Posted on 09/26/2005 12:38:01 PM PDT by AFPhys
...Hurricanes are...bigger...meaner...more numerous than many people have seen...[not]global warming,experts warn.
...Mayfield,director,National Hurricane Center...period of heightened hurricane activity"...since'95...natural fluctuations...cycles...driven by the Atlantic Ocean itself...not enhanced substantially by global warming"...recent studies about global warming and hurricanes raise more questions than they answer...indicate global warming could increase hurricane wind speeds...5%---100 years from now.
...Union of Concerned scientist...[said]making them more intense...recent studies...carbon dioxide is raising ocean temperatures."...converting low-grade storms into powerful hurricanes..."
...not all hurricane experts...link...global warming and hurricanes...saying,past two seasons signal a return to normal.
"From 1970-95...weren't...many hurricanes,[except]nice,well-mannered,housebroken hurricanes that stayed out to sea and didn't make a mess,"Willoughby,hurricane researcher...
"This year...nature is averaging out its climatology,"...famed hurricane predictor,William Gray.
Katrina and Rita..."Bahama busters,"...explode after feeding on the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.Even Katrina's and Rita...has a precedent...1915...New Orleans and Houston...hit by Cat.4 storms six weeks apart.
"You can't blame that on global warming,"...By 1997,Gray's annual forecasts warned of "a new era" of hurricanes...driven by cycles of rising water temperature and salinity...technical name for the engine driving the hurricane cycles is the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation..."...has been repeating back to the Ice Age," Willoughby said."It's related to changes in the ocean currents that move heat northward. If it's fast, we get a lot of hurricanes."...AMO was cool--and the currents slower--from 1900-25,warm from 1926-69,cool from 1970-94,warm since 1995...to a generation of Americans with little experience with hurricanes,it seems like these monsters are coming out of nowhere.
"...just entering a busy time here,"...Lauer[NHC]meteorologist...Willoughby...open mind about the role of global warming but believes it won't be a factor for at least another 100 years..."The answer I give everybody, because it has all been so politicized, is I don't know," he said.
Gray was more direct. "There are all these medicine men out there who want to capitalize on general ignorance on this subject," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Rita was a 105 KT hurricane when it landed...which equates out to about 120 MPH or CAT 3
Bump for later read.
Makes sense
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