Friday, January 13, 2012
snow Boise State Scientist: Don't Link Dry Spell to Global Warming
Posted by Annette Rincon on Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 11:36 AM
With no significant snow accumulation expected for the Treasure Valley anytime soon, precipitation (or the lack thereof) remains Southwest Idaho's No. 1 topic of concern.
But Boise State geoscience professor Hans-Peter Marshall urges caution before weather watchers link the dry spell to global warming.
“We have to be careful at assuming it's global warming," Marshall told Citydesk. "The recent wind, precipitation and warmer temperatures do not prove the climate is warming.”
In fact, Marshall readily points to other spots across the globe that are receiving generous amounts of snow.
“In Alaska, they are being pounded with snow," said Marshall. "And most of Europe is having an above-average year. Areas of higher elevation like [Idaho's] Sawtooths are around 50-70 percent average for snowfall.”
Marshall stressed the importance of looking at overall, long-term weather patterns.
“Last year, there was a lot of snow late in the season and a dry spell in the middle, so we came out about average,” he said. "Weather conditions are going to change, that’s a given. These types of things happen.”
Comments (9)
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This dry spell is no more evidence of global warming then last year's nasty winter is evidence against global warming.
There is a huge difference between local weather and global climate. Educate yourselves people.
Sorry GoVandals but despite your Idaho bias, yes, Boise State University has scientists. In fact, Professor Marshall has won a Cryosphere Young Investigator Award for his work with frequency modulated continuous wave radar for snow in the US, among other things.
He's also the current featured podcast on Boise State's Beyond the Blue program on the topic of geophysics and snow science. If you're willing to get past your Vandal fanaticism, you should give it a listen and learn a little: http://beyondtheblue.boisestate.edu/blog/2012/01/09/hp-marshall/
Full disclosure: I went to both University of Idaho and Boise State University and after graduating, I'm working with the latter.
Hmm. The renowned W.M. Keck Foundation would beg to differ with GoVandal's comment, given their recent $1 Million grant to Boise State's leading Nanotechnology research.
What is the point of this article? Of course this dry winter doesn't conclusively prove global warming. Do you need to be a science nerd to understand that? Jesus Christ.
Furthermore, science has pointed us to a place where we understand that global warming does exist and it is probably our fault. The real questions are: how are we going to live on a warmer globe? What actions should we as a species take to alleviate the negative rammifications of global warming?
Global warming doesnt mean that the temperature will simply be a little warmer...it means severe weather phenomena such as increased snowfall in Alaska, or tornados in Massachusetts, or whatever story is increasingly painted on headlines. The phrase 'global warming' should not be taken so literally.
Let's have a conversation about that, not about whether global warming exists. Let's do the right thing and assume that it does.
Why is this so-called "scientist" referring to anything as "global warming"? Global climate change is the more correct terminology. This is just an uneducated article by a reporter who asked the wrong questions. Thanks, BW.
Enough with this global warming crap!!! Lets call it climate change, the weather is strange all over the planet, some places warmer and some places are colder just because our localized weather is warmer and/or colder doesn't prove a thing, look and the climate as a whole for Christ sake get your head out of the box and use science for something useful.
I certainly agree that global climate change is a much better term. I was specifically asked by the reporter if this winter was caused by global warming, and I was trying to make the point that year to year variations are extremely large and one individual year doesn't tell us anything about changes in global climate, and that there is a big difference between local weather and global climate. One cold winter doesn't mean climate change isn't happening either. The title of this article is a bit misleading.
I absolutely agree with 99.9% of the scientific community that humans are causing a change to our climate, and on time scales longer than one individual year we will certainly see increases in global temperature and changes in global precipitation patterns. And I'm definitely not a "shrill from the Right", quite the opposite.
Check out the range of snow and ice projects our group is doing, funded by NASA, NSF, and the Idaho Transportation Department at http://earth.boisestate.edu/cryogars
-HP Marshall, Geosciences Department, BSU
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