Climate change results in rainier Vancouver spring
We have already managed to significantly change how it rains on our planet with less than one degree C warming so far. The sponge is going to get a whole lot bigger on the fossil fuel path we are heading down. The weather system is going to get a lot more energetic.
Tar sands, fracking and coal mining all increase rainfall and the energy in our weather. Sad, but true. If we choose to keep expanding these industries we are also choosing to leave the world a rainier and more dangerous place for our kids.
Personally, I wish we would all try something more hopeful -- and soon.
Note: In my chart and calculations I used Environment Canada rainfall data for the official Vancouver weather station at YVR. Climate trends are usually based on 30 year averages. I compared the average rainfall for earliest three decades in the records (1940's, 1950's and 1960's) to the most recent 30 years.
Related posts:
- Climate “catastrophe” of 6C dead ahead: IEA : "The world is perfectly on track for a six-degree Celsius increase in temperature. Everybody, even the schoolchildren, knows this is a catastrophe for all of us." And that is without climate tipping points kicking in.
- NASA: it rained so hard the oceans fell : Worldwide rainfall and snowfall were so extreme, in so many places last year, that sea levels fell dramatically. What role did global warming play and where are we headed from here?
- Spring forecast: increasingly cloudy...for decades : The latest climate simulations say increasing CO2 emissions will make our area increasingly cloudy during spring.
- Global warming increasing by 400,000 atomic bombs every day : We are hitting an extreme weather tipping point.
- Climate change giving birth to new cohort of carbon victims: "Generation Hot" : If you're under 30 you've never seen a cooler-than-normal year on Earth. The latest science shows heat is on and lots more is “locked in”.
- 1
- |
- 2
More in Climate Snapshot
Related Content on the Vancouver Observer
(10) Comments
--Julian Assange is a climate change “crisis” denier.
-“Socialist” Canada voted in a climate change denying prime minister to a majority.
-Occupy does not mention CO2 in its list of demands because of the bank-funded carbon trading stock markets run by corporations.
-Canada killed Y2Kyoto and nobody cared, especially the millions of scientists.
-Obama has not mentioned the crisis in the last two state of the unions.
Without the global warmign fraud this guy would be begging for coffee money outside of a starbucks.
This article is so replete with exaggerations, inaccuracies and lies it's not worth further comment
Very good article, one thing I would like to know:
You mentioned that rainfall in Vancouver had increased 12%. Can you elaborate, what was the baseline you used, ie what year and what rainfall and what date range and rainfall amount are you comparing it to?
Flood damage inThailand caused by "poor dam management", not Climate change.
Flood damage in Pakistan Caused by "poor dam management", not climate change.
Flood damage in Australia, caused by "poor dam management", not climate change.
Do you see a trend here? If you place dams into areas prone to flooding, you better manage them properly.
Here is a study saying that we will be "Drier"
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Drier+summers+Lower+Mainland+will+require+ways+conserve+water+study/6766316/story.html
"A basic rule of thumb is that climate change will make rainy areas grow ever rainier and dry areas grow ever drier."
This may be a basic alarmist claim but it has no basis in science. Hard to keep reaafter when the first sentence is a much-repeated by baseless claim.
--Julian Assange is a climate change “crisis” denier.
-“Socialist” Canada voted in a climate change denying prime minister to a majority.
-Occupy does not mention CO2 in its list of demands because of the bank-funded carbon trading stock markets run by corporations.
-Canada killed Y2Kyoto and nobody cared, especially the millions of scientists.
-Obama has not mentioned the crisis in the last two state of the unions.
James, you asked about my data for Vancouver rainfall increasing 12% over the year. In a note at the end of my article I explain my data sources and timeframes:
"Note: In my chart and calculations I used Environment Canada rainfall data for the official Vancouver weather station at YVR. Climate trends are usually based on 30 year averages. I compared the average rainfall for earliest three decades in the records (1940's, 1950's and 1960's) to the most recent 30 years."
I added up all the rainfall for all 30 years between 1940-1969. Then I added up all the rainfall from the most recent 30 years. The increase was around 12%.
If you have other questions, please ask...
Hyperzombie says in a comment above that summers in Vancouver are set to get drier. Yep. They already have gotten significantly drier. And that has been leaving our rivers and streams lacking in summer flows and as a result becoming over-heated. The BC Government has charts and stats on how Fraser is warming so much over recent decades that salmon runs are threatened on low-flow, hot-water years.
Summer has always been the dry season in Vancouver and this part of BC. And as I said at the start of my article, global warming in general means most rainy areas become rainier and most dry areas become drier. That applies to times of the year as well. We are increasing the extremes of the hydrological cycle by burning coal, oil and natural gas.
Added up over the entire year however Vancouver has been getting more rain as the climate gets warmer.
When the climate was warmer in the past, say few million years ago, was it also caused by oil sand industry?
While I hate oil and gas waste products, I must say climate change is not that simple, we have to look at cycles too, lots of forces are at work.
Where is "Columbia"? Do both you and your proofreader need to get out of an Anglo mindset?