Do you think global warming is affecting our weather?

[rumples riot]

With this weird weather I just wondered how many of you had noticed in the last 20-40 years how much the weather has changed.

I think a poll is in order here.

[Robert_T]

so It's been wierd in SA too then? Sept-Nov are usually quite dry in Brisbane, but it's been cloud, rain, showers, more cloud, night time rain (very rare) and so on... don't know whether it's related tp Global Warming, El Nino or whatever, but it's most definitely odd... I'm seriously looking at buying a new scope soon so I'm expecting early cyclones


can't really complain about the weather though for before that it was drought and dams at crisis point, so I can still be grateful for a bit of rain (if only it could do it without clouds!)

cheers,

[Robert_T]

doh! ... forgot the poll!

[rumples riot]

Yeah Robert, this weather is way different than when I was a child. This time of year was fine and sunny. The last four weeks here in SA we have had so much rain or cloud or both but very little sunshine. Very weird. I think we need to do something about this soon, or we are going to have some serious problems in the near future. I hate to think what the world will be like in 10 years.

America has had a record season with hurricanes, we had a lot of cat 5 cylones last season. That is food for thought.

[Mick (Michael)]

Maybe were just starting our 20 000 year cycle. How long have we kept weather records?

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Paul, talk about wierd weather!! As soon as I read the title of this thread the rain started coming down so heavy I can't hear myself think. And I have sheepswool insulation in the ceiling which usually blocks the noise of rain on my tin roof. Man, it is loud!!!!

I agree, it was not like this years ago. What I have noticed over the last few years is it's as if the seasons have shifted along by about a month or more! It can't be a slight pole shift or the major telescopes of the world would have to realign their polar alignment.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Boy oh boy this rain is heavy and LOUD!!!!

[acropolite (Phil)]

I don't think there is any doubt that global warming is affecting our weather, things are simply changing too rapidly to be anything else. In Tassie it's drier than ever and that's simply not the norm for our state. The extremety of weather events is increasing as well. Unfortunately, Joe Average isn't aware and/or doesn't care so change is likely to be a long time coming.

[Mick (Michael)]

The Aboriginal Dreaming is part of a life cycle that is part of everything including the weather. 40 000 odd years they must must know something about the weather. This is a very interesting subject Paul.

The Lost Seasons

[hogly52 (Graeme)]

Global warming is sure to have an impact on our weather, and as a consequence everything atmospheric. The rapid advances the world has achieved over the last century are going to have a cost on many things around us. Our hope for our children, and the future is that a cleaner and more efficient way is found for everything done on earth. The ways of our forefathers may have been archaic and crude, but their holistic environmental impact was minimal.

[slice of heaven]

Originally Posted by rumples riot

this weather is way different than when I was a child. This time of year was fine and sunny. The last four weeks here in SA we have had so much rain or cloud or both but very little sunshine.

Dunno about that. Spring has always been predictably unpredictable. Though it has been warmer (and wetter) on average this year ,with no frosts at all this spring.
Due to an interest in fishing, I follow the effect the weather has on the plants etc. and spring was spot on on time this year. The river fishing perked up right on cue, the sea fishing is going through a normal mid spring lull at the moment and their 2 things that are totally weather related. Just waiting for the last blast of spring to heat up the beach and get myself hooked up on some 20kg Mulloway before Xmas

Plenty of sunshine here Paul, I've a nice tan to prove it.

[Robert_T]

actually we do have some excellent weather records going back thousands even millions of years, tree rings (dendrochronology), ice-cores from polar and antarctic ice contain "datable" ancient air and sea cores contain ancient foramnifera (not sure I spelled that right) which are minute sea creatures that record environmentally sensitive isotopes of various molecules such as oxygen... one thing that's becoming clearer is that environmental fluctutaion in the past has not been

unfortunately, like all records it's all in the interpretation...

cheers,

[Robert_T]

I should really read things before hitting the send button - the sentence below that ends abrubtly "one thing that's becoming clearer is that environmental fluctutaion in the past has not been" ... I meant to end, has not been as smooth as previously thought. What on a large timeframe appears as gentle undulations in temperature etc, on closer examination appear as rapid and sometime drammatic fluctutations in temp occuring over mere decades of time (with many different contributing factors from ocean currents to solar activity to airborne particles from volcanic activity etc).cheers,

