The Ice Caps are Raining Down on us here in Western MA

[debbierlus]

Anyone who doesn't believe in global warming should visit Western Massachusetts.

Our climate is wacked. The whole Northeast has been under a rain cloud since June. Here in Western MA, for the past two summers, we have had the strangest rain forest type weather.

Now, I know this isn't scientific, but it would make sense that with all the tons of additional water in the atmosphere melted from ice caps, the moisture would have to go somewhere. And, it seems that a lot of it is falling in the Northeast.

Two days ago we had downpours over 4 inches in some areas. Today we could get another 3 inches. And, this is becoming TYPICAL. The sun also seems a bit dimmer in the sky on the days it doesn't rain. The rains are heavy and it seems to rain about half the time now. Friends are talking about moving if this pattern continues because grey summers ontop of six months of winter are just too much to bear.

It is POURING as I write this...

And, it is forecast to continue. One day or two days of sun. Then, BIG thunderstorms & rain. Huge downpours. Flash flooding alerts are becoming the norm here.

I hope I am wrong, I hope this is just a blip. But, I and everyone around me feels there is something deeply wrong in their bones. Walking by the filled to the brim lakes and torrential rivers (rivers flowing like they do after a winter's thaw), intuition tells us that the climate has changed in a severe way.

The only nice thing about it, millions upon million of years of accumulated water falling on you does feel a bit like a spa treatment. The air has never felt cleaner.

[MADem]

1. Back in the late sixties (either sixty seven or eight, cannot recall precisely)

New England had a shitty summer just like this. It rained constantly, business at the shore was decimated, you'd get maybe a day of sun every ten, it was quite similar.

[liberalmike27]

9. Plant some vegetables

Here in Mobile rain is a pretty normal thing (Alabama gulf coast). This year after having near-record temperatures and very little rain in early June, it started raining. Almost every day, we've had much more rain, and we actually had a cold front reach all the way down to Mobile. We had nighttime temperatures in the sixties! Some nights, when I have taken my walk in the past, it has been 90 degrees + at 9 central time. Lately, it's been pretty good, and although the cold didn't last, it has been cooler, and in the low nineties instead of our usual 98 degrees and 70 percent humidity.

I can't complain about the change here, but I understand the overall problem is greater than some preferred regional changes. Winters, as a whole, have been much more mild, and we've have even rarer days when the temperature plunges into the 20s, or occasionally in the teens. OK, I can hear you northern folks laughing at my characterizing the 20s as plunging, but here, really, it is.

All I can say is, those of you who farm are going to have longer growing seasons, and more rain, so take advantage of it, and plant the right crops.

[HughMoran]

31. So much rain, crops are rotting

It's good for some crops, but a lot of "typical" crops up here are not doing as well there has been SO MUCH rain.

My flowers are rotting in the planters - it's really annoying this year.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

21. It was 1968 -

I was working in Sanford/Springvale, playing in Kennebunkport, and the weather sucked. A really bad summer. Everyone complained all the time. Pissed-off tourists, after a while, all sound the same....................

[MADem]

30. When they've shelled out their hard earned wage for a week or two at the shore, they want

SUN.

There's only so many movies and "non beach" activities that they'll put up with! That was a rather foul season!

[dionysus]

2. maine has been the same way.

[kestrel91316]

3. Picture what could happen if the precipitation continues, but the weather

turns very cold.

Somebody needs to be monitoring the Gulf Stream's flow VERY closely.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. Alaska had a summer like that last year.

This year has been much more moderate, although there is some flooding going on around Seward right now.

[Morning Dew]

5. Minnesota. Minneapolis/ St. Paul metro.

We are suffering drought conditions - precipitation way below normal.

Cooler than normal - this July, 0 90 degree days which is uncommon.

Global climate change is going to give us some odd weather.

Oh yeah, I've gotten one mosquito bite this year. One. Amazing. No rain, no skeeters.

[madrchsod]

14. you guys are just on the edge of the monsoon season.

i think we are over 8 inches above normal so far this year here in the middle of northern illinois. along the illinois- wisconsin border they have had even more rainfall.

[Morning Dew]

16. It keeps missing us here. But we got some light rain here and there yesterday. nm

[Birthmark]

6. What you are describing is weather.

And, yes, it has been very wet in the Northeast. One of the predicted effects of climate change is more rain in the Northeastern US.

www.globalchange.gov/usimpacts

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. You're right. It's not scientific.

but it would make sense that with all the tons of additional water in the atmosphere melted from ice caps, the moisture would have to go somewhere.

It goes into the oceans. Perhaps you've heard of them. They're these big blue things that contain a lot of water, and get bigger and contain even more water as the ice caps melt.

