If you ever wonder what el nino /la nina means in terms of weather for your hemisphere, here is a heuristic:<p>La niña is the opposite of el Niño.<p>El niño (spanish - "the boy") is the name used by inhabitants of the area it hits the hardest, South America (mostly spanish speaking).<p>The western part of South America has its usual rainy season from late Dec to April.<p>The "el nino" boy is a reference to birth of Jesus. Chrstianity is the predominant faith in most of south america, so christmas is celebrated by all. Fishermen would thus say Jesus' birth brought extra "gifts" in the form of a stronger and longer rainy season, starting from late Dec.<p>So the the Spanish baby jesus boy brings brings miracle heat and rain upon his birth.<p>Invert the weather for la nina.<p>Now you you know what it means to you if you live in an affected area.<p>Edit - took out wrong statement about northern hemisphere
It’s been intense here (SE Australia). It’s just been raining for weeks now without stopping. I think we’ve had 2 sunny days in the last 4 weeks? Crops are dying, lettuce costs $10 each (if you can find them), internet keeps dropping out cos of shittily buried lines, drains overflow and flood the streets constantly, and the kids are going up the walls.<p>I know it’s normal for lots of areas of the world (and I’ve lived in those places) but we’re generally not equipped for it here.
Climate science is in its infancy. No I'm not a "climate denier": we can can be reasonably confident that the science is correct in asserting that we are in a period of climate warming, caused in large part by increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere, to the most part caused by the accelerated burning of fossile fuels.<p>But the predictive powers of climate science is low, which this article (among others) illustrates. We know we are in a period of relative high flux (compared to previous centuries), but we don't know what comes after the immediate future.<p>People may draw different conclusions from this, mine is that we need to get away from the thinking that there is a "natural climate" that we can revert to. We need to stop the focus on how we can <i>influence</i> the changing climate and start thinking about how we can <i>adapt</i> to various scenarios.<p>For example, whatever scenario that wins out will likely create massive migration pressures. How do we deal with that, humanely?
The situation in Lake Mead is horrific. I’ve been watching a YouTuber that has been filming various locations around the basin for the past couple months. It’s one thing to hear “the lake is doomed” and another to see it disappearing as the days go by:<p><a href="https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/NCBG_aVkv4s</a>
I can't help but wonder if the the southern hemisphere Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano eruption (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hunga_Tonga%E2%80%93Hunga_Ha%27apai_eruption_and_tsunami" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Hunga_Tonga%E2%80%93Hunga...</a>) contributed a little to the nothern hemisphere weirdness like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_eruption_of_Mount_Pinatubo#Global_environmental_effects" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_eruption_of_Mount_Pinatub...</a>
Really starting to feel dangerous to live anywhere in the US southwest. Lake Meade approaching deadpool and massive wildfire nearing my house this summer. Plus the government is led by people who refer to much of the southwest as “fly over country” doesn’t help.
The most important point:<p><i>Some researchers argue that the record is simply too sparse to show clearly what is going on, or that there is too much natural variability in the system for researchers to spot long-term trends. But it could also be that the IPCC models are missing something big.</i><p>In spite of all the hand-wringing about Global Warming -- which should more accurately be called <i>climate change</i> -- we don't know as much as we so often seem to think we do. The actual data sets don't go back as far as most people imagine and errors in assumptions for models are not uncommon.
First picture in the article show a scene from Brisbane, where I live. And there are a lot of these suburbs. Brisbane is built on a flood-plain.<p>But the house prices in the low-lying suburbs that were hit hardest are still very strong. And my home insurance has gone up by 30%.
There's unexpected solar winds <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31851572" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31851572</a>, and a rare triple La Nina, in a similar time frame. Does anyone with more knowledge on meteorology and the sun's effects on it than me have some reasoning and/or evidence on if these two events are connected or not?
From about December through to March it felt like it pretty much rained constantly in Sydney, and when it wasn't raining it was grey. You got a few gaps somewhere in there I presume, but I don't really remember having summer.<p>I definitely remember discovering the shoddy shortcuts taken in my roof and how un-waterproof they are.
In Anchorage, Alaska we’ve had less than an inch of rain in the last 41 days. We had a 13-acre wildfire in a park in town yesterday that they estimate they can’t fully extinguish for a few days. Statewide, over one million acres have burned so far this season. It is crazy dry and hot.
Southern IL here<p>Present spring is looking to be both the coldest and hottest in recent memory. Really obnoxious.<p>For a couple weeks we got crazy powerful winds. Thrashed everything.<p>Right now we are in a drought.