To put some perspective on the scale of water vapor and trace gas CO2 in our atmosphere, let’s compare the two in terms of rainfall from Hurricane Florence alone over the Carolinas and surrounding area.
Surely with man’s fossil fuel profligacy, the emitted CO2 must by far outweigh the water vapor associated with a single storm.
18 trillion gallons of rain
According to hurricane expert Dr. Ryan Maue, some 18 trillion gallons of water vapor could fall as rain from Hurricane Florence over the Carolinas’ region:
Forecast for total rainfall during next 7-days (data from @NWSOPC) is still roughly 10 trillion gallons for North Carolina.
Add in adjacent states that will also be impacted by #Florence gets up to about 18 Trillion total. pic.twitter.com/hpfHeJLA6o
— Ryan Maue | weathermodels.com (@RyanMaue) September 14, 2018
To better imagine the scale of this, that’s roughly 2400 one-gallon milk jugs for every man, woman and child on the planet.
70 billion metric tonnes
18 trillion gallons is roughly 70 trillion kg of water mass, which is 70 billion metric tonnes of water vapor in the atmosphere which will end up getting dumped on a few states over a few days by Florence.
Double the weight of human CO2 emissions in one year
How does this compare to human CO2 emissions into the atmosphere?
Globally and ANNUALLY, man emits about 36 billion metric tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. That means the water vapor falling as rain over the Carolinas’ region from Florence is double the weight of CO2 man emits into the atmosphere in an entire YEAR.
Human CO2 amounts pales in comparison to the daily global water vapor variations the planet sees. Clearly water vapor dwarfs CO2 in the atmosphere. Claiming that CO2 is the main driver is as silly as claiming President Trump is complicit in creating Florence.
via NoTricksZone
September 15, 2018 at 06:05AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 