[clomoll]

Floody hell! Why is the weather so bad?
ITN - Tuesday, July 24 01:41 pmThe floods that have wreaked havoc on the UK for much of the summer can be blamed on an errant jet stream, according to climate experts.

The jet stream is a band of fast-moving air which is created when southern warm air collides with northern cold air at about 30,000 feet.
Its position has a large bearing on UK weather and this year it has not moved as far north as it usually does.
Meteorologist Marco Petagna said: "This year it has been much further south for much of the summer and we have seen areas of low pressure right across the UK."
Low pressure, which tends to accompany the jet stream, has caused the heavy rainfall.
Another theory for the relentless bad weather is that the Azores high - a band of high pressure over the mid-Atlantic that normally pushes north into the UK during the summer - has been prevented from doing so by the jet stream.
Mr Petagna said there were many possible explanations about why the jet stream is behaving this way but one is that the La Nina phenomenon in the Equatorial Pacific may be to blame.
The La Nina is the opposite climactic phase to its more famous sibling, El Nino. Both operate in the South Pacific and on the west coast of South America and while El Nino is a warming of the waters there, La Nina is characterised by unusually cold sea temperatures.
"Both can influence the weather across the globe," said Mr Petagna. "It is similar to the butterfly effect, or chaos theory."
He said both phenomena were linked to climate change - another possible explanation for the inclement UK weather.
Mr Petagna warned that Britain could expect further misery in the next few days with another area of low pressure arriving from the west to bring heavy rain to southern and south eastern areas of the country.
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Floody hell! Why is the weather so bad?

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[Shipsyspeepay]

Whilst not directly caused by "global warming", the scale of the flooding could be increased by it. More water in the atmosphere, due to warmer seas (more evaporation) mean more rain falling when it does come down.

[fedordzen]

Quote, originally posted by Superfresa »
La Nia (Nina)
or
El Nio (Nino)
BTW, I've come across a lot of people who dont believe in Global Warming. Mainly because people dont believe what they dont want to have to deal with.
People I know think the Earth warms itself up and restarts life every thousands of years. Apparentally its scientifically proven...

[KacypeJeope]

Quote, originally posted by Mr. Fusion »
People I know think the Earth warms itself up and restarts life every thousands of years. Apparentally its scientifically proven...
lol no, life does not restart.
what has been proven is cyclical weather change from heating to cooling, and back to heating, over and over during the history of the earth, not 6000 years as some here may believe, but over hundreds of millions of years.
although it is true that it is warmning up, the use of fossil fuels is speeding up the warming, which in turn causes global warming.

[sirmzereigMix]

Quote, originally posted by Mr. Fusion »People I know think the Earth warms itself up and restarts life every thousands of years. Apparentally its scientifically proven...
No offense meant, but apparently the people you've been talking to are idiots.
Also, a little bit of advise. If you're going to say something is scientifically proven, then be prepared to provide that proof.

[Shipsyspeepay]

Exactly. Most scientific opinion is on the side of the CO2 link to global warming. However, there are some that contend that the rise CO2 levels is caused by an increase in average global temperature rather than the other way around. (see : http://mysite.verizon.net/mhie....html)
The temperature rise could be caused by other factors, such as sun-spot activity or tilting of the axes of the rotation of the earth or some other, unknown cause.

[fedordzen]

Quote, originally posted by Santeno »
No offense meant, but apparently the people you've been talking to are idiots.
Also, a little bit of advise. If you're going to say something is scientifically proven, then be prepared to provide that proof.
I know. I had a massive arguement with my brother about this. I believe we are messing up the planet anfd it doesn't mess itself up lol

[Shipsyspeepay]

It's just not as cut and dried as that. Does man-made CO2 cause the greenhouse effect that leads to global warming, or is the cyclical rise in the earth's temperature (sunspots?) causing a rise in CO2 from natural sources?
Ever heard of Global Dimming (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_dimming)? That's where pollutants in the upper atmosphere filter out incoming sunlight and actually cool the earth. This can cause other undesirable effects, such as the shifting of seasonal monsoon rains, which has lead to droughts in Africa for example. But on the other hand, it has slowed down Global Warming over the past few decades. So does that mean that some pollution is actually a good thing?