There have been very heavy rains in England and Wales in the past few months and the ground is very soft. Come the equinox, if the gales blow across the land high winds will blow down trees now anchored in soft ground. Many homes have been affected by flooding, and a couple of people have died as a result. These effects are serious and in Britain we gaze intently at our navels while accusing others of doing the same. If we lift up our eyes and look to Russia there we shall find heavy rain which has had far worse consequences than those we have experienced in Britain.
In Krasnodar 172 souls lost their lives when a wave of water washed across the town. The water came from heavy rains in the mountains. Around 5000 homes were badly damaged and 250 of them were completely destroyed. Water, so soft and pliable, is an irresistible force when released by record rainfall into places where it has never been before.
Some 77 years ago the region experienced heavy rainfall and floods but the recent rainfall has set new records. In a few days the amount of rain that fell was equivalent to six month’s worth of rainfall in an average year. Rainfall fell as though the region was engulfed in a tropical storm. 35,000 people have been affected by this weather.
In Chechnya it was that region’s turn to be affected by heavy rainfall a few days after the weather in Krasnodar. Heavy rains, breaking all previous records, have left 47,000 people without electricity and caused extensive damage. Moscow suffered record rainfall on 13th July where in thunderstorms three people were struck by lightning and dozens of cars floated then sunk un the roads that had become rivers.
These record breaking rains are founded in science and climate change will help us understand why there are more frequent times when record rainfall occurs in some regions and record drought in other places. As the climate warms the atmosphere can hold more water vapour, causing the climate to warm more. An atmosphere holding more water vapour will in places produce more rainfall. For many of us, the sky cried.
Filed under: climate change, global warming Tagged: | climate, environment, nature, rainfall, Russia, science
Some valid debate going on here and some obvious answers, now take the time to see where our planet is currently sitting on the eclptical plain, those victors who get to write our histories have know this for millenia and are using the ” every day patterns ” to steer the minds on a seasonal roundabout of scary climate stories,
Cooling, Warming and always the sun by The Real Stranglers.
Very cleverly remembered and designed as the catylist of providing what comes natural to provide the problems that we think really matters.
What goes around comes around again and as long as our memories become their own deserts by design the longer we can be held in behind the bars we refuse to see.
“The point is that as th3e air warms so it gets more water vapour from the oceans and more water vapour is held in the air.”
Rob, this last post is just moving goalposts.
It is basic physics that as air temperature rises it IS ABLE to hold more water vapour. It doesn’t follow that just because the air temperature is higher there is automatically greater water vapour retention. e.g. Sahara which is very hot and dry. It is quite possible for large amounts of water to be held in ice in the arctic and antarctic and because of the low temperature the air above MUST be dry.
The present severe Colorado drought is due to relocation of the jet stream and el nino. If climate change is affecting Texas and Colorado it will be inextricably linked with the vast water extraction of the Colorado river and the population increase. How can you disentangle the combined effects?
You cited the report as supporting your statement that on the whole the atmospheric water vapour content in the earth’s atmosphere had increased. It DID NOT say that. The report dealt with a minute part of the atmosphere. It would be just as relevant to base global warming theories on what the air vapour content was above Manchester in the 1980′s
For me, one frustration with AGW supporters is just that every bit of adverse weather is blamed on AGW.
Using the Bible, belief and philosophy, the Catholic church refuted Copernicus’ theory of heliocentrism.
The sun remained at the centre of our solar system despite what we believed.
The report dealt with a water vapour rise between 1981 and 1994 at one place (Boulder, Colorado)
It concluded:
“The additional increase in water vapour may be linked to other climate variations, such as the observed global temperature rise in recent decades”
This was 20 years ago!
it said “may be linked” i.e pure speculation with no investigation.
As Boulder Colorado is now in the grip of massive drought the report has no relevance and of purely historical interest. So “on the whole” there is no increase in atmospheric water vapour.
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_20311924/98-colorado-drought-say-csu-climatologists
The point is that as th3e air warms so it gets more water vapour from the oceans and more water vapour is held in the air. Perhaps Boulder Colorado’s present massive drought is part of climate change and thus the report has more than historical interest.
“As the climate warms the atmosphere can hold more water vapour, causing the climate to warm more.”
Surely, the rain here is just that which should have fallen on Mid West USA where there is currently a drought.
Where did you get your information that the volume of atmospheric water vapour has increased?
You’ll soon be looking for “signs” and portents.
I did not write that the atmospheric water vapour has increased, just pointing out the physics that as air warms so it can hold more water. It has increased, but the increase varies from place to place and in some places there is a decrease. On the whole there is an increase, and for an example http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v374/n6518/abs/374146a0.html Water vapour increase is most relevant in the lower atmosphere.