Warmer Summers, Cooler Winters
Scientists struggle to understand why warmer
summers often lead to cooler winters.
Summary: Warmer summers in the far Northern Hemisphere are the
cause for the more frequent severe winter weather in the U. S. and
Europe, a team of scientists says. Blizzards and extreme cold
temperatures during the winters of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 caused
such widespread travel woes in the U. S. and Europe, some people
were led to question the theory of global warming.
Judah Cohen, lead author of a study published in Environmental
Research Letters, found a clear trend of strong Arctic warming during
summer months, which should have resulted in a warmer winter as well.
This was not always the case. The counter-intuitive discovery suggests
the world’s climate system may be more complex than previously
thought. The large-scale cooling trends seen in eastern North America
and Northern Eurasia over the past two decades are likely not due to
internal variability alone, according to the scientists.
Using temperature, rainfall, snow and ice data, the team found rising
summer temperatures in the Arctic allowed the atmosphere to hold more
moisture, leading to more autumn snow in high-latitude areas. The
increased snow cover in Eurasia caused changes in the Arctic
Oscillation (atmospheric pressure patterns that govern winter weather
in the far Northern Hemisphere).
When the oscillation is in a negative phase, high pressure cells over the
Arctic push colder air towards mid-latitudes resulting in colder
temperatures than normal and fierce snow storms. A positive phase
tends to bring in milder winter weather, which is the case at present in
the U. S. and Europe.
The winter cooling trends are complex and need more study. However,
Cohen said their discovery could improve long-range forecasting if
snow cover is included in a seasonal forecast. The team’s research is
just one of several recent studies that highlight the complexity of the
climate system. Scientists are still learning how much mankind and
natural factors can influence long-term patterns.
To read the entire article, click on YAHOO NEWS.
Comment: Today’s key word is “complex.” By relying on recent past
data and analyzing present data, with the help of computers scientists
who study the weather can come up with simulations to predict future
weather trends. It is no secret that most simulations suggest that the
globe is warming up.
However, this story indicates that the total picture may be more complex
than some scientists are willing to admit. There appear to be a lot of
factors which aren’t being considered and which need to be considered
for scientists to be able to make more accurate forecasts of future
weather trends. If scientists are struggling to understand something as
relatively simple as present weather trends (compared to very complex
things like living organisms), they must avoid being too dogmatic in
making their predictions.
The point is that if conditions in the present are so complex that it is
difficult to completely understand them, how can those scientists who
study the distant, murky past be so sure they understand what
conditions were like way back then? In other words, are not
paleontologists and anthropologists and all those other “ologists” who
are so confidently telling us what the world and its living creatures were
like “millions” and “billions” of years ago overstating their case?
The faith of countless number of believers has been threatened and
even destroyed by the arrogant scientists who look at the past and tell
us that they pretty much know what the earth was like long ago, that
living organisms began with single-celled organisms and now have
evolved into human beings, and that there is no need for a Creator or
an Intelligent Designer.
However, the complexity of the world in which we are living and
especially the complexity of the living creatures around us challenges
the idea that the universe and its living organisms could possibly be the
result of blind, random processes. Let us stick with the Bible, which
gives us the true account of Earth’s history by the One who was there.
He tells us how we got here and where we are going. If we have come to
trust in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for our salvation, where we are
going is heaven, a place where “perfection” is a key word. “ I desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23).
PRINT (Black type on white background)
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QUESTION OF THE DAY
How similar is the DNA of chimpanzees to that of humans, according
to ICR research?
***************************************************************************
2 Comments
Gerhold L. Lemke wrote: Warren - It appears that I lost the start of
this note when I was checking on Google for: Mediterranean
paleoclimate. That informs your willingness to believe that nobody
knows anything. I'm particularly interested in the longer cold snap
around 6200 BC that would have sent people south, so that 80 years
later Noah could move north to where tall evergreens grew south of the
Black Sea, to build his Ark.
