coloradobob  /  May 2, 2017
One more thing about rain as murder weapon of ice and snow. It has been linked to the decline of caribou . They have evolved to paw through snow, to get the lichens. They have not evolved to break ice to get lichens. When one of these rain events comes along in the winter , they can produce a really thick ice layer on top of a snowpack .

I can think of four other creatures that are facing this same problem . Musk Ox, buffalo, mice, and owls.
This idea of rain falling where it shouldn’t, and when it shouldn’t , is a real biological feedback loop , as well as a geophysical feedback loop.


bostonblorp  /  May 2, 2017
Mass death of reindeer attributed to too much snow and ice for them to paw through.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/reindeer-dead-climate-change_us_5832bda6e4b0...

“In both cases, the animals appeared to have died due to abnormally thick layers of snow and ice in their habitat, which made it impossible for them to access the lichen and other vegetation on which they survive.

Without anything to eat, the deer died en masse.”


robertscribbler  /  May 2, 2017
Thanks for the link, BB. It really is amazing how many big and little things just a few degrees of temperature departure can change. Bob’s been covering the impacts to reindeer from freezing rain locking up their available food sources in the comments here for a number of years now. I think this began to crop up as a noticeable issue in the mid 2000s. But the frequency of such events recently has been considerably higher.

AGW has a lot of data behind it.

Some estimates I have seen say it could be 30,000 years to the next major Ice Age.

In the meantime, ’Erbert look at this bit of data:

Vegemite, yuck!

This the extent of your AGW denialism ’Erbert? You voted in my “Why deny AGW” poll I hope?

Global warming—happening.

Global cooling—not happening.

It is called winter. 

It is still not global cooling because the northern hemisphere is warming up.

Greenland ice melt so far in 2017:

http://nsidc.org/greenland-today/greenland-surface-melt-extent-interactive-chart...

So you are covered in bruises—blood keeping flowing after a bit of a bruise? Wait till you get older and your skin thinner. . .

Yup, I love the change of the seasons, new experiences, new foods etc. Looking forward, he says bravely, to winter in Tasmania!

Iceloss from Greenland is nearly 300Gtons per annum. Are you forgetting the glaciers calving?

Yeah, Mum is the same plus she has the thin skin of the aged—she is 96. She is also on blood thinners after a mild heart attack a few years ago.

Why not get some duck down jackets or vests? Real warmth without weight. Kathmandu advertises on Ebay and have some real specials there and you can go to an actual Kathmandu store to fit them on and get them at the Ebay price.

Warming does it again. Climate reports for March show that the steady march ever-upward in land and sea temperatures kept on keepin' on. Highlights from the NOAA State of the Climate Report are below.

The March temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.89 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th century average of 54.9 degrees F. This was the second-highest for March in the 138-year period of record, behind 2016 by 0.32 degree F. This was the first time the monthly temperature departure from average surpassed 1.80 deg F (1.0 deg Celsius) in the absence of an El Nino episode in the tropical Pacific Ocean.

(NOTE: The near-2 degree Fahrenheit above the 20th century average is a LEAP, not a STEP -- above the average. BA)

The March globally averaged land surface temperature was 3.56 deg F above the 20th century average of 40.8 deg F. This value was also the second highest March land global temperature in the 1880-2017 record, trailing 2016 by 0.68 deg F. March 2017 had the highest monthly global land temperature departure from average of any month since March 2016 and the third-highest land monthly temperature departure among all months (1,647) on record. (NOTE: Three and one-half degrees Fahrenheit is again a LEAP above average. BA)

The March globally averaged sea surface temperature was 1.28 deg F above the 20th century monthly average of 60.7 deg F -- the second-highest global ocean temperature for March in the record, behind the record year 2016 by 0.18 deg F. This was the highest global ocean temperature departure from average since October 2016 (+1.30 deg F).

March Snow Cover and Sea Ice
According to data from NOAA analyzed by the Rutgers Global Snow Lab, the Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent during March was near average at 20,000 square miles below the 1981-2010 average. This was the 24th smallest value in the 51-year period of record. The North American snow cover extent was the 20th smallest on record, while the Eurasian snow cover extent was near the middle of the record.

You might deny AGW but you cannot really deny that the globe is warming.

Jovial Monk wrote on May 10^th, 2017 at 8:04am:



Did we have runaway global warming? How did it repair itself? Wasn't the sun hotter?

Jovial Monk wrote on May 10^th, 2017 at 8:04am:



Did we have runaway global warming when we had 2200 ppm? How did it repair itself? Wasn't the sun hotter?

I posted huge extracts from a scientific paper explaining all that. Not my fault if you won’t read.