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Post by markdj on Dec 3, 2006 10:32:23 GMT
Is it just me or has the weather since August been particularly poor for clear nights and observing? This past month there has been storm after storm and rain with no settled times for observing. Only 2 or 3 years ago I remember having the scope out about twice a week or more for observing and imaging Saturn and Jupiter.
Is this global warming in action? more humidity and extreme weather. Not sure but was this the mildest November on record? mildest October?
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Post by paulevans on Dec 3, 2006 23:30:00 GMT
Global warming's a much longer term phenomena and I am one of those sceptics who doubts that mankind has much to do with it. After all, the entire energy output of Man is around 60 millionths of the energy that falls on the Earth from the Sun which is tiny. Fluctuations in the Sun's output are bigger than that and would account for warm periods in the past - apparently the Romans used to make wine in Yorkshire which is pretty much impossible now due to frost!
What I've noticed is fewer clear evenings and more clear mornings over the last couple of months - the same as it was last year. I've only lived in NI for 3 years and I reckon it was always like this - my wife has lived here all her life - over 21 years :-) and she says there have always been these storms and periods of relative calm in between, so who knows?
Paul.
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Post by paulevans on Dec 13, 2006 22:37:32 GMT
As the wind was beating against the windows at work this afternoon I jokingly said "If this Global Warming you can stick it wher the sun don't shine". Two of my (female) colleagues then expressed their view that it has always been thus, although they're both under 30 so that's not a huge time period. So although I was only joking, it does seem that a lot of people don't believe in Climate Change.
Paul.
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Post by eamonnpkeyes on Dec 13, 2006 23:40:27 GMT
It's still rarely been as bad as this for such a prolonged period...except for 1986 the "summer without a summer", when we got to the end of August from June without a single sunny day. Then Chernobyl happened and made it even worse. However, getting up each day to drizzle, low cloud and wind, and going to bed with drizzle, low cloud and wind, has got me turning into a snarling latent mad axeman.
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Post by stevie on Dec 14, 2006 0:54:19 GMT
Careful with that axe(man) Eugene
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Post by eamonnpkeyes on Dec 14, 2006 11:40:08 GMT
Might just set the controls for the heart of the sun!
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Post by Veronica on Dec 14, 2006 12:03:10 GMT
Ohhh, I'm 37 and I remember glorious summers.... school years, especially O level year (1985)... and every winter you were guaranteed lovely cold, crisp, clear days and a good few doses of snow that lay for aaaaaages...they were back in the seventies if the flares in the family album are anything to go by!
I agree that this autumn seems particularly soggy and blowy, especially the blowy bit.
Mind, I'm jealous of you older people...I'd loved to have seen all those woolly mammoths and glaciers for myself instead of having to read about them in the geography books! ;D
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Post by eamonnpkeyes on Dec 14, 2006 12:08:41 GMT
I can remember the glaciers and mammoths..however, I yearn back to the days of warm seas and those big lizards. Some meteors in those days too!!!!
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Post by stevie on Dec 14, 2006 14:10:44 GMT
I remember one particular meteor, it flew over our house heading west, and apparently landed in Mexico. Didn't see many big lizards after that.
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Post by eamonnpkeyes on Dec 14, 2006 15:16:45 GMT
Yes, some gritty snow that year too...and the wind was bad for a while. Gusts up to 2,000 mph, if I remember. Blew the fence down.
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Post by kryss on Dec 14, 2006 19:15:22 GMT
When i started work in the eightys i can remember crisp frosty mornings in late september.Doesnt happen anymore so we lose the clear nights. Most models show us getting warmer but wetter summers combined with milder winters. 2006 has been the warmest year on 300 years, says it all IMHO. The nett temperature is a balance between heat from the sun and heat lost at night to space - which is strongly moderated by greenhouse gases like CO2 and maybe more importantly Methane.Dont forget there is an enormous quantity of both locked up in the oceans which may be destabilised as the temperature warms. It is (remotely)possible that we end up with a venusian style atmosphere - organisms at the bottom of the food chain are already being decimated and they are also major consumers of CO2/ poducers of O2.
Mind you the scariest thing that we are likely to see in our lifetimes is the gradual loss of our best storm beaches like Benone.
I also think
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Post by eamonnpkeyes on Dec 15, 2006 0:47:19 GMT
A Venusian style atmosphere? That calls for a new pair of shorts. And a new pair of lungs too. It looks as if we're going for a new "homogenised" climate, where it's not very warm, but not too cold, rains several times a day and is permanently cloudy. What ecologists call the "Larne" climate.
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Post by Veronica on Dec 15, 2006 9:15:31 GMT
A Venusian style atmosphere? That calls for a new pair of shorts. And a new pair of lungs too. It looks as if we're going for a new "homogenised" climate, where it's not very warm, but not too cold, rains several times a day and is permanently cloudy. What ecologists call the "Larne" climate. Ha ha! Mind, I always said that about Ballymena...I spent one summer working in Dunloy, bypassing Ballymena every morning. Sunny between Belfast and Ballymena, cloudy/raining over Ballymena, Ballymena to Dunloy, sunny again. Near enough happened every day. THought it was weird at the time...
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Post by markdj on Dec 15, 2006 11:39:07 GMT
I think NeilP would vouch for that weather analysis.
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Post by paulevans on Dec 15, 2006 13:06:38 GMT
Indeed it may be NeilP's telescope collection that causes the effect!
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