Can the uncharacteristically wet summer in Australia this year be explained by global warming?

Question

Or is it just a freak summer?

Answer 1

It could be a part it. The Gulf Stream stopped for ten days a while ago b/c of global warming. And it could very well happen again. The melting ice caps are disturbing the salinity of the stream, which is a controling factor.

more fresh water = weaker stream / may stop =

Northern Atlantic seaboard freezing in winter &

weaking of trade winds (nothing for coriolus force to move) = El Nino = messed up weather in pacific. which could attribute to it.

It also effects the ITCZ which could be a part of it.

this is just a guess b/c I took meteorology this year so I know a bit about all of it. Plus a bunch of documentaries.

Answer 2

I wasnt aware that it was a wet summer..  Isnt that a good thing, as most of australia has been in a drought for the last couple of years?

Answer 3

You cannot explain anything that happens locally with Global warming. You can say that we will have more freakish weather as a result of Global Warming, but you cannot say that one individual event was cause by it.

You always hear people saying that if there is global warming why is it so cold where I am at? Which is exactly like saying if the earth is round why does it look so flat where I am at?

Answer 4

Well I do live in Australia and the rain/flooding you refer to was only in north east Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory all the gray dots in the link below are 0mm rain fall.

Large parts of NSW, Vic, WA and Tasmania are still considered to be in drought, with dam water levels in the major cities of these states at less than 30%. Most of the area getting the rain are in what is the tropics and get monsoon type weather at this time of year.

Answer 5

You miss the point. Everything is explained by global warming.

Answer 6

Wet or not, Australia had the warmest January on record.

Answer 7

I don't live in Australia, but if they had a wet summer, it was probably just a freak summer, like Michigan's drought this year.  Lots of dead corn!  Or maybe it is global warming--the scientists say that that will change weather patterns.

Answer 8

Your best bet is a freak summer.

Attributing any short term weather in particular places (less than a few years) to global warming as either proof, or disproof, is just silly and unscientific.

Global warming is the long term trend, as seen here:

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2007/

discussed in detail, with confirmation, at:

http://tamino.wordpress.com/2008/01/24/g...