As for the chimps, the ICR wasn't doing "numerous experiments" with
genomic DNA. You could have written "analysis of published data"
instead. The reality is that you have to compare larger "clumps" of DNA
to determine similarities. Early reporting was at the level of blowing up
a brick church and a brick schoolhouse into very small units, and finding
that the two piles were 98% the same. That reporting, unhappily, made
more of a claim for primate relationship than was real. GLL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerhold L. Lemke wrote: Warren - Your snow picture reminds me of
a new thought for today. There was always the question: How did ice
scoop out Lake Superior, when there's minimal appearance that ice
actually did it? Well, before any ice started in Deep Time, the lake
wouldn't have been a lake at all, possibly, so that it would have been
easier for the first ice to plow things along. Then the ice got higher and
heavier and the bottom of the lake was pushed down (isostasy). Now
that the ice is gone (and some of its weight yet there in the lake water)
we would look for rebound of Earth's crust. Which raises the question:
How much rebound has there been since the Fundamentalist post-
Flood Ice Age (ca. 2350-1650 B.C.)? Hardly any at all? Then how did
just a few centuries of actual ice in place manage to push the lake
bottom down so quickly, for it to be still at where it's at? Once again,
the "appearance of time" answer answers everything. Why not? !
NOTE ON VISITOR COMMENTS: Visitor comments are invited including
those containing alternate views. However, comments containing
profanity or advertisements will not be published. After posting a
comment, please allow several hours for it to appear on the blog.
Scientists struggle to understand why warmer
summers often lead to cooler winters.
Summary: Warmer summers in the far Northern Hemisphere are the
cause for the more frequent severe winter weather in the U. S. and
Europe, a team of scientists says. Blizzards and extreme cold
temperatures during the winters of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 caused
such widespread travel woes in the U. S. and Europe, some people
were led to question the theory of global warming.
Judah Cohen, lead author of a study published in Environmental
Research Letters, found a clear trend of strong Arctic warming during
summer months, which should have resulted in a warmer winter as well.
This was not always the case. The counter-intuitive discovery suggests
the world’s climate system may be more complex than previously
thought. The large-scale cooling trends seen in eastern North America
and Northern Eurasia over the past two decades are likely not due to
internal variability alone, according to the scientists.
Using temperature, rainfall, snow and ice data, the team found rising
summer temperatures in the Arctic allowed the atmosphere to hold more
moisture, leading to more autumn snow in high-latitude areas. The
increased snow cover in Eurasia caused changes in the Arctic
Oscillation (atmospheric pressure patterns that govern winter weather
in the far Northern Hemisphere).
When the oscillation is in a negative phase, high pressure cells over the
Arctic push colder air towards mid-latitudes resulting in colder
temperatures than normal and fierce snow storms. A positive phase
tends to bring in milder winter weather, which is the case at present in
the U. S. and Europe.
The winter cooling trends are complex and need more study. However,
Cohen said their discovery could improve long-range forecasting if
snow cover is included in a seasonal forecast. The team’s research is
just one of several recent studies that highlight the complexity of the
climate system. Scientists are still learning how much mankind and
natural factors can influence long-term patterns.
To read the entire article, click on YAHOO NEWS.
Comment: Today’s key word is “complex.” By relying on recent past
data and analyzing present data, with the help of computers scientists
who study the weather can come up with simulations to predict future
weather trends. It is no secret that most simulations suggest that the
globe is warming up.
However, this story indicates that the total picture may be more complex
than some scientists are willing to admit. There appear to be a lot of
factors which aren’t being considered and which need to be considered
for scientists to be able to make more accurate forecasts of future
weather trends. If scientists are struggling to understand something as
relatively simple as present weather trends (compared to very complex
things like living organisms), they must avoid being too dogmatic in
making their predictions.
The point is that if conditions in the present are so complex that it is
difficult to completely understand them, how can those scientists who
study the distant, murky past be so sure they understand what
conditions were like way back then? In other words, are not
paleontologists and anthropologists and all those other “ologists” who
are so confidently telling us what the world and its living creatures were
like “millions” and “billions” of years ago overstating their case?
The faith of countless number of believers has been threatened and
even destroyed by the arrogant scientists who look at the past and tell
us that they pretty much know what the earth was like long ago, that
living organisms began with single-celled organisms and now have
evolved into human beings, and that there is no need for a Creator or
an Intelligent Designer.
