Its Official: 2011 Extreme Weather Year

As if you did not know already, the US government has officially acknowledged that 2011 is one of the most extreme weather years on record. The year is not yet half over and already there have been eight weather related disasters causing over $32 billion in damages.  This year has witnessed the sixth highest number of deaths due to tornadoes, and the hurricane season just beginning is expected to be a significant one. Weather extremes have become more frequent in the United States since 1980. One reason for this is global climate change that has warmed the Earth's oceans causing more evaporation. The additional water vapor in the atmosphere causes rain and snow events to be larger and more intense. Computer modeling of climate change effects predict both intense precipitation and severe drought in different regions of this country. But other weather influences are also at work making attribution for extreme weather a difficult call. Scientists from the US and Europe are now investigating the causal link, unsatisfied with merely saying extreme weather is consistent with global climate change. This year's La Niña was a strong one, causing spring temperatures in the Northwest to be significantly cooler with more precipitation while the Southwest suffers from drought. Texas is dealing with the worst drought in 45 years and it is expected to continue into midsummer. 1.5 million acres of the state have burned. The region of extreme drought extends into Arizona, southern Oklahoma, western Louisiana and southern Arkansas.  Or, if you do not want to accept climate change as an inconvenient fact, you could just blame  wildfires on the Mexicans!