Cambridge University Press

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology may not be meeting WMO, UK, US standards

Since the Australian BOM allows for one second “records”, it’s not clear it is even meeting guidelines recommended for amateurs.

The key question: How much of the warming trend in Australia is due to the switch in the mid 1990s from older slower thermometers to new electronic zippy ones that could record every waft of hot air? How many records today are just noise?

If the BOM would release its calibration and comparison data instead of deleting it, we might know. Why won’t they?

Here’s an example graph from Maryborough where the daily maximum was 1.5C above every thirty minute reading. Yeouch — are we writing outliers and noise into our history books and climate data bases?

Add “sampling method”  and averaging to your skeptical vocabulary. There will be a lot more discussion on these.

Maryborough. Graph by Ken Stewart.

Let’s consider some basic standards in the meteorology world

The Weather Observer’s Handbook 2012 tells us the new electronic sensors are more sensitive than the old mercury thermometers. The author, Stephen Burt, explains that the new electronic sensors can be too sensitive, and […]

via JoNova

http://ift.tt/2xvcx7Y

September 12, 2017 at 09:31AM

If Florida’s transportation were based mostly on electric vehicles, as activists demand, it would quickly come to a standstill in times of hurricanes and mass evacuations. Charging stations would be overwhelmed and millions of lives put at risk.

Good thing we have fossil fuel powered vehicles, which can run and be refueled whenever the power is out. Army National Guard load trucks as they prepare to hand out supplies to people in need. E-vehicles would sit idle and leave millions abandoned and at risk. (U.S. Navy photo from FEMA site, by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Ryan J. Courtade/Released)

E-mobility in times of hurricane would be “a nightmare”

Yesterday Michael Limburg of the Germany-based European Institute for Climate and Energy (EIKE) here posted a brainstorming thought exercise, posing the question of what would the evacuation of Florida look like if most of the cars were electric?

And to take it a step further, what would rescue services today be like if they depended on electric vehicles?

EIKE concludes that it would be “a nightmare!”

“Mass death”

EIKE cites a post by IT expert Hadmut Danisch here, who drove the point home, saying the outcome would be “mass death on the highways“.

Though the discussion rages over the degree to which man may be at fault for hurricanes like Irma, one thing is sure: as long as it’s September, the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico will always be in peak hurricane season with or without man. Powerful hurricanes have always been the case, and always will be.

What has emerged, Limburg writes, is: the better the early warning system is, and the more mobile people are, the less victims you are going to see.

Cars would lose their charge, millions stranded on highway

Imagine if the environmentalists had had their way and had managed to force the US into electric cars…something that is underway now in some countries like Norway, the UK and soon France. Germany recently has been discussing in earnest banning by 2030 the internal combustion engine.

And now imagine with Irma if the millions of Floridians evacuating populated south Florida had had electric cars instead and needed to make the 400-mile journey to get out of harm’s way. After 100 miles or so, these cars would have lost their power and charging stations quickly would have become overrun with cars waiting to make the one-hour charge-up.

Traffic rapidly would have come to a halt. These millions of stranded people then would have been sitting ducks waiting to be blown away by nature’s fury.

Fossil fueled vehicles never need a rest

With fossil fuels, the car’s range is far greater, fueling time is just minutes and extra canisters of fuel also can be easily brought along. Power outages would not interrupt petrol stations because the gas pumps can be easily powered by portable fossil fuel-powered generators.

A hurricane hits. Power lines go down, knocking out the power grid and thus making the charging of vehicles impossible. Solar panels fly off buildings as roofs get torn off. Wind parks automatically turn off because they are not designed to operate in hurricane force winds. Many wind towers simply buckle in the 250 km/hr gusts of wind. The power supply gets destroyed. In summary, solar panels and offshore wind parks in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico would make about as much sense as raising sheep in a wolf-farm.

And as the storm passes, electric cars would remain immobile because the power grid would be knocked out. Recharging vehicles would be impossible. Emergency vehicles also would quickly lose their power charge and thus remain idle. Recovery and clean up efforts would take months, if not years. The toll on human life would be unimaginable.

This is the future of electric mobility.

Today, thanks to fossil fuels, energy is always portable, available and reliable. Fossil fueled vehicles are able to travel great distances, be onsite within a minutes notice, and be refueled quickly. Nuclear and coal power plants stand their ground, and so restoring power is easy.

Floridians have shown that even in the aftermath of the most destructive storms, recovery and a speedy return to business is a matter of days or a few weeks, all thanks to the always dependable and available fossil fuels.

via NoTricksZone

http://ift.tt/2wY52Vs

September 12, 2017 at 09:05AM

North Yorkshire County Council has today agreed planning conditions with Third Energy which will enable the company to begin operations to frack for shale gas in the vicinity of Kirby Misperton.

The conditions relate to traffic management; to the prevention of mud on roads and to the financial commitment required of Third Energy, or any subsequent owner of the site, to deliver the restoration and aftercare of the development.

The county council gave planning consent subject to planning conditions to Third Energy to undertake hydraulic fracturing for shale gas on the Kirby Misperton site over a year ago.

This was a single decision on a single site in North Yorkshire which already has existing conventional drilling for gas on it. The decision does not have a bearing on future applications.

However, local councils must work within the national policy that indigenous oil and gas are key to energy security, while facilitating the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. They must also consider the need for economic growth to provide jobs and sustainable communities.

North Yorkshire’s planning committee was satisfied that in this particular application, mitigation of the effects of the development with regard to safeguarding the natural environment, protected species and habitats, the amenity of local residents, the protection of ground and surface water quality and traffic management could be achieved through the discharge of the planning conditions.

These conditions have now been agreed and will be carefully monitored throughout the operation. Third Energy is today delivering to the county council the formal seven day notification of commencement of development.

Full story

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)

http://ift.tt/2wXHvCr

September 12, 2017 at 08:56AM

By Paul Homewood

As Florida clears up after Hurricane Irma, how does it rank with other major US landfalling hurricanes?

When Irma made landfall on the Keys, it was estimated to have had sustained wind speeds of 115 kt , about 132 mph. (It actually hit the Florida coast as a Cat 3, with winds of 115 mph, but the Florida Keys count as the first landfall).

Since 1851, there have been 14 stronger hurricanes at landfall, and Irma ties with 10 others. In other words, Irma is one of 25 hurricanes as strong or stronger.

http://ift.tt/2xiBWkj

Irma and Harvey have been the only two major hurricanes in the last ten years. The busiest decades were the 1940s and 1890s.

Calculating the number of hurricanes across the whole Atlantic basin is more problematic, because of the lack of aircraft and satellite observations in early years.

To address this, NOAA’s Atlantic Hurricane Database Re-analysis Project has attempted to reconstruct the numbers. The orange line reflects this:

http://ift.tt/2fZkfvN

As far as we can see, there is no significant trend in the number of hurricanes. What we can quite clearly see is the influence of the AMO:

http://ift.tt/2xhBeDI 

The latest news from Florida suggests damage is much less than originally feared, even on the Keys. In particular, the powerful storm surge never really emerged, and Tampa escaped relatively unscathed.

Ironically, the worst of the flooding seems to have occurred up in Jacksonville, as a result of rainfall.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

http://ift.tt/2eSTF7j

September 12, 2017 at 08:45AM