I almost replied to the thread, reminding these watermen and women of the strange weather patterns we experienced during last summer. I had an urge to remind them of the unusually high tides in the back bays for almost 60 days (due to a slowing of the offshore Atlantic currents,) more persistent northeast winds, disappearance of our normal summer sand bars just off shore. But for the sake of my sanity I refrained from jumping into the 'conversation' knowing that a post on an internet forum always results in painful consequences.
While everyone has been digging out, two environmental writers in the region have posted interesting opinion pieces in both the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post that deserve some attention.
Mike Tidwell, founder and director of Chesapeake Climate Action Network , had this to say in his Baltimore Sun Feb 14 op-ed which makes the point our weird winter weather is due more to high moisture levels rather than lower temperatures.
Tidwell wrote, in part, "Water vapor in the global atmosphere jumped by about 5 percent in the 20th century, reported P.Y. Groisman and his colleagues in 2004. This while there has been an observed, significant uptick in heavy winter precipitation events in the Northeastern U.S., according to a 2006 study. And all the while, global temperatures have risen sharply, including an average warming of 4 degrees F in the Northeastern U.S.
Consider further: We've had "Snowmaggedon" I, II and III this winter not because of record cold weather. The temperatures in our region have been only moderately colder than normal for the Mid Atlantic winter. No, it's because of record amounts of *moisture* here, pushed into our region by repeated Nor'easters. This historic wetness from the south has met cold-enough temperatures here to produce snow levels that neither science nor old-timers can recall.
Just last fall, the U.S. Global Change Research Program, established by Congress in 1990, predicted more violent storms in the Northeast due to climate change. "Strong cold season storms are likely to become stronger and more frequent, with greater wind speeds and more extreme wave heights," the agency said. So, yes, we are getting record winter precipitation events here even as overall temperatures are rising."
Then there was Bill McKibben's op-ed in the Washington Post this week, which furthers the connection between our weird weather patterns and the fact that Global Warming is here to stay.
McKibben commented, "In most places, winter is clearly growing shorter and less intense. We can tell, because Arctic sea ice is melting, because the glaciers on Greenland are shrinking and because a thousand other signals send the same message. Here in the mountains of the Northeast, for instance, lakes freeze later than they used to, and sometimes not at all: Lake Champlain remained open in winter only three times during the 19th century, but it did so 18 times between 1970 and 2007."
McKibben further noted some tasty tidbits from Weather Underground blogger Jeff Masters, who wrote last week that a record snowstorm requires a record amount of moisture in the air. "It is quite possible that the dice have been loaded in favor of more intense Nor'easters for the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, thanks to the higher levels of moisture present in the air due to warmer global temperatures," Masters wrote.
So let's cut out the jokes and take this seriously. Here on Delmarva one of our greatest contributors to global warming is our use of electricity. Our electric power comes from coal generated power plants. Every time you turn on an electric switch, look to the north and watch for the smoke pouring out of the stacks at the NRG plant in Milford, DE.
If we don’t urge our elected officials to support the construction and implementation of an offshore wind farm here in Maryland and get this project moving forward, then all the Surfrider folks might as well kiss those warm summer south swells breaking on outside sand bars goodbye and get used to surfing NE slop on steep beaches.
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