Experts weigh Sandy's causes
Here are some excerpts from a fairly interesting news story filled with speculations about the "cause" of the Frankenstorm which hit the northeastern US .
Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist in the Climate Analysis Section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, said the jury was still out.
"There are clearly changes in the environment that all of these storms are occurring in," he said. As for Sandy, however, a lot of the weather conditions that lined up were due to a "crap shoot." A hybrid storm can be an explosive storm, "what we might call a meteorological bomb," without the influence of climate change.
HURRICANE, OR WINTER STORM?
Sandy began as a late-season hurricane coming up from the Caribbean in what many experts believe were conditions fueled by unusually warm water temperatures for this time of year. It then joined forces with a large Arctic weather system, which increased its size and transformed it into a winter storm with far more power than would otherwise have been expected.
The third unusual element was a high pressure system off Canada's east coast that blocked Sandy's escape route. While hurricanes usually turn eastward, the system forced Sandy to make a very sharp left turn and slam into the New Jersey coast.
I thought that this comment was particularly interesting :
Rahmstorf said a record thaw of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in September also might have helped build up high pressure in the North Atlantic that drove Sandy westward.
"I would be very cautious," he said. "But there is reason to suspect that there could be a connection between the record sea ice loss this summer and the path of this storm."
LINK
http://news.yahoo.com/climate-change-crap-shoot-experts-weigh-sandys-causes-231246109.html
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After looking this article over , I was particularly struck with the possible connection between
the "record thaw of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean in September" and the
build up of "high pressure in the North Atlantic that drove Sandy westward" .
If that same record sea ice loss happens in future years this is something to keep an eye out for .
Right now the causes of the high pressure may be completely unrelated to sea ice loss but it is something well worth looking into ...
As an actual event, the storm behaved more like a Hurricane on the front end, and on the back more like a nor'easter. Not nearly the rainfall for either event. It was the wind, and I venture to say that the high pressure system had more to do with that, then we think. I am sure when themeteorologistsfinish analyzing the storm, you will hear more about that high pressure. The record sea thaw would have produced colder air in that area, and cold air is dense air, which would have produced the high pressure. Very troubling if this is going to be anannualevent.
Except for this part :
[[cold air is dense air]] I think we are in agreement .
High pressure regions are not confined to the winter season .They can happen any time of year .