Random thoughts concerning the weather!

2012 – Farewell!

Yet another in a string of strange weather years for the southwest Missouri area. According to the National Weather Service located in Springfield Missouri, 2012 was the 2^nd warmest and the 10^th driest year on record. We also remained in a moderate to severe drought situation depending on exactly where you called home. Now, with 2013 just beginning, lots of people who depend on moderate temperatures and plentiful amounts of rainfall are watching to see what develops!

Micro-weather stations are very cool!

All across the country weather enthusiasts, young and old, have shelled out good money to erect so-called micro-weather stations that fed their data into popular sites like the Weather Underground! By going to the radar display and selecting Wundermaps, you can observe any of thousands of stations, many of which will no doubt be close to where you live. Another piece of software, you can download called the Weather Exchange, can provide you with a quick summary of local stations in an informative display right on your desktop. This is a great little app to have displayed when conditions outside get a little on the wild side!

Global warming! I wonder….

Anyone who is not stone cold dead is probably aware that our world is warming up. At least that is the opinion of many scientists and lay persons of some note. After all, a warming planet could mean a rapid melting of the ice in Polar Regions. And, thus, many coastal locations in America as well as other countries are worried about the effects that a rising sea level would have on their lives.

But here’s the real reason to worry. Even the most educated climatic scientists will admit that the complexity of the earth’s environmental systems are far beyond the keen of mere men. The truth be told, nobody really knows what the effect of seven billion people; living, breathing, defecating and otherwise interacting will have on the planet over the next one or two decades. All they do know is that carbon dioxide levels (currently at 392 ppm) are already way above anything seen in the last million years and that other planet warmers like methane are being to get added to the atmosphere in breath-taking (literally) amounts! One scientist put it as well as any, I think, when he was heard to remark, ‘Something’s going to pop, we just don’t know what, when or where!’