After our recent heat wave, its obvious why this discussion has become local.
An excerpt.
Some not warming to theory
Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, July 29, 2006
For California, sporadic blasts of withering heat are as typical as earthquakes. Not new. Not unexpected. But able to dominate our days, our nights and our conversations with an oppressive drumbeat of discomfort.
So those who study weather and climate weren't surprised to be asked repeatedly if the recent stretch of killing heat was yet another effect of global warming.
Their short answer is, if so, global climate change would be just one factor stirred into a confounding brew of other effects, including the routine variability of weather.
"There certainly is global warming, but … it's not like every summer is going to be like this one," said Jan Null, a Bay Area meteorologist. The changes are likelier to come in fractions of a degree each decade.
"Back in '97 and '98, everything was El Niño," said Null, who teaches meteorology at San Francisco State University and runs his own consulting firm. "The media likes easy labels to put on events. They don't like to hear, 'Well, this is just a normal cycle.' "
Null leans toward blaming the normal cycle for Sacramento's record-breaking string of 100-degrees-or more days, noting that as recently as spring, the capital region was much cooler than usual instead of warmer.