[northernlights]

25. and the warmer the water is

the more it evaporates. And the more it evaporates, the more there is in the atmosphere. Where it cools down and falls...as rain...somewhere.

Apparently here in Maine. We're having our latest deluge as I type.

I think we had 4 hours of sun in June. About once a week, the skies would clear for an hour or so near sunset, before a set batch of clouds would roll in.

July has been better -- 1 or even 2 days of sun each week so far in July.

Farmers haven't been able to get a single hay cutting yet. One local produce farm never did hire anybody to pick strawberries or anythings else.

I have heard a rumor that we may start to dry out after tomorrow.

[FarCenter]

8. Not long ago, Massacheusetts was covered by glaciers

About 25,000 years ago Long Island, Martha's Vinyard, and Nantucket were being built up by sediments dropped at the southern edge of the glacier.

Glaciers form when more snow falls during the winter than melts during the summer.

Glaciers cannot form because Northern Canada is a cold desert -- there is very low precipitation there since the Arctic Ocean is largely ice covered during much of the year.

If the Arctic Ocean becomes ice-free during much of the year, the prevailing winds will carry a lot more moisture south from the Arctic. This will provide heavy snowfall over Eastern Canada and allow the glaciers to build again.

Note that the "normal" condition of Eastern Canada is to be buried by glaciers. It is only during brief inter-glacial periods that it is glacier-free.

[smirkymonkey]

10. I was wondering if anyone else was thinking that this was more

than just the usual "bad summer weather". Here in NYC we have had thunderstorms and torrential downpours nearly every day, but then it will clear up for about 30 minutes and be sunny, and then the thunderstorms and downpour all over again - somedays it seems like a neverending cycle. You just can't predict anything. A beautiful day can turn into a flash flood in minutes.

It just seems bizarre to me, I have seen rainy summers, but I have never seen weather like this anywhere.

[piratefish08]

11. we've been coming out of an ice age for the last 12K years.....

weather blips measured against a few hundred years of accurately recorded weather seem extreme - relatively speaking though, we're in a pretty calm period of earth history even when taking into account global weather catastrophes......

that's my totally un-footnoted opinion.

and yeah, the weather SUCKS! I live in NH.

[Bombero1956]

12. I think we're becoming Seattle

I may give up my job and become a barista.

[BlooInBloo]

28. :)

[Generic Other]

33. in the 90's in seattle

105 on wednesday breaking both high/high and high/low for first time since 1891.

[tavalon]

36. Actually, 1891 was when they first started keeping records

Our temperatures have never, in the recorded time, been this high. And, we're having a much worse drought than usual, though the snow pack is still helping us.

[madrchsod]

13. southern wisconsin,eastern iowa,most of central and northern illinois

coolest july in years(a record cool here in northern illinois) and above normal rainfall for almost two solid years.

[cali]

15. 6 months of winter in western MA?H

wow. I never knew that your winters lasted longer than ours in the Northeast Kingdom. But yeah, the rain has been relentless this year. But last year was not particularly out of the ordinary.

[polmaven]

18. In New England

as a whole people used to joke about having 2 seasons. Winter and 2 days in August.

[pipi_k]

20. And there was another quote too...

Mark Twain? I forget

anyway, it went something like:

New England weather...8 months of winter and 4 months of damned poor sledding

:7

[cali]

23. um, the Northeast Kingdom is in New England. It's the 3 most northeaster counties

in Vermont, Essex, Caledonia and Orleans. It's also by far and away the most rural region in Vermont. We know a bit about winter here. I've lived here for nearly 30 years and I grew up in CT, so yeah, I'm familiar with every cliche about NE weather.

[polmaven]

37. Um, That is why

I used the words "as a whole". :shrug:

[pipi_k]

22. OK, here in the Hilltowns of W Mass...

Winter...the heating season..can actually start in mid September. We've had the heat going that early sometimes. We can actually get frosts then.

In the spring, it's still somewhat cool even at the end of May. This year the heat came on in the house all by itself even into the first two weeks of July.

the last couple of years we haven't had to turn the air conditioning on at all...usually we really have to for about two weeks in August. Where I live it's typically 5 to 10 degrees cooler than it is in the city. So when people in the cities are bitching about it being "too hot" it's just right here.

But anyway, yeah...certain parts of W Mass can have prolonged winter...

[cali]

26. Yes, I know the winters in Western MA, can be long. I went to Simon's Rock

and spent two winters there. No, the don't even begin to compare to how long, cold and snowy Kingdom winters are. Not even close.

