GREG LACOUR, The Charolotte Observer
This morning was downright cool in the Charlotte region — cool enough to break a record that had stood for more than a century.The temperature at Charlotte/Douglas International Airport was 56 at about 5:30 a.m., breaking the July 2 record of 58, set in 1885. The normal low for this time of year is 70.
It’ll warm up quickly today, though. Temperatures today are expected to peak at 90 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. But it’ll still feel pleasant because of humidity levels between 20 and 25 percent, said NWS meteorologist Doug Outlaw.
Conditions will be cool again overnight, with the low descending to 59, one degree warmer than the record for July 3, set in 1932. And the Fourth of July is expected to be warm and dry, with a high of 92 and “a very, very minimal chance” of rain, Outlaw said.
Forecasters don’t expect any rain until Saturday afternoon, when they call for a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms.
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I live in the mountains of western North Carolina, and it has been downright chilly with temps overnighting in the 40’s for a week or so.
The days have been pleasant as well.
Heh, 58 and rainy in Seattle. The last few days, however, and been warm and sunny.
We are headed back to a 1977 type winter….I have been putting in new windows and insulation. Costs on NG heating I am hearing is going up 100% here in Ky. this winter season.
Hansen and Gore will be on trial in 2009 for fraud.
I guess we’re back to weather anecdotes again. June was far and away (by 2.0F) the hottest on record in Austin, TX.
http://www.keyetv.com/content/news/topnews/story.aspx?content_id=8c1abe1e-7ce4-4ceb-a7d3-4608a46a44a7
Anchorage, AK also set a record low on July 1 and tied a record low on July 2. 43 degrees and 46 degrees respectively.
This is off-topic, but in reading the recent hysteria over the ice melting in the Arctic, a question occurred to me.
If there’s been significant melting of the ice, why haven’t the ocean levels showed a corresponding rise in water levels? I thought that the consequence of such melting would be the inundation of coastal cities.
I’m still relatively new at this climatological science game, so this is a real (not sarcastic) question.
Thanks
Reply: Sea Ice floats on top of the Ocean and is in hydrostatic equilibrium, neither changing nor lowering the total water content of the Ocean when melting or freezing and is unrelated to sea level rise or fall. You can do the elementary experiment with a water glass filled to the rim with ice protruding above and see if water spills over the rim of the glass when the ice melts…It doesn’t.~jeez
We here in Alabama have been having the same type weather. July 1st low was 53.6, July 2nd was 55.9 and today was 59.9 all below normal temps our highs were also a little below normal 1st 82.6, 2nd 86.4 and today not there yet but current at 1:30pm 87.4
looks like the SE might be cool for July also but getting dry.
Bill Derryberry
Reply: Sea Ice floats on top of the Ocean and is in hydrostatic equilibrium, neither changing nor lowering the total water content of the Ocean when melting or freezing and is unrelated to sea level rise or fall. You can do the elementary experiment with a water glass filled to the rim with ice protruding above and see if water spills over the rim of the glass when the ice melts…It doesn’t.~jeez
I’m glad you spelled this out, but can you cut out the “jeez”?
Some of us, while educated, are not scientists, and have heard for YEARS that AGW was going to inundate coastal areas. Please, the sarcasm doesn’t help.
My follow-up question: so what does cause the ocean levels to rise and fall? is it solely the melting of Antarctica and Greenland? I think that ocean levels were much higher in prehistoric times – where I live in TX was obviously at the bottom of an ocean for quite a while. I’m just not certain whether the reason that it’s dry here now is from plate uplift, or ocean levels dropping.
We also set records in June here in SA TX for heat – but last year we set June records for cold and wet (IIRC). Thank heavens that it’s finally raining here today!
Reply: jeez is my username, with which I end most of my inline comments in order to distinguish myself from Anthony. I believe you have misinterpreted its use. Ocean levels can be influenced by the amount of water stored away in Glaciers on land. More water locked away in Glaciers, such as a large area of Greenland, the lower the sea level. Melt the Glaciers and they flow into the sea, raise the sea level. Sea level is also influenced by the Ocean temperature, with sea level rising as the water warms, if it warms, etc.~jeez
sravana: Har! Har! He IS “jeez”. That’s his handle.
” Har! Har!”? Dude you owe me five dollars~jeez
See sravana? It’s my username.
It sounds like the cool weather (except for Texas) is pretty widespread. I live in Northeastern Indiana, and the early morning temps have been in the low to mid 50’s every day this week with daytime highs in the mid 70’s to low 80’s. Great sleeping weather and really easy on the AC bill.
In a nutshell:
Antarctica has c. 80% of the ice.
Greenland has c. 20% of the ice.
All the other glaciers in the world have c. 0% of the ice. (well, maybe 1%.)
Monckton reports that the latest IPCC supplemental reduced the next 100 years’ SL rise from ice melt to a mere 6 or 7 cm. The majority of SL rise would be due to thermal expansion (assuming the oceans warm in the first place).
jeez: You have a long memory–jeez!
Seems this German website has got the June RSS number out already.
http://klimakatastrophe.wordpress.com/
Jeez is the moderator’s name.
