Weather-Related

Research conducted at Texas A&M University questions the relationship between El Niño and the severe flu pandemic in 1918.

El Niño occurs when unusually warm surface waters form over vast stretches of the eastern Pacific Ocean and can affect weather systems worldwide.  The 1918 El Niño was one of the strongest of the 20th century.

Also in 1918, the same H1N1 flu that’s threatening today sweeped the world and killed 25-100 million people.  India was particularly hard hit by the flu, and “we know that there is a connection between El Niño and drought in India,” said Benjamin Giese, a professor of oceanography at Texas A&M.  “It seems probable that mortality from influenza was high in India because of famine associated with drought, so it is likely that El Niño contributed to the high mortality from influenza in India.”

Could the events of 1918 foreshadow what might occur in 2009 and 2010?  Giese said there are some interesting parallels.  The winter and spring in 1918 were unusually cold throughout North America, just like parts of the U.S. experienced record cold this summer.  That was followed by a strengthening El Niño and subsequent drought in India.  With a moderate to strong El Niño now forming in the Pacific and the H1N1 flu strain apparently making a vigorous comeback, the concerns today are obvious, Giese adds.

Read the Texas A&M Press Release
Read the Flu Report

NASA has released what it calls the “coolest, most illustrative video” of its kind ever.  The video shows stunning new images of earth, highlighting climate changes and how the weather in one part of the planet impacts the rest of us. 

The cryosphere is the part of the Earth’s surface where water is found in solid form.  This includes areas of snow, sea ice, glaciers, permafrost, ice sheets and icebergs.  In these areas, surface temperatures remain below freezing for a portion of each year.  Since ice and snow exist relatively close to their melting point, they frequently change from solid to liquid and back again due to fluctuations in surface temperature. 

Although direct measurements of the cryosphere are often difficult due to remote locations of these areas, scientists can use satellites to monitor changes in the global and regional climate by observing how regions of the Earth’s cryosphere shrink and expand.

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Nobody knows what causes these long, tubular clouds.  They are known as “Morning Glory Clouds” and appear nearly two miles up in the atmosphere and can stretch for hundreds of miles.  Although similar roll clouds have appeared all over the globe, the ones over Queensland, Australia occur every spring.

These long, horizontal, circulating tubes of air may form when flowing, moist, cooling air encounters an inversion layer, an atmospheric layer where air temperature atypically increases with height.  These tubes and the surrounding air can cause dangerous turbulence for airplanes.  Morning Glory clouds can reportedly achieve an airspeed of 60 kilometers per hour over a surface with little wind.

Photographer Mick Petroff shot these amazing Morning Glory clouds from his airplane near the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia.

Larger photo at NASA

Erdem submitted some amazing lightning photos to CNN’s iReport.  Here’s what he had to say about them:

“We had an awesome lightning storm in New York City last night.  I took these photos from our window on the corner of 58th Street and First Avenue, 12th Floor.  In the photo with the big lightning bolt, the building with the lit top is Bloomberg Building. Right behind that is the Trump Building (old GM Building) then Time Warner Building (CNN).”

From CNN iReport

A massive dust storm in China’s Taklimakan desert in 2007 circled the planet in just 13 days.  The dust cloud was 1.9 miles tall and 1,242 miles long.  When it reached the Pacific Ocean on its second time around the planet, the cloud descended and dropped most of its dust into the ocean.

“Asian dust is usually deposited near the Yellow Sea, around the Japan area, while Sahara dust ends up around the Atlantic Ocean and coast of Africa,” said Itsushi Uno of Kyushu University’s Research Institute for Applied Mechanics.  “But this study shows that China dust can be deposited into the (Pacific Ocean).  Dust clouds contain 5 per cent iron, that is important for the ocean.”

Researchers believe dust particles help form high-altitude cirrus clouds, though they don’t know whether these dust clouds warm or cool the earth.

Story at DailyMail

A 2003 study predicted that glaciers will disappear from Glacier National Park by 2030.  But because temperatures are warming even faster than just a few years ago, glaciers are now expected to disappear by 2020.

Glaciers are created when snow doesn’t completely melt in summer and over time is compacted into ice.  To be classified as a glacier, an ice field must be at least 25 acres, moving, and sculpting the landscape.

In 1900, there were about 150 glaciers in what is now Glacier National Park.  Today only 25 glaciers remain.

Although the quantity and size of glaciers have been decreasing over the past century, glaciers are now shrinking four times as fast as they were in the 1960s.  The reason is warmer climate.  Although Glacier National Park is colder than many other parts of the world, temperatures in the park have increased three times as fast as average global temperatures.

There may be some debate as to whether the warming climate is a natural cycle or the result of man-made pollutants.  But there is no debate that temperatures in Glacier National Park are getting warmer, the glaciers are getting smaller, and this is all happening even faster than previously predicted.

Story at USA News
Glacier National Park Photo Tour
More National Park News

Two friends spot a waterspout in Louisiana and chase it down to get a better look.  My favorite part of the video:

Mother:  Y’all be careful.

Son:  All right, Mom, we know…  It’s not a tornado.

Other Kid:  It’s white, tornadoes aren’t white.

After a melodramatic introduction with ominous music, this video gets down to business with a series of impressive lightning strikes.  Warning: Language.  Apparently the most common expression after a close lightning strike is “Holy S***!”

A 45-year-old Lawrence, Kansas man was struck and killed by lightning as he was riding his motorcycle on U.S. Highway 24.  The man was riding with six other motorcyclists who are members of the Bikers Against Child Abuse group.  A man riding next to the victim was also injured, but was treated and released from a Topeka hospital.  The other five members of the group were not injured.

The bikers were returning home after visiting some children they had helped in the past in their work against child abuse.  The local sheriff called the man’s death a “tragic, sad thing.”

Story at FoxNews
More Death & Destruction

(NAPSI)  As the weather heats up, be sure not to give your car the cold shoulder.  Instead, take some time to do a bit of routine maintenance in order to ensure a safe, comfortable and fuel-efficient driving season.

“Simple maintenance to your vehicle following the harsh winter months can make a huge difference when it comes to keeping your car on the road and getting the most out of this driving season,” says Jim MacPherson, car care expert and automotive radio host for WTIC-AM in Connecticut.

MacPherson suggests that you should help prepare your car for warm-weather drives by following this simple checklist before you hit the road:

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