[pipi_k]

39. Oh, I wouldn't even think to compare the two in terms of severity

It's just that people expect long, snowy winters in Northern New England. One of my step-nieces lives in northern VT on top of a mountain. Each year she and her husband literally have to shovel their way out of their cabin because the snow reaches to the second floor windows.

But what surprises a lot of people is that there are places in mid/southern New England that can be pretty nasty too.

In fact, as far south as we are in New England, relatively speaking, there are times when Anchorage, Alaska actually has warmer temperatures than we do here.

[Posteritatis]

17. Nova Scotia checking in with the same damn thing

Right now it's actually nice out (if humid), but the average week it rains five or six days here, when we're usually going the other way around. We had three days of sun between the start of June and the middle of July, and only one night I can remember where there wasn't a thick, clinging fog from about 10pm until sometime in the morning.

[JayMusgrove]

29. Wow, Nova Scotia has most of it's sunny weather usually

in the summer. I love your province, I visit often, no plans for this year.

The Northeastern USA and Maritime Provinces this year are much more filled with precipitation than usual, our summer is like late spring, and even like early fall.

If this pattern continues, we will have heavy snows this winter! Come to think of it, we had heavy snows in New England this past winter, as well as crippling ice storms in NH, VT, and MA, and even PA.

There seems to be a major uptick in precipitation since last fall in all of Northeastern, North Central USA, and in South Central, and Eastern Canada.

It MAY simply be a weather pattern for a few months or a year or to, or something more indicative of the ice melting levels in the Arctic Sea and North Pole area.

Western Mass is a beautiful area, as is Nova Scotia, and so much more of America and Canada. Western Mass people, wait a year or two more before deciding to move away, weather changes year to year.

[pipi_k]

19. Things are messy even here in the Hilltowns

It's really hard to flood us here because we live on the side of a rather large hill, but damn...the yard is seriously flooding. There's a little stream/brook across the road and it's raging like whitewater.

I live on a dirt road and the rain is cutting big ruts in the sides. Any more of this and it'll wash out completely.


For me, the only good thing is the smell of the damp soil in the air. I love that smell... :)



PS...Are you closer to Springfield or Pittsfield? I'm like right in the middle of the two.

[Strelnikov_]

24. Collapse of North Atlantic thermohaline circulation n/t

[bobw999]

27. We are in a negative NAO cycle...

Wet conditions in the Northeast is what we normally see during a negative http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/res/pi/NAO/">NAO.

[orleans]

32. did you see this?

Satellite images of polar ice sheets taken in July 2006 and July 2007 showing the retreating ice during the summer. Photograph: Public Domain


Revealed: the secret evidence of global warming Bush tried to hidePhotos from US spy satellites declassified by the Obama White House provide the first graphic images of how the polar ice sheets are retreating in the summer. The effects on the world's weather, environments and wildlife could be devastating
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/26/climate-change-obama-administration

[gaspee]

34. Here in RI

in the bottom corner of NE, we normally miss a lot of the wort of the weather because the storms usually pass to the North and West of Providence, missing the Eastern half of RI and the New Bedford/Cape Cod area -- not this year. We have had wayyyyyyy too much rain. After the horrible winter we had, this really sucks.

But hey, I have a green lawn! Which is so not worth never seeing the sun. And I hate the sun usually - too fair skinned to enjoy sunbathing and I don't like hot weather. I never thought I'd miss summer - my least favorite season, but I do.

I believe it's global climate change but that there's nothing we can do about it but get used to it.

[tavalon]

35. Welcome to Seattle weather

Could you please send it back? We miss it.

[1monster]

38. We've been noticing in NE Florida, too. In the '70s, it rained heavily every day in the

summer afternoons. You could almost set your watch by it. Four o'clock? The rain poured down for about fifteen to twenty minutes. No thunder and lightning. Just rain.

Then the sun would come out. The air was just as wet as when it was raining.

Then as developers came in and clear cut millions of acres, the rain stopped coming regularly. We had more and more droughts. Water restrictions were imposed, and we suffered Fire Storm '98 when every county in the state had two or more out of control wild fires...fed by heavy winter rainfall, which caused rampant undergrowth, and spring through summer drought.

Lately, it has rained every day. Short bursts of heavy rainfall accompanied by ferocious thunder and lightning. One bolt struck within less than a mile of where I was sitting in my car. It was a huge single blast of nature's fury. The bolt and thunder arrived simultaneously and shook the car. I saw fire trucks rushing up the road about three to five minutes later.

DH and I speculated that it is global climate change that is causing all the rain. The rain is very welcome, except for the negative implications that are carried by the change in weather patterns.