Domain: dri.edu
Stories and comments across the archive that link to dri.edu.
Comments · 11
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Re:There's your problem!
The wet bulb temperature is above 31C most of the fucking time in Vegas. How many die? Hmmmm.
No it isn't, the average annul wet bulb temperature is 50.7 F (10.3C) and the average in July is 65F (18.3C). Don't forget Las Vegas is dry so there is considerable cooling by evaporation
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Re: Amazing
Wrong
Not even the driest year in the last 120 http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/
1924 for the win
Not wrong. Nice straw man argument by you though. The article specifically said "there is no three-year period when California's rainfall has been as low and its temperatures as hot as they have been from 2012 to 2014, the researchers found". Three year period, not one.
But even in the article you posted it says "California in 2013 received less rain than in any year since it became a state in 1850." So now you're being contradicted by your own post.
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Re: Amazing
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Re:Show me a climate model for the past 16 years
It's well known that (...)
And I'm sure you are the very first to ever remind a hundred thousand scientists in the field of climate and weather of something that's well known... *facepalm*
Also, 3 minutes with Google debunk your "there are no remote weather monitoring stations" bullshit:
They're all over the place.
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Re:Stop
I'm currently on Hydro power and Wind power. Don't assume my lack of solar is due to burning cheap coal. On the West coast of the US, there is little coal and the transportation cost over the continental divide is expensive. About 1/2 our days are not sunny. I stated this. Due to this Hydro is a good option.
Places without cheap hydro and wind pay much higher electrical rates, even where sun is plentiful. Don't be ignorant. Do your homework and learn the facts.
Look up Portland Oregon which is near me. Less than 1/2 the days are sunny. 68 days per year.
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/westcomp.clr.html -
Re:Ya right! Give me a break!Average amount of clear days is a more meaningful figure then just focusing on temperature. Here are some figure for the western USA. http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/westcomp.clr.html [dri.edu]
Just looking at two of the high figures, Yuma AZ has 242 clear days a year, and Las Vegas NV has 210/year. Note that the amount of energy available does not drop to zero on partly or even fully cloudy days, it is just reduced. Some energy may have to be expended to keep the biomass in the collectors from getting too cold at night, but this is not likely to be a huge amount.
These areas in the southwest are not agricultural areas, so we are not talking about replacing current cropland with solar facilities. There is a different problem here: where does the CO2 and water come from? This is the question no matter where the solar farm is located. In existing agricultural areas water can come from the same source as water for crops, but the C02 still has to come from somewhere.
If the CO2 is from existing fossil fuel plants then we would want to locate close to existing generating plants, which might not have the best amount of daylight. Still, extracting more energy from burning fossil fuel before it is released into the atmosphere is good with respect to global warming.
The real win would be to recycle CO2 from the atmosphere, which would render the process carbon neutral. If this could also be done with photosynthesis it could be a huge win, and then the farms could be anywhere there is sun and water. Note the claim that the water can be brackish or even salt water, so it could be done in coastal areas all over the world. With crude oil over $90 a barrel on a routine basis, this could be half as efficient as the claims and still be competitive.
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Re:Store in a water tower
We're talking about Oregon here, you know the state. The one that's virtually half desert, so your water would evaporate, and half Rainforest (exaggeration I know) so pumping water becomes redundent http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/pcpn/or.gif. In this case batteries aren't pretty or effeicent but ther might be the best choice.
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Re:Heat
Average high in LA in July: 84
Average low in LA in December: 50
Annual average precipitation in LA: 14 inches
Average high in Vegas in July: 104.1
Average low in Vegas in December: 36.6
Annual average precipitation in Vegas: 4.5 inches
The reason Vegas gets criticized more than other desert cities is that it sells itself as a place without a culture, an artificial paradise without the need for traditional morals, where you don't have to worry about anything... and it bathes in that sentiment. How long could a single fake venetian canal support the people of the city? The place has quadrupled in size in the last generation - a boomtown where the sole resource is the trivial lack of a few moralizing inhibitions.
All of the desert cities are threatened as the water and the fossil fuels run out, but Vegas is at the pinnacle of unsustainability - its population would flee if given a few libertarian governors in other states, or a single dam failure, or a continuation of the last decade's draught, or a significant decrease in the Colorado River's flow due to water usage upstream, or a major recession, or a few years of $5-$10/gallon gasoline, or a dozen other things. -
Re:OT: Clouds as bacterial colonies?
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Some of the fun ones have already been posted.The US Census has tons of great info, as does the USDA Nutrition Database. Mortality stats gathered by the CDC are fun in a morbid kind of way.
:)There are some great collections of historical climate data out there for free. Here's a source for the Western US (a similiar compilation for the entire US would be great). Some earthquake data can be found here.
Heck, just enter "raw data" into google, along with your topic of choice, and have fun.
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Re:IdiotsYes, floating algae would give up its carbon when it rotted into the air. But some of it sinks.
And the ocean has more than algae. Plankton consists of many creatures, many of which build shells. Carbonate shells. The same stuff as the white cliffs of Dover. That stuff sinks. Some of it also dissolves at a certain depth.
What happens to fish skeletons? And fish waste? Sinks.