Is Your Climate Changing?

[Pramrider]

Just curious if any of you have had noticable changes in your area's climate over the years. Do you feel there is a global warming affecting the overall weather patterns where you live?

We've lived in the southern part of Maryland for 24 years and I've noticed two particular changes which could possibly be associated with global warming. When we first moved here we rarely had threats of severe weather. Just your normal thunder storms in the Spring and Summer, possibly even a Tropical Storm left over from a hurricane that came inland further South. In Winter we'd have periods of below freezing temps and a decent snowfall of two. In more recent years, we've dreaded each time a weather front is forecasted to come through during the warmer seasons. There's almost always tornado watches and warnings issued for our area and we've had to head for the basement until the warnings are lifted. In Winter we rarely have more than a few inches of snow, and what does come down usually ends as sleet or freezing rain. It seems there's no longer enough cold air to sustain a good snowfall.

The second thing I've noticed is with migratory birds. Before, I never saw robins anywhere around here once the weather turned cold. They all headed South for the Winter. I now see them in our yard all year round, even in Dec. and Jan.!

I've thought about putting in a garden of cool weather veggies. The temps in Winter stay moderated enough to grow stuff year round, and if we do get that occasional cold snap for a day or two, I just have to cover them up at night.

~Pramrider

[Fire2box]

Yes its getting colder! Really Stockton, California hasn't been getting hot as much as it has in the past 15 years. We still get hot days but this summer has been pretty good. Not to mention fox news reported that the glaciers on Mt. Shasta in northern California have doubled in size since around 1900.

Anyways climate has ALWAYS changed on the earth. I think climate change has always been here but I think global warming is not real at all. I know a lot of people are going to disagree with that and they are going to be like "But... but... but Al Gore said its real though!!!! He even had power point and sea charts!"

[Lukie]

Well, in my part of Australia, there's been a few things that have occurred in the past few years that never/only rarely happened in the years previous to that.

For starters, we haven't a violent storm in a long time. Summer's used to be the time when the storms would roll in and give a spectacular light and sound show. Haven't seen one in a very long time.

We are in a drought. Although this could be attributed to a cycle as records show it has happened in the past. Nevertheless, we have water restrictions here because our dams levels are quite low.

Summer's are getting cooler and Winter's are getting warmer. Last Summer (that's Dec-Feb for us) on most days I had little problem walking around with a pair of long jeans, shoes and a t-shirt. The Winter (Jun-Aug) we are experiencing right now is the roughly the same. There have been a few cold days, but overall jeans and shirt are all you need for most of the day, maybe put on a thin jacket after dusk. Actually the other day I was walking around in the city with jeans and a shirt on and I felt like cooling down because I was getting a bit hot... and this in is the middle of Winter!

In Summer, the occurrence of heatwaves is getting more frequent, despite the above point, it seems now we are guaranteed one considerably hot day during the summer.

[Darkfinn]

As my climatology professor said... we are now living in a climate of extremes. If you plot temperatures and precipitation for the past 5 years... and compare it to the previous "normals" you will see that there are far more outlying points on the graph indicating record temperatures, rainfall, and snowfall. We've had 5 days this summer break records already... records that had stood for 50 years or more.

I could go on and on about this... but check for your area... how many record temperatures have been set in the past 2 years? I bet it's more than you'd think.

[Takashi]

Well one thing I noticed last year that I don't think I notice in years previus is that were I live in Florida we were having days were it would be 80*F in December.

[Darkfinn]

I remember sitting out on the porch having a beer in just jeans and a t-shirt on December 1st a year or so back... it was 70.

[Chillhouse]

If anything it's gotten colder.

[Colonel Brome Teks]

I've hardly been outside at all this summer (yes, I have retreated to the climate controlled conditions of my own house for over a week at a time... Dang you 3000% bug population increase!), So I don't really know about how the climate has been going.

Precipitation on the other hand, is completely crazy this year. We got more rain in the first week of summer than the previous record got in a period of three months! and the snow, we had over 6 feet of snow here. I know that's nothing for some of you living in or near the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada ranges, but here that broke records that have stood for a very long time.

[Shupie]

It's been getting a lot hotter over here. When I was younger, winter would always bring big snowfalls, but recently it's been snowing a lot later and a lot less.

[Mink]

Originally Posted by Kenshin Himura

Well one thing I noticed last year that I don't think I notice in years previus is that were I live in Florida we were having days were it would be 80*F in December.

Er...thats not new...Florida is always like that...>_>

Anyways, yeah havn't noticed anything! We go from Mildly hot to Hot here, year round.