However, the complexity of the world in which we are living and
especially the complexity of the living creatures around us challenges
the idea that the universe and its living organisms could possibly be the
result of blind, random processes. Let us stick with the Bible, which
gives us the true account of Earth’s history by the One who was there.
He tells us how we got here and where we are going. If we have come to
trust in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for our salvation, where we are
going is heaven, a place where “perfection” is a key word. “ I desire to
depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Philippians 1:23).
PRINT (Black type on white background)
***************************************************************************
Want to be automatically notified each time there is a new
post? Just e-mail your request to [admin@lutheranscience.org].
***************************************************************************
QUESTION OF THE DAY
How similar is the DNA of chimpanzees to that of humans, according
to ICR research?
***************************************************************************
2 Comments
Gerhold L. Lemke wrote: Warren - It appears that I lost the start of
this note when I was checking on Google for: Mediterranean
paleoclimate. That informs your willingness to believe that nobody
knows anything. I'm particularly interested in the longer cold snap
around 6200 BC that would have sent people south, so that 80 years
later Noah could move north to where tall evergreens grew south of the
Black Sea, to build his Ark.
As for the chimps, the ICR wasn't doing "numerous experiments" with
genomic DNA. You could have written "analysis of published data"
instead. The reality is that you have to compare larger "clumps" of DNA
to determine similarities. Early reporting was at the level of blowing up
a brick church and a brick schoolhouse into very small units, and finding
that the two piles were 98% the same. That reporting, unhappily, made
more of a claim for primate relationship than was real. GLL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerhold L. Lemke wrote: Warren - Your snow picture reminds me of
a new thought for today. There was always the question: How did ice
scoop out Lake Superior, when there's minimal appearance that ice
actually did it? Well, before any ice started in Deep Time, the lake
wouldn't have been a lake at all, possibly, so that it would have been
easier for the first ice to plow things along. Then the ice got higher and
heavier and the bottom of the lake was pushed down (isostasy). Now
that the ice is gone (and some of its weight yet there in the lake water)
we would look for rebound of Earth's crust. Which raises the question:
How much rebound has there been since the Fundamentalist post-
Flood Ice Age (ca. 2350-1650 B.C.)? Hardly any at all? Then how did
just a few centuries of actual ice in place manage to push the lake
bottom down so quickly, for it to be still at where it's at? Once again,
the "appearance of time" answer answers everything. Why not? !
NOTE ON VISITOR COMMENTS: Visitor comments are invited including
those containing alternate views. However, comments containing
profanity or advertisements will not be published. After posting a
comment, please allow several hours for it to appear on the blog.
Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 Prefer to read this post in Blogspot? Click Here. PRINT
Numerous experiments by ICR (the Institute for
Creation Research) involving the entire human
genome has found human-chimp DNA similarity,
conservatively speaking, of 86-89 percent. That
is 10 to 12 percent less than what is commonly
claimed.
Source: Acts and Facts (January, 2012)
Creation Research) involving the entire human
genome has found human-chimp DNA similarity,
conservatively speaking, of 86-89 percent. That
is 10 to 12 percent less than what is commonly
claimed.
Source: Acts and Facts (January, 2012)
The opinions expressed
here are those of The
Editor and do not
necessarily represent
the views of the Lutheran
Science Institute. Please
note that links in older
posts may be broken.
here are those of The
Editor and do not
necessarily represent
the views of the Lutheran
Science Institute. Please
note that links in older
posts may be broken.
About Me - Warren Krug
The Editor
Decades ago I attended a
so-called Lutheran
university where I could
have lost my faith. The
science professors promoted
the theory of evolution and
made fun of anybody who
believed in the account of
creation as presented in
the book of Genesis.
Thanks be to God, some
creationist literature and
the Bible soon helped get
me back on the right track.
Ever since then I have
taken an active interest in
the creation/evolution
controversy.
Background image from NASA
The Editor
Decades ago I attended a
so-called Lutheran
university where I could
have lost my faith. The
science professors promoted
the theory of evolution and
made fun of anybody who
believed in the account of
creation as presented in
the book of Genesis.
Thanks be to God, some
creationist literature and
the Bible soon helped get
me back on the right track.
Ever since then I have
taken an active interest in
the creation/evolution
controversy.
Background image from NASA
