Climate change

[Swatopluk]

It could still get uncomfortably hot inside the hat.
Btw, the huge foil in space was actually thought about but not for shielding but as a reflector to direct sunlight to benighted areas (maybe even for destructive purposes).
Definitely cheaper than the solar-powered lasers also under discussion.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

There was a Horizon (U.S. Nova) program on Global Dimming.

Apparently the sunlight at the Earth's surface measurably increased in the few days when most aircraft were grounded following 911. It turns out aerosols in vapour trails have been reflecting light back into space for decades, leading to a lowering of temperatures partly cancelling or masking global warming.

I read a related article (in scientific american I believe) and the effect is more interesting: during the day the trails reflect light (lowering temperatures) but during the night help keep day temperatures in the same way clouds do.
The article suggested a reduction on evening flights.

[Outis the Unready]

Remember that the volcanoes erupting change our climate differently depending on the type of eruption, too.

A few huge slow eruptions would do different things than the giant plume eruptions.

[Swatopluk]

Not to speak of long-time events like the Dekkan-volcanism. Probably had a thing to do with the departure of our Jurassic movie favorites.

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

All this talk about Volcanic and nuclear winters finally brought some result, it's finally snowing around here.

And the forecast says it's not going to stop for a while...

[Swatopluk]

The weather frogs are currently not to be trusted in this city.
Currently the sun is shining, and it is lovely despite the drop im temperature (now it starts to be apt for the season).
Snow is probably postponed to next week.

[ivor]

Down here in Florida it's rainy, humid and cloudy all the time.  Normally in the winter it's so dry we have fires occasionally.

[Swatopluk]

The snow has arrived and I hop it will stay for a few days.

[Kiyoodle the Gambrinous]

After two days of snowing the snow stopped and the sun is shining.

The result of the snowing was quite interesting, half of the roads around here blocked (especially the main highway from Brno to Prague, which was impossible to get through) and the Prague airport was closed till something around 5 AM...

Good luck to the Germans...

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

[ ]
In a completely unrelated note, my first french horn was made in Brno. 
[/ ]
Certainly, it has been rainy this past few days down here in south florida too.

[Swatopluk]

It seems that analysis of the recent gulfstream studies has changed the predictions a bit.
Now it is thought that the effects of warming through CO₂ and the cooling due to weakening of this part of the great conveyor will more or less cancel each other out for about a century and that then the warming will proceed. This of course concerns mainly Europe.

[ivor]

Hasn't the Thames frozen over in recent history?  That would be fun! 

[Swatopluk]

Clearly better than the situation in "The Day the Earth caught Fire".
Despite the unscientific premise (nuclear tests shift earth orbit towards sun), the description of the (physical and psychological) results is quite persuasive/believable.

[Griffin NoName]

The Thames - Big freeze of 1963 - not since then I think.

Today we had a severe weather warning for the whole of Britain, snow etc, but my part of London has not seen any change in the weather at all - or else my windows have been replaced with film screens as I often suspect.

[Outis the Unready]

Meanwhile, in other news....
if our great big lake here were properly frozen over (can we really call them lakes, they do sequester 1/5 of the world's nonbrackish water...geologists don't.) it would now be officially too cold to snow, as it is -15C.

When it is far below freezing and the lakes are frozen over, the movement of water vapour into the air is very limited, and we get, at most, "dust cloud snow" which never piles up or accumulates in any amount.

However, as the Lake is at 36F degrees with a thin film of slush, it is happily being sucked into the air and sprinkled on our neighbors.