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posted by martyb on Thursday November 07 2019, @07:44AM   Printer-friendly
from the build-more-wind-farms-to-push-it-back dept.

Punishing blasts of potentially record cold will bring an early winter preview to millions of people in the central, eastern and southern U.S. over the next few days.

The core of the first round of cold will gradually shift from the north-central U.S. into the Great Lakes and Northeast Wednesday through Saturday, making it feel more like the middle of winter rather than early November in some places, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Jake Sojda.

As the cold sweeps east, some snow is also likely in portions of the interior Northeast Thursday into Friday. The heaviest snow should fall in northern New England, where some spots could pick up half a foot.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/11/05/arctic-cold-blasts-bring-winter-weather-us-november/4165270002/

Possibly related: The sun has been blank for over a month now: http://www.sidc.be/silso/dayssnplot


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday November 08 2019, @03:11AM (2 children)

    by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Friday November 08 2019, @03:11AM (#917706) Journal

    You're obviously a troll, but for the benefit of anyone nearby:

    Global warming does not result in simple increase of temperature across the planet because we do not live on a barren, featureless, uniform ball of rock with no atmosphere. We have an ocean-atmosphere system which functions as a tremendous heat pump, and heat naturally moves from where there's more of it to where there's less of it. What we end up with is a system made mostly of (chaotic approximations to...) harmonic oscillators, with negative-feedback features that tend to damp down extremes.

    Think of it as something like a heavy weight on a spring, and the amount of energy in the system is analogous to how hard you pull on the spring. At some point, if you apply too much force, the spring will deform or snap; this is what will happen when too much incoming energy is trapped and the capacities of the planet's natural heatsinks--the cryosphere and the ocean itself--are exceeded. We're already seeing extreme oscillations, and the jetstream and ocean currents are being affected. When that system "snaps," say when the Gulf Stream shuts off, change will happen chaotically, violently, and above all *quickly.*

    Yes, Europe may very well experience a localized Ice Age while most or all of the rest of the planet cools--remember that Britain is at the same latitude as *Siberia* and Rome is about level with New York City. The Gulf Stream shuttles huge amounts of heat from the tropics up to Europe. THAT is how you get a (local) Ice Age in the middle of global warming; the total heat energy budget is higher, it's just not getting any of it moved north to Europe any longer. It won't disappear. If the Gulf Stream shuts down, you can expect blasphemously-huge hurricanes, among other phenomena.

    I know you're not going to read this, that you wouldn't recognize a heat engine if it fell on your empty head, but again, it's not for you; it's for anyone who stumbles on your idiotic trolling. It's worth the effort. Someone who might have become that little bit more ignorant or apathetic instead receives a quick capsule summary of climate dynamics, and instead becomes more aware of how the world they live in works.

    --
    I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
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  • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @12:39PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 08 2019, @12:39PM (#917841)

    So, global warming theory predicts the exact same thing as the cyclical ice age theory.

    • (Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:04AM

      by Azuma Hazuki (5086) on Saturday November 09 2019, @01:04AM (#918120) Journal

      No? Global warming predicts that one consequence in the short to medium term is powerful *localized* cooling. The planet's energy budget is still going up, it's just possible that a few specific places won't immediately see it. Energy moves, and one such way it moves in the current milieu is a big northward heat pump called the Gulf Stream. Shut that down, and ALL that heat stays in the tropics.

      When we get to the point where the entire planet *does* start uniformly warming, we are irrevocably screwed, because that means every single moderating negative feedback provided by the ocean-atmosphere system has been overwhelmed.

      --
      I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...