debor046

Thanksgiving Day is the fourth Thursday in November so that the date changes each year.   This year it is on the 22 nd which is the earliest that it occurs.   For Christmas shoppers it means you have more time between Thanksgiving and Christmas to get those gifts.   Next year, 2013, Thanksgiving Day will fall on the 28 th which is the latest date that it occurs. The weather can be bitter or balmy or anything in between.   Research by Climate Central shows that in Columbia, SC, the warmest Thanksgiving Day was in 1900 with 81 degrees F.   The coldest temperature recorded has been 21 degrees F in 1970.   It is interesting that 1 inch of snow fell in 1912.   However, there has not been a measurable snowfall on Christmas Day in Columbia. Cli ck on the image for a larger view.  Image credit: Climate Central. Today was a beautiful day across the Midlands.   High pressure was in control and skies were clear.   There air mass was quite dry s...

There have been a number of stories in the media of surviving Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy.   Tragically more than 200 people have lost their lives from the Caribbean to the Northeast.   Sandy was a hurricane as it moved through the Caribbean toward Cuba.   A number of lives were lost in Haiti due to the excessive rains.   The country was still trying to recover from the devastating earthquake in January, 2010.   Sandy has been a setback for the nation. We have seen the images and heard the stories of Sandy from those affected in the Northeast.   There have been two stories that have jumped out at me in the past week.   The first was published here in the New York Times.   Stories like this remind me of the same stories told by hurricane survivors along the Southeast & Gulf coasts.  Why would anyone stay after seeing the devastation brought by Sandy? Oblique aerial photographs of Mantoloking, NJ. View looking west along the New Jersey sh...

The Yale Project on Climate Change Communication and the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University released their survey of the public (as of September 2012) in a bi-annual report.   A staggering 92% of Americans say the President and Congress should make developing sources of clean energy a priority.   The full report can be seen here . The cover for the new report. For the record: I have been working with the Center for Climate Change Communication and Climate Central on the segment at WLTX called Climate Matters.   I am a co-author of two papers now undergoing peer-review with these two organizations.   In addition, the two organizations have been supportive of this blog by occasionally supplying information and graphics.   However, I have not been involved with this survey project. The two groups at Yale and George Mason have been tracking public opinion for some time.   In addition, they have surveyed the opinions of broad...

Extreme weather has always been with us, but the trend over the past few decades has been for it to increase in number.   The Climate Extremes Index (CEI) was developed by the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) and goes back to 1910.   It looks at the number of events that occur.   The graph below compares the period of January through October so that data from this year can be included. The CEI for the period of January - October 1910 - 2012.  Image Credit: NOAA/NCDC. The CEI with the experimental tropical cyclone indicator included.  Image Credit: NOAA/NCDC. A new report recently released (before Hurricane Sandy) by Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurance company, re-enforces this observation.   The report is about the increase in extreme weather over North America.   The report states: Nowhere in the world is the rising number of natural catastrophes more evident than in North America. The study shows a nearly quintupled number of weather-rel...