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Old 09-08-2010, 01:45 PM
 
Location: Georgia
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Georgia records warmest summer nights ever; 2011 drought ‘likely' *| ajc.com

Say whatever you want about global climate change, but the fact that we just had the warmest summer nights on record is a fact.
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Old 09-08-2010, 09:20 PM
 
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This summer was definitely warmer than usual, but last winter was cold and snowy for GA. It snowed seven times in Atlanta, with 3 accumulations!! Thankfully the last week has been dry.
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Old 09-08-2010, 09:37 PM
 
Location: Savannah, GA
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It even snowed in Savannah. It was VERY cold this past winter, but this summer has more than made up for that. I believe there were 6 recorded days of 100+ degrees here. On a typical summer, you may or may not see a 100 degree day. The humidity has been extra intense this summer as well.
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Old 09-10-2010, 01:59 PM
 
Location: Georgia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingImport View Post
It even snowed in Savannah. It was VERY cold this past winter, but this summer has more than made up for that. I believe there were 6 recorded days of 100+ degrees here. On a typical summer, you may or may not see a 100 degree day. The humidity has been extra intense this summer as well.
Climate change may or may not do that. Who knows, it's kind of up in the air; that's the nature of it.

One possibility of a new climate for Georgia, we witnessed during part of last winter. Remember how bitterly cold and dry it was during part of January? How it got down into the teens almost every night for about two weeks straight? That was a result of frigid air that came straight to us from the Arctic, which resulted from a temporary rerouting of the Gulf Stream. This air has very low humidity and almost zero precipitation. What that means is if that ever becomes permanent, then Georgia becomes a desert. And we think this economic downturn is bad? That's nothing compared to what this worst-case scenario would cause...
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Old 09-11-2010, 09:19 PM
 
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The southeast had a cold winter, but last year globally was the hottest year on record.
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Old 09-12-2010, 09:02 PM
 
Location: Savannah, GA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by toll_booth View Post
Climate change may or may not do that. Who knows, it's kind of up in the air; that's the nature of it.

One possibility of a new climate for Georgia, we witnessed during part of last winter. Remember how bitterly cold and dry it was during part of January? How it got down into the teens almost every night for about two weeks straight? That was a result of frigid air that came straight to us from the Arctic, which resulted from a temporary rerouting of the Gulf Stream. This air has very low humidity and almost zero precipitation. What that means is if that ever becomes permanent, then Georgia becomes a desert. And we think this economic downturn is bad? That's nothing compared to what this worst-case scenario would cause...
Do you have a source for your information? This intrigues me.
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Old 09-14-2010, 10:15 PM
 
Location: Georgia
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Originally Posted by WanderingImport View Post
Do you have a source for your information? This intrigues me.
The Gulf Stream shift or the possibility of Georgia becoming a desert?
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Old 09-15-2010, 08:51 PM
 
Location: Savannah, GA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by toll_booth View Post
The Gulf Stream shift or the possibility of Georgia becoming a desert?
Well, both would be good.
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Old 09-16-2010, 01:57 PM
 
Location: Georgia
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Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingImport View Post
Well, both would be good.
OK, sure.

The part about desertification is simply speculation/prediction about what could happen to us, if climate changes drastically in the next few decades. Whether it actually will or not, or even what the odds of its occurrence are, are very difficult to predict. This is because there are so many variables in climate and weather, and as different systems change, they affect one another. That said, a rather straightforward analysis of North American geography and climate trends should explain this part.

Here's a map of North American air masses and the prevailing winds that flow through them:

http://www.acer-acre.org/ClimateChangeCD/sec3/images/323a-airmasses.jpg (broken link)

As a general rule, the farther an airmass moves over land, the drier it gets. Likewise, as it flows over large bodies of water, it regains moisture quickly. Case in point: Notice that the major air movement comes to us straight from the Gulf of Mexico, and as a result, our climate is warm and humid. By contrast, those of you who've ever been out West know that it's much drier there, and that's because the air has been over land and not water for hundreds of miles.

Sometimes, however, weather shifts away from the prevailing winds for awhile. You know how it starts to get cool, clear, and dry around this time of year? That's because for pretty much the entire month of October, suddenly that Gulf moisture is turned away, replaced by the cool, dry air coming in from Canada. Suppose that that became our dominant weather pattern. That might sound nice at first, but realize that would mean a massive decline in the rainfall we get, well above and beyond these recent droughts. If that happened, it wouldn't take long for plants to start dying out, as the ones that have developed to living here depend on a fair bit of water to survive. And should that occur...welcome to the desert, Georgia!

As for what caused all of this back in January, it was at least a combination of El Nino and Arctic Oscillation--a phenomenon that can affect relatively warm-water flow around the North American side of the higher latitudes. In short, this is what the Gulf Stream temperatures typically look like:



But here's what it looked like for a couple weeks last winter:



That rerouting of the Gulf Stream up the west coast of Greenland threw weather all over the globe into disarray. We were colder, western Europe was colder; but Africa was warmer, Siberia was warmer, and Greenland was practically by their standards in a heat wave.

What we saw last January was our first preview of what a real, live desert climate in Georgia would look like. It would be colder (at least in the wintertime; deserts tend to have extreme temperature variations between the hours and the seasons) and much drier. Imagine what this would do to our economy! And we thought we had it bad the last two years...
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Old 09-19-2010, 07:47 AM
 
Location: Marietta, GA
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I'll just say that you cannot establish trends for climate in a year or even 20 years. We can debate the real trends being seen or the causes for those trends, but one fact that cannot be debated is that shifts in climate have taken place for billions of years, and they usually take tens of thousands of years. Whether or not the climate is changing, that doesn't mean it's not a completely natural and normal process, and short term shifts happen, as do peaks and valleys in specific readings. Georgia has not always had the climate it has now and will probably not have this climate in a few thousand years.

One thing to mention, up north during the winter, arctic high pressure is the rule. Arctic highs are bitterly cold and very dry. That doesn't mean that the northern US is a "desert" just because in the winter the arctic air is very dry.
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