Eastern U.S. Escaped the World’s Fourth Warmest January, Reports Climatologist
Grants Pass, OR (PRWEB) February 28, 2014 -- January 2014 was the fourth warmest in the history of global weather records, according to Climatologist L. DeWayne Cecil, PhD. The near record warmth included much of the Western United States. The Eastern United States, with temperatures well below normal, was one of the few areas to escape the extreme warm temperatures. How much of this recent is human caused is debatable but, according to Cecil, both the warm weather and the cold weather reflect a changing and more extreme global climate.
The globally syndicated Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water® radio show, with host Sharon Kleyne, is heard on VoiceAmerica and Apple iTunes. Kleyne is also Founder of Bio-Logic Aqua Research, a water and health research and product development center. Natures Tears® EyeMist®, a 100% pure water mist, is the Research Center’s global signature product for dry eyes.
L. DeWayne Cecil, PhD, has had a distinguished career as a Climatologist and Atmospheric Scientist in academic, government and private research settings. He has been employed as a researcher for the USGS Water Resources Discipline, the NASA Earth Observation Satellite program, Director of NOAA’a Western Region Climate Services and most recently, Chief Climatologist for Global Science and Technology, Inc.
Dr. Cecil is a frequent Sharon Kleyne Hour guest reporting on topics relating to weather and the atmosphere.
Kleyne noted that unlike the Eastern United States, which has been experiencing bitterly cold temperatures and numerous blizzards, the weather in Grants Pass, Oregon, where her show originates, has been unusually warm and dry. According to Kleyne, as of February 26, 2014, the local ski area, Ski Ashland, had not yet opened and has only an 11-inch snow base. The previous latest opening, since the ski area was built in 1963, was February 14. The area normally opens in early December. The normal snow base for late February is about 60 inches.
These extreme weather events, according to Dr. Cecil, underscore the need for improved long-term weather forecasting, and the forecasting of emerging trends in water resources and vegetative cover. This information benefits industry, agriculture and social planning. The data is especially useful in areas that experience frequent drought. In the United States, long-term drought used to be confined to the West but now includes Georgia, Alabama and parts of Florida. Climate scientists hope to eventually be able to accurately predict the weather up to two years in advance.
Dr. Cecil explained that if Earth were the size of a basketball, the atmosphere would be the thickness of a sheet of paper. That makes it quite sensitive. Climatologists have learned that any climate change, whether cyclical or long term, and whether human caused or natural, creates an atmospheric energy buildup. As a result, if there is extreme warmth in one region, there will be extreme cold in another, and if there is extreme draught in one region, there will be extreme precipitation in another.
China and Australia were cited by Dr. Cecil as illustrative of the cyclical nature of global climate change and the impact on humans. Australia had experienced drought for the past 13 years but the last two years have been very wet.
In China, according to Dr. Cecil, the most noticeable impact of climate change occurs in the nation’s many mega-cities. There is more atmospheric pollution around mega-cities, and more people living in them to suffer the consequences. Atmospheric pollution tends to create drought because it inhibits the natural ability of gasified water vapor that evaporates from the Earth’s surface, from reaching the upper atmosphere and forming clouds and raindrops.
Mikaylah Roggasch, Bio Logic Aqua Research-Rogue Media, +1 (800) 367-6478, [email protected]
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