What’s the link between our warming planet and our extreme weather?

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A wildfire near Bastrop, Texas, in September 2011 caused more than $300 million in damage and destroyed more than 1,600 homes. It was the most destructive fire in state history. The United States endured a record 14 disasters in 2011 that each inflicted at least $1 billion in damage, according to NOAA (http://www.noaa.gov/extreme2011/). (Wikimedia photo by Ancalagon66.)A new National Center on Atmospheric Research (NCAR) web site titled “Weather on Steroids” explores the connection between all the unusual weather and climate change. Getting a handle on the true changes due to global warming requires massive statistical and scientific analyses.

The NCAR site delves into topics such as “Extreme weather forensics”, are we “Doping the atmosphere”, “Is this Climate Change?”, “Risky Business” and many more.

The United States endured a record 14 disasters in 2011 that each inflicted at least $1 billion in damage, according to NOAA in their http://www.noaa.gov/extreme2011/ web site on the various disasters last year. Last year saw more such mega-disasters than during all the 1980’s combined.

Experts note that the evidence can be strong or weak, depending on the type of weather. Researchers admit there are no clear answers. "This is a very complicated subject," said David Hosansky, spokesman for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, which produced the report and operates the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "We were convinced that these different messages could confuse the public and leave the people thinking that we just can't connect the dots. And in fact, a lot of the dots are being connected."

Read more at an ABC News story on this or see the new site itself at: www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/attribution.

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