KATC StormTeam 3 Weather BLOG

Our weather will stay relatively benign until Wednesday afternoon with another mostly sunny and warm day for tomorrow.  Patchy fog could be a factor tonight and some sea fog could develop for early tomorrow night, but winds will pick up once again by Wednesday morning.  Another vigorous Plains storm system will develop Wednesday into Thursday engendering breezy southerly winds and producing a few isolated showers late Wednesday with scattered showers and storms possible Thursday.  Once again it looks like the strongest severe weather dynamics will stay to the north of us so we’ll just call for scattered activity, but the wind dynamics aloft may be strong enough to produce a couple of trouble-makers locally…stay tuned.  Like last weekend, activity will be initiating over us and then will get stronger north of Acadiana. 

Now for the “Global Warming Rant” portion of our blog today.  My feelings on the warming of our planet and it’s causes and possible mitigation aside, I heard on the Academy Awards last night as Al Gore was stepping up to receive his award that the film crew was scheduled to shoot in New Orleans just the day before Hurricane Katrina struck…”reminding us of how global warming is affecting us”.  First off, it is just plain wrong and incredibly misleading to say Katrina was a result of global warming.  Any “climatologist” or “global warming scientist” that says Katrina or the 1995-2005 upswing in Atlantic tropical activity was because of “global warming” likely has no scientific proof.  The most respected experts in tropical forecasting and future trends have indicated there has been no net increase in global tropical activity over the last 40 years, and recent trends specific to the Atlantic basin are tied directly to oceanic heat and salinity cycles.  The tropical experts also tell us in a hypothetical “warmer world” there may be a slight increase in intensity of storms by 5mph.  Does that make a Katrina or Rita that much worse?  Can you tell the difference between 130amph and 135mph winds?  I heard Dr. Heidi Cullen of the Weather Channel in December say that the anomalously warm weather that folks were feeling in the Midwest was directly attributed to global warming!  I challenge anyone to tell me they can feel .2 degree C increase per decade!  T

he global warming trend is indeed real but we cannot feel it as we step outside.  We as a planet will have to deal with many issues in the future, including sea level rise, and greater variability in weather patterns, etc.  However, things will not change overnight.  I find it very interesting that one of the real issues of how we’ll segue away from fossil fuels, especially in electrical generation, have not been talked about.  Nobody is talking about building many more nuclear power plants to supplant coal, shale and oil.  Wind and solar power can’t even put a dent into our needs.  And I can’t wait to hear the fight over where we’ll store spent radioactive fuel.  It’ll be interesting to see how the politicians treat this subject matter as we head toward a presidential election. 

The reality is that we live on a planet where we have consumed natural resources in developing our cultures and in industrialization.  Change is inherent to our lives.   The weather patterns will change, the climate will change.  Biodiversity will decrease in some areas while others species may flourish in a warmer world.  The ice caps may melt and the water will rise and incoming solar radiation will change.  And I’d be willing to bet the ice-caps will reform somewhere down the road.  We live on a constantly changing planet and we certainly have messed with things in the last 100 years, but I still don’t think we truly know where we’re going or how we can stop current trends.  And if we can purposely alter our climate, how much should we cool it?  We absolutely need to be more conscientious with our environment but there is no one solution.  I believe that the media has played a tremendous role in helping to identify the problems we face…but there also has been a heck of a lot of hype and emotional tugging too.  My soap box is now retired for the day!