Last weekend we had dewpoints in the 50s in N TX.
Something is taking the vater vapor out of the air!!!
If you got 90 minutes, you can watch this debate, as recommended by Philip Stott (which reminds me, it’s time for my glass of red wine):
http://web.mac.com/sinfonia1/Global_Warming_Politics/A_Hot_Topic_Blog/Entries/2008/7/3_Nobel_Thoughts.html
Good night!
sravana (11:44:01) :
“My follow-up question: so what does cause the ocean levels to rise and fall? is it solely the melting of Antarctica and Greenland? I think that ocean levels were much higher in prehistoric times – where I live in TX was obviously at the bottom of an ocean for quite a while. I’m just not certain whether the reason that it’s dry here now is from plate uplift, or ocean levels dropping.”
In Ice Age timeframes (say 100,000 years) the major effect is ice, to the tune 300-500 feet IIRC.
In geologic timeframes (say 1000X longer), much greater uplift occurs. In general land is built up by volcanism and sedimentation and worn down by erosion. Wherever you see sandstone and limestone, you’re looking at old sea floor that has been lifted up. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon is sedimentary rock at 8,000 feet above sea level, the South Rim is the same, but 1,000 feet lower. I’ll leave further details to the geologists here. There are many higher sea floors and even some coral beds in southwestern US mountains.
The Drudge Report is reporting this bit breaking news.
— — —
“Due to pending disasters predicted because of global warming, government scientists are urging the creation of a new Earth Systems Science Agency — by merging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey…
‘The United States faces unprecedented environmental and economic challenges in the decades ahead,’ the group warns. ‘Foremost among them will be climate change, sea-level rise, altered weather patterns, declines in freshwater availability and quality and loss of biodiversity’… Developing…”
— — —
MikeEE
This is more everyday proof that water vapor is the major greenhouse gas. Lower the water vapor and you get more radiational cooling. The CO2 mix is still the same so it has no real effect.
To continue the comments on glaciers: A Montanan on another thread referenced this study about Glacier National Park:
http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/cirmount/wkgrps/ecosys_resp/postings/pdf/pederson_etal2006.pdf
Note on page 19 that the bulk of the Sperry Glacier post-Little Ice Age shrinkage occurred by 1945. No typo, 1945.
Austin has cooled off nicely with some recent rain – we had a fairly hot and dry June. We just had a record low nightime temp at the airport. I think we also had 5 record lows in April.
http://www.statesman.com/search/content/news/stories/local/07/03/0703roundup.html
***Wednesday’s low sets record***
“Just two days after Austin left behind the hottest June on record, the city saw a summer rarity on Wednesday: a record low.
The temperature dropped to 63 degrees just before 7 a.m. at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, breaking the old record of 69 degrees set in 2002, Lower Colorado River Authority meteorologist Bob Rose said.
The low was 69 degrees at Camp Mabry, which didn’t come close to the record low of 57 degrees, Rose said.
The rest of the day saw highs in the lower 90s and nearly a half an inch of rain at the airport, he said. There was a trace of rain at Camp Mabry, Rose said.
Austinites should expect a few isolated showers through the weekend with highs in the mid-90s, Rose said. “
Sea level rise is primarily due to thermal expansion as the water warms.
Rising sea levels are IMO opinion the most persuasive evidence of a warming climate, although with a substantial lag, perhaps 20 or 30 years.
However, recent data shows the oceans aren’t warming and sea levels stopped rising about 2 years ago.
BTW, measuring changes in millimeters over years when sea levels change by meters every day is a rather difficult problem and it may be that the measurements are wrong. And some locations like Singapore show no sea level rise at all.
Finding ocean sediments on land has nothing to do with sea level rises, except when those sediments are recent and on or near the coast. In which case they indicate that current sea levels aren’t as high as they have been in recent geological times (say 1 million years), which is the case where I live.
Why sea levels aren’t as high as they appear to have been in previous interglacials is an interesting question and could well indicate that the Antarctic and Greenland icesheets gain more ice than they lose over the glacial cycles.
We tied a record low in Denver a few days ago at 47, also rebounded all the way up to 87 the same day. That dry air cools and warms quickly. Meanwhile, scary projections from some scary meteorologist, uncritically reported by the AP.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25501251/
Melting of floating ice can cause a slight change in SL depending on fresh/salt ratio of the water. If the ice is freshwater, it is slightly less dense than salt water. It displaces it’s weight which in a freshwater lake would be of equal volume. In salt water, slightly less volume. So the level could rise a bit.
Living 2000 meters above sea level, that is rather low on my list of things to worry about.
Just an FYI,
“Jeez” has kindly offered to help me with the daunting and never ending task of moderation. There are so many comments that it has become almost impossible for a single person to keep up with it. I do late nights and mornings, he does late mornings to early evenings.
He is known to me in person; he, Steve Mosher; Steve McIntyre, and myself have met last year in SFO.
I thank “jeez” for his kind assistance in keeping this blog from turning into a wild west word war, which can happen without application of some level of decorum, and occasional snips, OT offing, or rant removal.