I'm astonished that such a (seemingly) bright bunch of people here at iis actually consider that the global warming events even exist without little more than media hype to draw conclusions on, c'mon guys, brighten up, if you believe that global warming is an issue then you must believe all the fairy tales that multi national companies want us to believe. Check your facts, find some absolute evidence that is conclusive and aligns with global climate changes through the past 4 billion years and come back with a new poll, dont include some over educated college graduate with computer model, use known facts. Ask the Rothschild family or many others about who benefits from a global warming scam, fact is, the weather has not changed in our lifetimes that we cant account for as "normal" climatic variance. On the other hand I did just but a 12" dob and that has as much credence in influencing the weather as global warming scaremongers do so perhaps it's my fault. Next you will all be believeing that the ice will melt and we will all be flooded out, again, check your facts before you respond to this comment. If the weather is getting worse and worse exponentially then why has cyclone tracy not returned since 1974 or Brisbane floods of 1977 not returned? The worst droughts in Australian history were 1936 when we had the origional ash wednesday, my parents remember it and reckon we have had better weather since then, so maybe its global improving? Lets go back to looking beyond our atmosphere and let the mere mortals fall for this scam and clamber for high ground.

[Robert_T]

There's sure to be lot's of different opinions on this, and lot's of different motivations for those opinions and the different models they support - there is evidence, but it has to be sifted and interpreted and not all will agree on what it means.

Reading this thread though I don't think everyone is going along with the Global warming issue. I for one might have a feel that weather is different or offset from when I was a kid (and I was around for the '74 floods too) and so voted yes it's different - but this doesn't mean I buy into Global warming as an over-arching theory. What I've said below is that the weather evidence found in cores etc suggest that large scale climate fluctuation over very short time periods has been a common feature throughout geological history (for whatever reason) - changes we're experiencing now might therefore just be part of the "normal" (on geological timescales) weather fluctuation of our planet or these fluctuations might be superimposed on some manifestation of global warming... time will tell.

[slice of heaven]

Originally Posted by Robert_T

I for one might have a feel that weather is different or offset from when I was a kid

I think a childs perception is a large factor in this.
I know the summers were hotter, the sky was bluer, the stars were brighter and the full moon was bigger when I was a kid.

[slice of heaven]

Originally Posted by Robert_T

What I've said below is that the weather evidence found in cores etc suggest that large scale climate fluctuation over very short time periods has been a common feature throughout geological history (for whatever reason) - changes we're experiencing now might therefore just be part of the "normal" (on geological timescales) weather fluctuation of our planet or these fluctuations might be superimposed on some manifestation of global warming... time will tell.

I think that sums it up nicely.

[fringe_dweller]

Originally Posted by slice of heaven

I think a childs perception is a large factor in this.
I know the summers were hotter, the sky was bluer, the stars were brighter and the full moon was bigger when I was a kid.

that is so true eh mate - very hard to trust one's childhood perceptions of weather - it was all so rosy

Paul - imo this strange untypical local weather started in Adelaide around the time of Mars great opposition in 2003 late July into August - I remember it only to well - and it hasnt stopped since. Have you forgot last years very wet winter? that was worse! we didnt even get an autumn went straight into winter and stayed there till summer started.
I remember a couple of years identical pair to these last few - I think it was '92/'93 - when Cuddly Creek caravan park was washed away when the torrens flooded (was one of those years) anyway I have a theory they came in pairs .
Funny thing is remember prior to these wet years - when it didnt rain much for maybe 3 years and we had extremely hot summers - everyone was saying that was a sign of global warming hehe ... the last bestest years for astronomy locally in the last 11-12 years was in the mid '90's imo I remember you could pick just about any night and the seeing/transparency was awesome - took it for granted tho.
Visited my family in Brisbane recently and they were saying how dry it had been up there for years - how it was more like Adelaide weather (that they remembered) and the extreme humid stormy weather that they/we experienced all thru '80's in Brizzy had all but disappeared up there in recent times.

[jdb]

I thought it was because of the ozone layer...or did 'they' fix that already?

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

No one cares about that old think any more, jdb.