Can moon cycles predict droughts, wet weather?

Quad-City Times, Davenport, IA ^ | Sunday, July 16, 2006 | Associated Press

[SunkenCiv]

Louis Thompson says he's learned to keep quiet when Iowa's crops begin to wither. For decades, the retired soil scientist had been forming his moon theory to explain widespread drought every couple decades, but he says critics prefer to use other explanations... The statistics, after all, are eerily accurate. Thompson has studied weather and crop records for almost 50 years and his research at Iowa State University pointed him to an 18.6-year cycle of drought and rainy weather that coincides with the moon's path around the Earth. When the moon's orbit is at its northernmost track above the equator -- as it is now -- the Corn Belt is due for a drought, Thompson says... S. Elwynn Taylor, an Iowa State University Extension climatologist, says... [t]ree ring records going back 800 years in parts of the United States show the cycle has been amazingly consistent.

[SunkenCiv]

Anyone here ever use the Old Farmer's Almanac? :')

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Domestic Church for the link in FReepmail.

This is of interest because of the possible impact back into ancient and prehistoric times. Ernest, you might find this pingworthy.

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[coconutt2000]

I bet Bush and Rove pushed the moon into a higher orbit to change the weather...

[SunkenCiv]

It was Jim Carrey.

[SunkenCiv]

ah, why not?

[ConservativeMind]

Interesting.

[Rembrandt]

The name "Lewis Thompson" must be a pseudonym for Algore, he of the moon barking set.

[Salamander]

Google "Metonic cycle".

[Salamander]

LOL!

[CobaltBlue]

Reminds me of the Old Testament, seven years of fat, seven years of lean.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks. "Metonic cycle":

Google

[SunkenCiv]

:')

A seven-year regulation of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation 3,700 years ago
D.Qu, M. K. Gagan,
W.S.Hantoro, B.W. Suwargadi

The oxygen isotopic composition of coral aragonite offers a robust proxy of ENSO variability because it is sensitive to both the oceanic and atmospheric components of ENSO. Corals from the island of Sumba, Indonesia, are well situated to record the sea-surface cooling and droughts brought about by El Niño events... We have extended this approach to produce a high-resolution, 57-year-long coral d18O record of past ENSO variability from a fossil coral that grew within the fringing reef of Sumba 3,700 years ago... Our results suggest that El Niño events were less frequent and more regular 3,700 years ago, relative to the unpredictable 3-8 year periodicity for modern El Niño events. The seven-year regulation of El Niño is fascinating because it suggests that, under certain background climate states, El Niño events may be predicted years in advance.

[SunkenCiv]

The name "Lewis Thompson" must be a pseudonym for Algore, he of the moon barking set.

Not remotely -- Gore's part of the new Lysenkoism; Louis Thompson ascribes climate to natural rather than artificial causes.

[SunkenCiv]

Mock

yeah

ing

yeah

bird

yeah

yeah

yeah

Mock-ing-bird...

[MizSterious]

Don't be silly. Assuming that because the word "moon" appears only shows a lack of understanding. You don't have to be a new age fluff-bunny of an astrologer to work with lunar cycles. Great astronomers have done so for hundreds of years.

That said, there are also important sun-spot cycles that might play into drought cycles as well--I do know that some scientists (not moonbats, mind you) are concluding that the sun spot cycles are involved in the cycles of planet warming and cooling (sorry, Al, it doesn't seem to be about driving cars after all).

[MizSterious]

It's not "impending doom." It's a cycle. That means that there are years of drought, and years of good rain, and this fellow might have a useable way to predict which is which. It helps in planning crops, water useage, and other activities. The nice thing about cycles is, just wait awhile, and it changes. It's not "doom."

[MizSterious]

Some words disappeared from my post--it should have read:

"Assuming that because the word "moon" appears somewhere it means it's about airy-fairy stuff only shows a lack of understanding."

[wyattearp]

7+7=18.6

Got it.

[DungeonMaster]

Moon cycles

I saw the title and thought this was another nude biker thread.

[Salamander]

*sigh*

That is a FR "running joke" graphic.

Perhaps if you'd read it in context of the post to which it was a *reply*, you'd have seen that.

If nothing else, my advice to Google 'metonic cycle' should've been a tipoff to the sarcasm, therein.

This guy is simply 'discovering' what's been known by "primitives" for a very long time.
Ancient cultures have been using the metonic cycle to "predict" agricultural trends for millennia.

For instance, part of the arrangement of Stonehenge keeps track of the metonic cycle.