Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Snow
If you're like me, you are in uncomfortable proximity to morons who have been crowing for a week or 2 about how all this snow questions global warming science. I suppose they also believe trampolines question the science of gravity. You already understand this, of course, but in case you want to hear it from an actual weather man, here's meteorologist Jeff Masters, who notes that all you need for snow are temperatures that are cold enough, and plenty of moisture in the air (my emph.):
It's not hard at all to get temperatures cold enough for snow.... The more difficult ingredient for producing a record snowstorm is the requirement of near-record levels of moisture. Global warming theory predicts that global precipitation will increase, and that heavy precipitation events--the ones most likely to cause flash flooding--will also increase. This occurs because as the climate warms, evaporation of moisture from the oceans increases, resulting in more water vapor in the air. According to the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, water vapor in the global atmosphere has increased by about 5% over the 20th century, and 4% since 1970. This extra moisture in the air will tend to produce heavier snowstorms, assuming it is cold enough to snow.
Trampolines confirm the theory of gravity, and heavy snowstorms do the same for global warming theory.

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