Humans are not just loading the dice in favor of extreme weather events, as many scientific studies have shown. They are also changing the characteristics and impacts of those events, be it in the form of an unprecedentedly strong and extremely deadly Typhoon Haiyan or the damaging Boulder, Colorado, floods of 2013… Trenberth and his two coauthors received some measured support from Jennifer Francis, a research professor at Rutgers University who has written a series of studies showing that rapid Arctic warming may be altering weather patterns across the Northern Hemisphere… “Their overall conclusion, and I agree with it, is that in efforts to determine the role of climate change in any single event, one should focus on climate changes that are irrefutable- such as rising sea levels, warmer tropospheric temperatures, increased water vapor, warmer sea surface temperatures, and changing soil moisture- all on a case-specific basis,” she said in an email.
‘Pollen Tsunami’ is Real and it’s Awful
You’re tired. Your eyes are watery and itchy. Your head feels like it’s stuffed with cotton. And you can’t stop sneezing. Blame the weather. Blame climate change. Blame your allergies. But most of all, blame the “pollen tsunami” that’s making headlines in New York City… One of the authors of that report, allergist, immunologist and an expert at Rutgers University’s Center for Environmental Prediction, Dr. Leonard Bielory, told Mashable that tsunami may not be the best descriptor… “Tsunami is a pretty strong term. I’ve been using the term the ‘perfect storm,'” Dr. Bielory said… As a result “there are thousands of pollen grains per cubic meter of air,” said Dr. Bielory. As for how urban sprawl might impact the pollen count, Bielory is unconvinced. He said more tarmac and fewer plants could lead to more pollution, which could exacerbate the impact of pollen- at any level.
Summer Heat Waves May Have Roots in Rapid Arctic Warming
Before the summer of 2010, Moscow had never recorded a triple-digit temperature, with records going back to 1879. But during a weeks-long heat wave that June and July, the city’s temperatures soared well above normal, setting an all-time record high of 102 degrees fahrenheit on July 30. A new study suggests that Arctic warming could have helped trigger that epic heat wave… Some researchers suspect Arctic warming influences weather in the mid-latitudes because as the pole heats rapidly, the temperature difference between it and the equator is shrinking. That difference, or gradient, is what drives the jet stream, the fast-moving river of air high in the atmosphere that guides our weather… “The small waves are like ripples that travel along the path of the main jet stream, through the large waves. They are what create individual weather systems, like high pressure cells and storms,” Rutgers University climate researcher Jennifer Francis, who reviewed the new study, said in an email.