Tired Of Big Storms, Unpredictable Weather? Get Used To It, Canadian Scientists Advise

[hatrack]

Fed up with unpredictable winter storms cancelling air flights, closing highways and dumping enormous amounts of precipitation? Too bad. Canadian scientists say get used to it.

In a major forthcoming report on Canada's changing climate, scientists warn of everything from increased severe storm activity in Atlantic Canada to hotter summers and poorer air quality in urban Ontario. British Columbia may face retreating glaciers and snow loss on its mountains, causing potential water shortages. The Prairie provinces will continue to struggle with drought, impacting agriculture rurally and potentially causing water rationing in urban areas.

The 500-page report is the work of 145 leading Canadian scientists. They've examined the current and future risks climate change presents coast to coast and what they have to say isn't comforting.

Perhaps one of the people least surprised by the wicked weekend weather is Norm Catto, a geographer at Memorial University in Newfoundland, and one of the climate report's lead authors. He says the intensity of weather events is increasing. When Hurricane Juan swept through Atlantic Canada in 2003, the storm surge didn't coincide with high tide. But next time it could and the level of the water could be 40 to 50 centimetres higher. Quentin Chiotti, a senior scientist with Pollution Probe in Toronto and another study author, echoed Mr. Catto's concern. In Ontario, for example, intense dumps of precipitation could lead to floods of the sort Toronto and Peterborough endured in 2005.

EDIT

http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=7badbe9f-e3b3-4090-8cf8-c10aef6de257

[ben_meyers]

1. So Canadian scientists admit that

big storms and weather are unpredictable, but they can predict future risks of climate change?

Which is it? On the one hand weather incidents "prove" climate change, but weather doesn't equal climate.

[Fovea]

3. How much math you got?

Start with Pascal's luck at dice-- work your way forward to the box with the cat in it.
At some point in the trip, it will all start to make sense.

[jpak]

4. Not to worry - the Heartland Institute, Beck and Limbaugh say GW is a fraud

:rofl:

[kestrel91316]

5. You're right The 99.999% of PhD climatologists in the world

who believe in anthropogenic global warming really are just completely ignorant, and a few RW NON-climatologists are geniuses.

And ben-meyers is the biggest genius of them all. Let me guess - you have a high school diploma and dropped out of Liberty University's english program because it was too challenging.........

[Fovea]

2. Hadley institute was predicting this back in 2002.

For 2050 they are IIRC, predicting a 42% increase in annual precip for Western Iowa most in the form of high intensity rainfall events.


Consider what that means for the Mo River and Miss River valleys and the communities along them.