Weather & Earth Science News

For all those who argue that melting sea ice won't cause sea levels to rise, think again. A new assessment has found that melting icebergs in polar oceans causing sea level rise globally - albeit only by a hair's breadth. Literally. Meanwhile, melting sea ice major cause of warming in Arctic according to new research. Part of Alaska inundated by ancient megafloods - around 17,000 years ago (ie during the meltdown from the last glacial maximum, but before the Younger Dryas) Monster tornado chaser armada set to rumble - and you can read the Vortex2 team's blog here Astronomers find loads of ice on big asteroid Korea shivering with unusual cold - and it looks like being just as cold in Britain this weekend, with Sunday in particular seeing many places fail to reach double figures. Indeed, models are current predicting a maxima of just 6c in Evesham!

New research suggests that winds from Siberia reduce Arctic sea ice cover - not global warming. Meanwhile, according to a Russian scientist, Arctic warming likely to reverse whilst a colleague warns that Arctic research may be threatened by global cooling ! Massive Southern ocean current discovered Rain leaves 8,400 people homeless in southern Brazil Scientists study glaciovolcanoes In Thailand, no respite in sight to hot weather - which has seen maximum temps just short of the record set in 1998. All thanks to Mr El Nino. In Nevada, spring storm hits hard whilst northern NY, New England storm drops a foot of snow . But in Britain, warm weather to make way for Bank Hoilday tradition ..... rain. And more to the point, it's turning much cooler. Hmmm, maybe those Russians are right after all! And finally, much reported in the media today, are Noah's Ark remains 'discovered' on Mt Ararat? No. But you have to admire their level of logic: find wood carbon date...

The Scottish Daily Record has summarised the disingenuous and false claims perpetrated by the Mail on Sunday, and being a shorter piece, I thought I'd quote it in full and offer comment: THE volcanic ash cloud that grounded planes across Europe was "close to undetectable", aviation chiefs have admitted. No, that's not what they said. See below: British airspace was closed on April 15 by NATS, the air traffic control service, who were following a UN policy. It is not UN policy, it was based on ICAO guidelines which were set because the airline industry had not provided data to provide a better ash concentration limit. They based their decision on theoretical weather models from the Met Office, who predicted the cloud would cover a vast area. The decision was based on real time observations of ash clouds, although models did also predict how the clouds would extend. Later observations showed these predictions to be highly accurate. However, the main Met Office ...

On Saturday, 10 dead in Miss. after tornado, storms hit South . And on Sunday, as Mississippi digs out from storm , so rural areas searched after Yazoo, Mississippi tornado and it's being speculated that recent epidemic of twisters could mean an 'ugly May' - although I suppose that's good news for the chasers who last year had a pretty poor season. The first British 'teams' should have just flown out there. Media disinformation and nonsense continue in the wake of the disruption caused to airlines by the Icelandic eruption, with the Daily Mail claiming that volcanic plume over UK was only 20th of safe flying limit , although the safe flying limit was zero ....... ; that the ash was not visible (it was - and we have the photos to prove it) and repeating the lies about the flight ban being based on Met Office computer models (they were based on observations- which did however show the model predictions to be highly accurate). They also of course ignore the ...

Like Sept 11, volcano plane ban may hold climate clue But who cares about climate, look what they've done to my skies! One of the worst outbreaks of contralitis I've ever had the misfortune to see - in stark contrast to last Saturday's entire cloud free day. But I do think the populace are starting to wake up. I'm not the only one noticing this: This was taken about 7am this morning from my front door. Here's a piece from earlier in the week: Iceland volcano creates bluer skies, rips away veil of contrail haze. The only other news to report today is that in Colorado, rain, snow closes courthouses, snarls traffic And global warming may be causing evolutionary changes in bird migration

The fallout from Iceland continues (literally - there is still ash in the skies over Britain) as flights resume but ministers face call for inquiry into 'shambolic' air ban . The effects of the resumption of flights has been extremely noticeable these past 3 days with a huge amount of obvious manmade cloud developing through the course of the day. At least then it's had that benefit: to awaken people to the impact air traffic has on our skies. Meanwhile, RAF Typhoon training halted as ash found in engines whilst the US military fears volcano could harm jets . And there are suggestions that the reason a Washington- Moscow flight strands passengers in Azores after emergency landing was because of ash - though this by no means confirmed. Then, just today, we hear that once again Scottish airports disrupted by ash chaos - a news story which also includes mention of a couple of rumoured cases of commerical airliners over Britain experiencing problems due to ash. The Dai...

After BA's jumbo gamble flights have resumed over Britain - and both obvious contrails and less obvious thinner wisps of cirrostratus return to cloud our skies. However, the threat of new, larger, Icelandic eruption looms . And whilst experts back CAA , the crux of the problem does - as implied by my headline yesterday - lie with the airline industry. Simply put, because they have never conducted proper tests to determine whether aircraft may safely fly through lower concentrations of ash, the ICAO rules have been, very clear: aircraft must avoid all ash. Hence the blanket flight ban. Interestingly, the ICAO have held plenty of seminars on the subject - including a volcanic ash workshop last June which specifically dealt with the risk of an Icelandic eruption affecting air traffic across NW Europe and the Atlantic. I guess the industry leaders were too busy wining and dining and boasting of their incomes the size of a small African nation to care. Heads should roll. ...