NOAA graphic of 2009 Atlantic hurricane season; click for larger imageWhere has all the weather gone?
The Atlantic hurricane season has now ended with no hurricane having made landfall in the United States. The 2009 season was the slowest since 1997. See Slow Atlantic Hurricane Season Comes to a Close. Despite predictions of a "strong tornado season" in 2009, tornadoes continue to occur well below the long-term average.
NOAA Tornado Trend chart; click on image for larger versionThis is not the way it is supposed to be, at least according to global-warming theorists. For years, we have been promised more and more bad weather, stronger "Cat-5" storms, and unprecedented spates of tornadoes. Could it be that the climate situation is far more complex than has been presented and that the dire consequences predicted by global-warming adherents don't follow from the observable data?
On the one hand, I do conclude that the activities of mankind have an impact on our environment. This has been true since humans learned to fell trees and to cultivate fields for crops, many millennia ago. During the first 200 years of American settlement, most of the great eastern forest was clear-cut, and relatively little was left to regrow; had this not occurred, the climate of the Atlantic Coast states would be very different than it is today. On the other hand, nature has ways of re-balancing itself which are often beyond our ken. Volcanic eruptions have saturated the atmosphere with sulfates, carbon dioxide, and particulates, causing short-term difficulties which then resolved.
Artic Sea Ice Extent; click on image for larger viewSo I remain a global-warming "skeptic." Until the climate-change models have real predictive value, they are not a legitimate basis for making social and economic policy. At this point, they less reliable than my copy of the Old Farmer's Almanac, which was right on point for November in my bailiwick, by the way -- mild, with average to somewhat above average precipitation. For the past decade, the climate seems to have been on a plateau; temperatures overall are somewhat cooler, icecaps are melting but sea ice, while lower than "normal," is holding its own, hurricanes and tornadoes are not laying waste to the coasts or the heartland. The earth and its climate are dynamic systems which we do not sufficiently understand and we need to take a more humble view of the matter than has been exhibited by the political class, both left and right.
RELATED ARTICLE: Where Has All The Weather Gone?
Wednesday, May 5, 2010 at 07:30AM 
This past Sunday we went to Little Creek Cove and hiked up the old wagon road which once ran up along the creek and up the ridge, crossing into the next valley. Most of the old road was closed long ago, but the lower section is still privately maintained. Along the way there are wildflowers in bloom and views of the creek in full flow. A different perspective from hiking the high road at The Breaks the day before. ;)
Dogwoods in bloom along old wagon road;)
More dogwoods in bloom;)
Meandering feeder creek;)
Wildflowers in bloom;)
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Little Creek;)
Old-style footbridge;)
Skunk cabbage growing in boggy area;)
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Little Creek, emerging from a laurel bed;)
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