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l3a9
Jun 26 2008 19:43:16
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Climate Change
A scientific look at global climate changes.
Welcome to the Weather Underground's new Climate Change page!
We're just getting started, so keep checking back over the next few months for new additions.
About Glaciers
Glaciers exist on all the continents of the world except Australia. Most of the world's glaciers are found near the North and South Poles (for more information about Arctic and Antarctic glaciers, please see our pages on Greenland and Antarctica). A large number of glaciers, however, are found in mid-latitude and tropical regions wherever the right conditions exist.
Glaciers exert a significant influence on a landscape. As glaciers move across the terrain, they pick up rock and debris, carve valleys (see Figure 1), and create landforms. Flowing glaciers erode and scour the ground beneath and to the sides of them. These rivers of ice also pick up boulders, soil, trees, and other debris and carry it along in their flow. Once the glacier begins its retreat, however, this material is deposited wherever the glacier.s ice melts. Kettle lakes are formed when large chunks of ice fall off of retreating glaciers and melt, filling depressions in the ground. For more information on glacial formations, see the links below, which will connect you to some sites with photos and descriptions.
There are two main types of glaciers — valley and continental. Valley or alpine glaciers form in mountainous regions where movement is inhibited by valley walls. Continental glaciers, also known as ice sheets, are "dome-shaped mass[es] of glacier ice… greater than 50,000 square kilometers (12 million acres) (e.g., the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets)" (NSICD).
Click to read more on our featured issue.
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Latest Monthly Climate Trends |
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Monthly Summary (Updated between the 16th and 19th of each month)
May 2008
May 2008 was the 8th warmest May for the the globe on record, according to statistics released by the National Climatic Data Center. The spring season--March, April, and May--ranked as the seventh warmest spring for the globe. La Niña continued to weaken in May, and near neutral conditions now prevail in the tropical Eastern Pacific.
For the contiguous U.S., May was the 34th coolest May since 1895, and spring season was the 36th coolest spring on record. For the spring, Missouri had its fourth wettest, Arkansas its sixth wettest, Indiana and Iowa their eighth wettest and Illinois its 10th wettest. California had its driest spring on record, while Nevada and Utah had their 10th and 11th driest on record.
Sea ice extent
May 2008 Northern Hemisphere sea ice extent was the tenth lowest on record for the month of May, 6% below its extent in 1979 when satellite measurements began, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center. May was the sixth straight month that a new monthly minimum arctic sea ice record was not set, following a string of five months in a row where monthly records were set.
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Attribution: Blowing in the WInd
Featuring Dr. Ricky Rood
Attribution (5)This is the fifth in a series on the attribution of climate change; that is, how do we determine to what extent the observed warming is caused by humans? The earlier entries are cataloged at the end. (This one should, perhaps be the first!)First a return to basics: I received a good letter from a reader about the difficulty of determining trends and attribution from, primarily, the last 150 years of observations. The challenge seems even more daunt...
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The tornado season of 2008: climate change to blame?
Featuring Dr. Jeff Masters
Let's be clear that human-caused climate change is occurring, and will significantly affect nearly all aspects of weather and climate in the decades to come. However, many of these changes will be so small or gradual that they will not become detectable until many decades hence, since there is a large natural variability in weather. As I noted in my February blog, Are tornadoes getting stronger and more frequent?, there is new research that predicts that we may see an increase in the severe thunderstorms that spawn tornadoes by the end of the century.
Read This Entry
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The Iconic Image Gallery is a collection of figures that show important climactic trends. Click on each for a full-sized version of the image, the message that it contains, and a discussion of what makes it 'iconic'. Keep checking back -- we'll be posting additional images soon!
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Snow and Ice
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Other Topics:
Coming soon:
- Geoengineering
- Global Dimming
- Sea Level Rise
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