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Tropical Storm Zeta Forms in Atlantic
APSR writes "Even though the Atlantic hurricane season official ends on November 30th, more storms can form and still count towards the total for the year!
According to MSN.com Weather News, Tropical Storm Zeta was formed in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean on December 30th. This storm extends the record-breaking 2005 season to 27 storms, and it's the 6th storm named using the Greek alphabet.
According to Wikipedia, Zeta is the latest a tropical cyclone was formed in the Atlantic, forming around 11 AM ET; this dethrones Hurricane Alice of 1954, which formed December 30th around 2 AM ET. The storm itself will continue to strengthen for 12-24 hours, then weaken; it will not likely make landfall." We've already set records this year, as previously reported.
So how was hurricane Alice named? It can't have been the first one of the year if it was on December 30.
Again last night I had that strange dream
Where everything was exactly how it seemed
Where concerns about the world getting warmer
The people thought they were just being rewarded
For treating others as they'd like to be treated
For obeying stop signs and curing diseases
For mailing letters with the address of the sender
Now we can swim any day in November
Actually, an intresting view, 3 of the 5 major green house gases (accounting for 97% of the total climate forcing gases) have leveled off or declined since the early 1990's. See for yourself http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Major_greenhous e_gas_trends.png
The NOAA link I give above notes that in 1933 there were 21 named storms. So apparently they were recording and naming them seventy years ago. When exactly is it that you're claiming "we only used to record hurricanes"?
Here is the thing.
Tropical storms could not be completely detected in 1933. Only ones that reached land in an area that shared information with the United States.
Not all reached land, and not all reached land that shared info with the US. What you have to realise is that technology for detecting these things has improved.
It is like the fallacy that cancer rates have risen since the middle ages. In the middle ages people fell ill and died. They were presumed to have been in ill health, or taken by various other reasons. But not recorded as cancer deaths even if they were recorded at all. Only visible cancers were detected, and others were not.
It has only been since the age of satellites that can record all weather realtime that we can tell what is a tropical storm.
So in 1933 there were 21 named storms. How many unnamed ones that did not get noticed were there? I put it to you that there were many more. If you think there were less then you are naive.
Paranoia is fear without reason. However, there are reasons to be concerned. It's plain to see the glacial retreats all over the world. It's also pretty obvious that the permafrost in the Sibera, Alaska, and northern Canada are thawing. It's also obvious that the forest line has been moving northward as well. The sea surface temperatures world-wide have been increasing. Warmer water aquatic animals have been trekking further northward (and southward). And yes, the weather has been straying from the "norms". Now maybe it's just coincidence that all this happens to coincide with the rapid industrialization of the planet, but I doubt it. But let's say this is just part of the natural cycle. In that case, we certainly are not helping the situation. Regardless, we need to start thinking about how this will impact the planet because it's going to happen and will happen quickly. And to correct your statement, excess energy does cause storms. If the Earth can't radiate the heat off into space, it has to go somewhere. Since most of the earth is covered by water, a majority of this excess energy goes into oceans. Ocean temps strongly impact weather. You can figure out the rest. All that aside, when would YOU start to take action? When the sea levels raise by 5 feet? When England and northern Europe no longer have "summer" due to the gulf stream being weakend? When an averge hurricane season has 30 storms a year? By that point, it's already far too late to do anything about it. Some scientist already think it's too late and are recommending we begin preparing for the climate changes. About 5,000 years ago there was a rapid global climactic shift that destroyed several civilizations. While I believe technologically we could definately survive such a change now, just imagine the problems that would be caused if the US midwest turned into a desert and bread costs $30.00 a loaf. ~X~
~X~