From World Watch:
The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change”.

A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock’s Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

Click here for the complete story. (pdf)

Posted under Climate

The Washington Post:

WASHINGTON — The snows of Kilimanjaro may soon be gone. The African mountain’s white peak - made famous by writer Ernest Hemingway - is rapidly melting, researchers report.

Posted under Climate

Posted under Climate

Posted under Climate, Precipitation Totals

* A record low temperature of 21 degrees was set at Dubuque breaking the old record of 23 set in 1987.

Posted under Climate, Records, Temperatures

The Met Office has caused a storm of controversy after it was revealed their $30million supercomputer designed to predict climate change is one of Britain’s worst polluters.

The massive machine - the UK’s most powerful computer with a whopping 15 million megabytes of memory - was installed in the Met Office’s headquarters in Exeter, Devon.

It is capable of 1,000 billion calculations every second to feed data to 400 scientists and uses 1.2 megawatts of energy to run - enough to power more than 1,000 homes

Click here for the rest of the story.

Posted under Climate

The combined global land and ocean surface temperature was the second warmest on record in June, behind 2005, and tied with 2004 as the fifth warmest on record for the year-to-date (January-June) period. The global ocean had the warmest June on record. The ranks found in the tables below are based on records that began in 1880. Click here for the complete story and facts.

Posted under Climate

NOAA scientists today announced the arrival of El Niño, a climate phenomenon with a significant influence on global weather, ocean conditions and marine fisheries. El Niño, the periodic warming of central and eastern tropical Pacific waters, occurs on average every two to five years and typically lasts about 12 months.  

NOAA expects this El Niño to continue developing during the next several months, with further strengthening possible. The event is expected to last through winter 2009-10.  

“Advanced climate science allows us to alert industries, governments and emergency managers about the weather conditions El Niño may bring so these can be factored into decision-making and ultimately protect life, property and the economy,” said Jane Lubchenco, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. 

El Niño’s impacts depend on a variety of factors, such as intensity and extent of ocean warming, and the time of year. Contrary to popular belief, not all effects are negative. On the positive side, El Niño can help to suppress Atlantic hurricane activity. In the United States, it typically brings beneficial winter precipitation to the arid Southwest, less wintry weather across the North, and a reduced risk of Florida wildfires.  

El Niño’s negative impacts have included damaging winter storms in California and increased storminess across the southern United States. Some past El Niño’s have also produced severe flooding and mudslides in Central and South America, and drought in Indonesia.  

An El Niño event may significantly diminish ocean productivity off the west coast by limiting weather patterns that cause upwelling, or nutrient circulation in the ocean.  These nutrients are the foundation of a vibrant marine food web and could negatively impact food sources for several types of birds, fish and marine mammals.  

In its monthly El Niño diagnostics discussion today, scientists with the NOAA National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center noted weekly eastern equatorial Pacific sea surface temperatures were at least 1.0 degree C above average at the end of June. The most recent El Niño occurred in 2006.

El Niño includes weaker trade winds, increased rainfall over the central tropical Pacific, and decreased rainfall in Indonesia. These vast rainfall patterns in the tropics are responsible for many of El Niño’s global effects on weather patterns.  

NOAA will continue to monitor the rapidly evolving situation in the tropical Pacific, and will provide more detailed information on possible Atlantic hurricane impacts in its updated Seasonal Hurricane Outlook scheduled for release on August 6, 2009.

Posted under Climate, Long Range Outlook, NOAA

It was a cool way to end June with highs in the 60s and 70s and it looks like another day in the 60s and 70s with clouds to start July. Normal highs for the month of July don’t change 85 or 86 degrees. The lows don’t move much either…61-62.  During the month of August is when the normal temperatures start to drop as we get closer to Fall. Here is a look ahead to the month of July. The forecast maps are from the Climate Prediction Center.

Temperature Outlook

Precipitation Outlook

Posted under Climate, NOAA

Have you ever wanted to take a look at the radar image from last year on this day? How about the year before? Or maybe the year before that? Well, this web page ( Iowa Environmental Mesonet ) now can let you do that. You pick the location, month, day, hour, minute and than click “generate map”. It is that simple.

Posted under Climate, Severe Weather