Neat animation but I wonder what a normal summer warming pattern looks like? If you notice the animation starts with cold atlantic water all the way down to Florida and ends with much of the atlantic basin almost as warm as the gulf. Remember the hurricane season is defined by the yearly warming of the subtropical ocean regions. I would not be too quick to pick up on global warming on this. Also while this is an active year for storms ther have been many seasons in the last 200 years where the storm activity was worse. We are currently coming out of a 4o year lull in the storm cycly with far fewer storms than "normal". During that lull we have drastically overbuilt our coastlines assuming they were safe. If you want a really good illustration of this drive down highway 12 in the outer banks. EVERY house over 25 years old is on the bay side of the highway is one story tall and is made of cinderblock.
Mike M -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Wes Wada Sent: Sunday, September 04, 2005 11:53 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [VFB] OT: Ocean Warming & Hurricane animation http://aqua.nasa.gov/doc/highlight/anim/126449main_katrina_fred_animatio n.mpg This is a fascinating QuickTime animation showing ocean warming and the passage of three hurricanes: Dennis, Emily --- and at the very end --- Katrina. If the animation doesn't play, you may need to install or update Apple's free QuickTime Player. For PCs or Macs the (very nice) software is available from: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/ Note how high temperatures (the red areas) affect the intensity and direction of hurricanes. As I understand this --- please correct me if I am off here --- part of the evidence of Global Warming is that the oceans rise in temperature. That rise accounts for much of the extremes in weather we have been seeing worldwide. The key idea is that Global Warming doesn't necessarily mean the weather will be warmer, just more extreme. Mood swings of Mother Nature are not to be encouraged. Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
