! She romped in it a little and then decided that the RV cab was where she wanted to be.

This is the Cap’n and Bear as they walk back to the RV after having enough snow for a while.

first-snow.jpg

Mount St. Helens Pseudo Movie

In October of 2004, the Mount St. Helens Volcano went through a period of relatively high activity. The frames that went into this pseudo-movie all happened on the morning of October 4, 2004 within an hour and 15 minutes or so. Please note that I added the sound for dramatic effect and the time scale is highly compressed.