While at AGU14 they were still pushing the failed film Years of Living Dangerously, weather disasters supposedly exacerbated by global warming fail to materialize for the second straight year.
2014 a quiet year for weather disasters in the U.S.
The U.S. lucked out again this year, as large-scale weather catastrophes — including devastating and deadly hurricanes, tornadoes and wildfires — were few and far between.
Not since Superstorm Sandy devastated the Northeast in 2012 has a single natural disaster cost the U.S. tens of billions in damage, according to a report released today by CoreLogic. Sandy cost the U.S. about $70 billion.
“This is two straight years without big disasters,” said Tom Jeffery, a senior hazard scientist at CoreLogic, a private research and consulting company based in Santa Ana, Calif., that provides information and services to businesses and government.
Hurricanes, large tornado outbreaks and wildfires tend to be the biggest and costliest weather disasters in the U.S. each year, Jeffery said.
…
In terms of wildfires, 2014 has had the lowest amount of acreage lost to the blazes in the past 10 years.
Full story http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/12/29/natural-disaster-report/20853795/
Diasappointing. You start off with the grand statement “weather disasters supposedly exacerbated by global warming fail to materialize for the second straight year”, but then it becomes clear that you are just referring to roughly 7% of the world’s land surface. What is happening in the rest of the world?
We had a hum-dinger of a thunderstorm a few days ago in the Huon Valley of southern Tasmania. Last time we had one with such torrential rain was 30+ years ago, but this time we also had wind that drove the rain and hail almost horizontally, and several litres of rainwater made their way past a hitherto leakproof window frame. Does that help your understanding of the rest of the world?
The Age in Australia today suggests that floods in Thailand and Malaysia, caused by climate change, could have been responsible for bringing down the Air Asia plane. I am not making this up: http://www.theage.com.au/world/airasia-flight-qz8501-unique-weather-may-have-caused-plane-crash-says-ceo-20141230-12fs40.html
A couple of days ago the BBC headline was something along the lines of “Record cold temperatures for the UK” – the follow up article stating the UK has reached lowest temperatures for 2014 (obvious really considering last years’ wet and mild winter) – the headline since revised to “Record 2014 freeze”…but the ‘damage’ has already been done, that of the impression already made that winter has never been colder since records began.
Back in mid-December, I posted here that I’d like to predict (as far as I can) what the Central England Temperature record (CET) average reading for December 2014 will be.
To save readers looking back, here’s what I said:
” No computer models, no fancy statistics, just a plain inspection of the record’s figures and a bit of simple arithmetic.
From January to November inclusive, the monthly averages in degrees Centigrade for 2014 are 5.7, 6.2, 7.6, 10.2, 12.2, 15.1, 17.7, 14.9, 15.1, 12.5 and 8.6.
The hottest average for a year was 2006, showing 10.82⁰C.
So, assuming that we hit this figure again, let’s have a look at what December may bring.
My calculation comes to 4.04⁰C, but I’m going to round off this figure (four hundredths of a degree means nothing) – so, I suggest that December’s CET temperature will be 4⁰C at the most, but in all likelihood less than that, since I doubt we’re going to see the record average of 2006 again this year.
Four degrees Centigrade for December? Not at all an unusual figure, and that’s going right back to the 1600s.
The coldest December ever was -0.8⁰C in 1890, and the warmest was 8.1⁰C in 1934, a value also seen in 1974.”
I decided to play with my back yard thermometer as well, just for fun – I keep readings throughout the year, unless I’m away.
On December 28th, my amateur results indicated my prediction would be right. The thermometer is calibrated in whole degrees, and I estimate to the nearest half degree, always at around six o’clock in the morning. On the 28th, the average for December was on course to be 4.7⁰C
There is of course the heat island effect of our nearby central heating system gas boiler to consider, as well as the fact that we live in a town!
What’s the point of all this? The point is that there are over 350 years of values in the CET, with a wide spread of December values as I’ve mentioned above.
But the year’s average has never ever reached 11⁰C, hence my confidence in my observations.
Bringing things right up to date, here we are in the early morning of the last day of 2014 in the UK.
Recent days have been quite cold for this part of the world, with temperatures zero or slightly below.
My final estimate for December 2014 based on my amateur temperature readings is 4.2⁰C.
The CET value will surely be less than this, and I await the final official result.
This means temperature-wise it’s business as usual, a normal year, no suggestion of disastrous man-made warming to be seen, and a December value comfortably within the expected values
It’s not a surprise, is it?
December came in at 5.2, so 2014 easily surpassed the previous record
It haws become clear that the US Weather Service has bought into the Catastrophe Idea of Climate Change. Instead of the usual Winter Storms “Another Alberta Clipper” is bringing cold and snow, we are now treated to Named winter Storms much like Named Tropical Storms and Hurricanes. Also we have “New” Winter Terminology like “Polar Vortex” which sounds so much more ominous than a High Pressure Center. So Winter Storms are now more widely interpreted by laymen as “Unusual” events instead of typical weather events.
This is probably worth repeating:
The current climate is completely normal. It is well within all past parameters. Global temperatures are completely normal. Everything being observed now has happened in the past, and to a greater degree.
There is nothing either unusual or unprecedented happening.
In fact, we are in a true “Goldilocks” climate: not too hot, and not too cold; but just right.
It is hard to spin that, but they’re certainly
lyingtrying!A Year of Living dangerously is showing on Aust.TV on the SBS station. I just happened to tune in for a few minutes, and they were going on about cracks appearing in arctic ice, somewhere, and the breaking up of ice flows. (That’s normal) Are they desperate or think we are 12th year high school students? Needless to say, I stayed on that broadcast for less that 1 minute.
the obvious failure of alarmist weather events to materilize is why the UN is now using 2050 alarmist claims.
http://www.un.org/climatechange/summit/2014/09/absent-change-course-scenarios-2050-predict-drought-heat-waves/
Please stop calling it “Super Storm Sandy”. It wasn’t.
It was an absolutely normal storm that is fully to be expected there. Even that it arrived on a very high tide is to be expected (just not very often).
I go out of my way to call it “Absolutely Ordinary Storm Sandy” (and sometimes add “That wasn’t even a hurricane when it hit) to emphasize that point.
I’ve not had anyone do much other than smile at the statement and agree… One or two look a bit puzzled, but adding that ‘not a hurricane’ and ‘less than 1800s era storms’ usually causes enlightenment.
FoodPorn – Beware your food supply.Climate is controlled where you do NOT understand it – your ultimate food supply does not grow in frost – at least you can exhale now. And stay warm. So what about $1 Trillion misapplied by – science.