Poll Results: Rush Limbaugh’s “Polar Vortex”… Do Record Breaking Cold Temperatures Prove Global Warming Is A Hoax? Of course we all know that global warming is a hoax. Absolutely 100 percent true! Im a meteorologist with roughly 34 years experience in this field since about 1980. Recently Rush Limbaugh had a poll about the climate change issue. Although Rush has many strengths as a talk show host, some corrections need to be pointed out in terminology and how the questions should be phrased. The corrected poll questions on the Rush Limbaugh site concerning the climate issue should read: Do you think climate change is real or a hoax? Climate change is always real - a natural cycle of change for hundreds of millions of years - going from ice ages to interglacial warm periods in a dependable, predictable manner. Climate is driven by many factors, most importantly, solar and volcanic activity, changes in oceanic conditions, (ENSO and PDO cycles) cosmic radiation changes and the long term ice age cycles. Do you think global warming is a hoax? Yes. As many of us know, we have had an overall cooling for about 2,000 years now. In the short term, (modern era) weve had a climatic cooling since 1940, with the exception of minor variations between 1975 and 2000. In detail, there was a distinct climatic cooling from 1940 thru 1975 - then warmed slightly (by just a few tenths F) thru 1980 due to changes in the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) to the warm phase. After that, the 1980s showed little change in average temperature as well as most of the 1990s, according to reliable satellite data. Since 2000 however, there has been a more significant climatic cooling once again, now approaching that of the little ice age which has started in 2014. Record polar ice extent, record snows and record cold are all on the increase in the last decade now across all continents. During the last year alone, (going back 360 days) the number of record lows has exceeded the number of record high temps by over 11,000 in the USA alone! Data can be found here ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/datatools/records or iceagenow.info/2014/03/record-cold-outnumbering-record-warm-temps-u-s/ Does the Polar Vortex exist? Yes. The Polar Vortex is a real meteorological term in existence for many decades. It is defined as the large-scale cyclonic circulation in the mid and upper troposphere (basically at 500mb) centered generally in the polar regions. Specifically, the vortex has 2 centers in the mean, one near Baffin Island,Canada and the other in NE Siberia. The associated cyclonic wind systems (polar and mid latitude jet streams) comprises the westerlies of middle latitudes. The location and southward movement of the PV has a direct influence on the position of the arctic and polar jet across the northern hemisphere, often resulting in a flow of very cold arctic air far to the south during times of anomalous southward extent. The position of the PV can be determined by examining upper air charts at 500DM (18,000ft) and locating atmospheric thicknesses a that level. For instance, the 540DM line is the 0C line at 5,000 feet, often known as the rain/snow line at the surface. If those thickness lines reach below 486DM, it indicates a pool of very cold arctic air in the center of that closed low. The center of coldest air at 500DM associated with the PV can reach as low as 468DM in the extreme - indicative of extreme low values - indicating the coldest temps in that location. If this center of lowest thicknesses (coldest air temps) moves all the way into the lower 48 states, one could expect surface temps in the -40 to -55F range in that locale - more typical of conditions in Northern Canada. If there is sufficient blocking upstream, such as strong ridging in Greenland or northern Canada (known as -NAO) in winter, the PV can be displaced far to the south of its typical location. In this scenario, the polar trough will extend far to the south into the southern and eastern U.S - sometimes for weeks at a time - providing sufficient ridging (+PNA) exists in the western U.S. Here was the actual poll from Rush Limbaugh: personalliberty/poll-results-do-record-breaking-cold-temperatures-prove-global-warming-is-a-hoax/
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 02:25:12 +0000
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