Global Warming: It Can do Anything!
I’m so old, I can remember when global warming caused droughts. Or, put another way, climate change was making the Earth–in particular, the Great Lakes–drier. Thus, as I noted here:
National Geographic: “Climate Change and Variability Drive Low Water Levels on the Great Lakes.”
The National Resources Defense Council: “Climate change is lowering Great Lakes water levels.”
It’s no secret that, partially due to climate change, the water levels in the Great Lakes are getting very low.
The U.N’s IPCC: “[T]he following lake level declines could occur: Lake Superior -0.2 to -0.5 m.”
Dick Durbin: “What we are seeing in global warming is the evaporation of our Great Lakes.”
Minnesota Public Radio:
Scientists at the Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [are] studying the interplay between low water levels, shrinking ice cover and warm water temperatures, Gronewold said. They have already concluded that climate change is playing a role in determining Great Lakes water levels.
Those quotes date from 2013, while my post was in 2017, when news reports indicated that Lake Superior was nearing a record high water level. Steve had already pointed out in 2014 that, in “a development that has startled scientists”–notwithstanding, apparently, the claim that the science is settled–Great Lakes water levels were rising rapidly.
What reminds me of this is today’s article in the Wall Street Journal headlined, “High Water Levels on Great Lakes Flood Towns, Shrink Beaches.”
Lakes Erie and Superior are among the Great Lakes expected to reach all-time highs this summer, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And the levels of Lakes Michigan, Huron and Ontario are well above seasonal averages.
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High water levels across the Great Lakes are being driven primarily by persistently wet conditions for the past five to six years, including heavy rains and a large snowpack…
Snowpack!
…said Keith Kompoltowicz, chief of watershed hydrology for the Army Corps in Detroit.
Anyone who knows anything about nature knows that it is cyclical. The Journal story includes graphics, including this one showing water levels in Lake Michigan and Lake Huron:
It got wetter in the 1990s: climate change! Then it got drier roughly from 2000 to 2013: more climate change! Then it got wetter again starting in 2014, and it continues to be wet: still more climate change! The case for climate change is irresistible, but we always knew that. The Earth’s climate has been changing for millions of years, and it will continue changing until the Earth or its atmosphere disappears.
Meanwhile, a theory that is consistent with everything, and therefore purportedly explains everything, in reality explains nothing.
Trackback from your site.
K Kaiser
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Yes, in 1986, the Lake Huron/Michigan reached a new 150-year high. In 2013, a new 150-year low came. Right now, once again, we are close to another seasonal record high.
The 150-year stretch clearly shows a 30-35 year cycle for highs and lows.
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jerry krause
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Hi Klaus,
There is nothing better than natural observations such as these to begin to understand the factors which subtly influence weather and therefore climate.
I am not aware if you a familiar with the following: “The Moon passes through the ecliptic at only two points on each trip around the Earth, where the planes of the Earth’s and Moon’s orbits intersect. Because the Moon’s orbital plane wobbles slowly, in a precessional motion similar to that of the Earth’s spin axis, the line of intersections with the Earth’s orbital plane slowly moves around. The combination of this motion, the Moon’s orbital motion, and the movement of the earth around the Sun creates a cycle of eclipses, with the same pattern recurring every 18 years.” (The Dynamic Universe 3rd Ed., pp 31-32)
Now, the period of this eclipse cycle is not exactly 18 years and that it takes 3 cycles (still approximately 55-56 years) for the eclipses to occur on the same day of the year. And I have yet to find any one considering how these motions of the moon might subtly influence ocean and atmospheric tides with periods of about 8-9, 17-18, and 55-56 years. And, of course, I have yet to find a detailed evaluation of how ocean and atmospheric tides, during a single lunar phase cycle, might cyclically influence the weather. Although I can imagine one might exist because seem to remember that I have sometimes read (but don’t remember where and when) that there are observations which subtly suggest that such tides do influence the weather.
Have a good day, Jerry
I
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