COOLER WEATHER MAY FINALLY ARRIVE WITH THE NEW YEAR
By John Nelander | Monday, December 19, 2011, 09:25 AM
Computer models are hinting that some chilly weather may be on the way for the start of 2012. The word cool, not cold, should be emphasized although it’s tough to be specific this far out.
Two weeks from Monday will be Jan. 2. AccuWeather’s long-range outlook shows high temperatures in the 60s, a far cry from the 80s that are predicted for the coming pre-Christmas week.
This forecast is backed up, more or less, by the new 14-day outlook, displayed above, issued by the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center on Sunday. It shows the northern tier of states basking in significantly above normal temperatures while just two areas — Southwest Texas/ Southern New Mexico and Florida — deal with below normal conditions.
That would be quite a switch for the Palm Beach area, which has been running up to 4 degrees above average for the month of December.
“By mid- to late-week, forecast highs will be some 5 degrees above average with lows 5-10 degrees above average,” NWS-Miami meteorologists said in their forecast discussion Monday.
“So our warm December continues — quite the difference from last December. Take West Palm Beach for example. The average low so far for this December is 68.3 degrees. Last December the average low was 47.5.
“That’s a 20.8 degree difference!”
The forecasters note “some prospects” for cooler air in the long-range outlook but add that they have “low confidence” in it.
December has been warm throughout much of the country. Here is the snow cover map as of Sunday from the NWS National Ice Center:
Now compare that to Dec. 18, 2010:
If you’re into snow sports the message is clear: Go west, young skier!
* * * * *
The butterfly effect is a fun concept for novelists and screenwriters to work into their plots, but it has no basis in scientific fact, a noted mathematician says in an interview with LiveScience.
The idea, based on chaos theory, is that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can lead to the formation of a tornado in Texas. It’s sometimes used as an example of why weather will never be completely predictable.
It’s true that storms may never be totally predictable. But the air movement caused by the fluttering of a butterfly is too insignificant and is quickly overwhelmed by other environmental factors.
“If a butterfly flaps its wings the effect really just gets damped out,” David Orrell told LiveScience’s companion website, Life’s Little Mysteries. “The changes that make a difference are far bigger than a butterfly flapping its wings.”
However, other seemingly minor elements in the Earth’s atmospheric stew, like an individual cloud, co
http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-blogs/palmbeach/weather1/entries/2011/12/19/cooler_weather_may_may_finally.html
This is about how they think it might cool off in the next few weeks. This also talks about something called the butterfly effect. It cooling off in the next few weeks is so big because we have had an unusually high tempter winter so far.
VIDEO
http://youtu.be/QuGLSDyvTNc
This video could have gone in this category or global warming but i thought it fit into this one just a little bit better. It is about the green house effect. This is when the sun comes into the atmosphere and the rays get bounced off the earth. Some of them escape and some of them remain trapped. If this is balanced it is good but when to much gets trapped its bad.
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