has any one else noticed an increase in the number of storms lately?
I live In the Mid Ohio Valley in West Virginia and it seems that the number of storms has risen sharply over the last year. I have lived here for 8 years and I can never never remember there being this many storms. Sure maybe we will get a few a month but this summer we seem to be getting three or four a week. Does anyone know what is causing this sudden increase in stormy weather?
2008-06-28T13:49:34Z
Bailey_ Sorry love but I am an atheist. I was actually just genuinely curious about the increase in storms.
Anonymous2008-06-28T13:45:19Z
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The Arctic polar icecap is melting, it's expected to be fully melted this summer, the first time in 20,000 years. This water is going into the ocean and is also evaporating and being added to the fresh water supply that's already in the cycle of weather. We're in for a very wet year all over the world, or at least the Northern Hemisphere.
Oh yeah, all the Polar bears, seals, sea lions walruses, etc. that live there will die or be forced to somehow migrate.
I might add, not just the increased frequency of storms, but also their ferocity and intensity. Just look, for example, the storms that hit the Caribbean, the South Atlantic, the West Pacific, and all those.
I think it is directly connected with global warming. The more heat the water absorbs, the faster it evaporates, and the faster it creates heavy clouds. This, in turn, is fueled by more evaporating air it meets as it moves along. This is the birth of a storm. As it absorbs more moist, evaporated water, the stronger the storm becomes, the faster it turns, the stronger the winds. This provides the energy to absorb yet again more water. Heat is the powerhouse of a storm, and we're getting more of that every year.
I have lived in what is refered to as "Tornado Alley", most of my life, did spend seven years along the Ohio River, around Ashland,Ky. and this weather is not strange. Every 8 to 10 years we get a heavy storm pattern. Here in south central Missouri, it has been 15 years since we had a heavy flood, but this year we have it. In 1993 the local lake flooded heavily, then again in '99. Now it's '08 and we have the flood again. It's the natural pattern.
Am living the other side of the globe and the weather there does seem out of the ordinary. Maybe natural cyclic rhythm. Very often one can track back to similar patterns at one time or other.
Also it does appear all across the globe that more frequent destructive patterns are occurring due to global warming. This includes more rain,flooding etc where there was not much before. Fires out of control.because of less overall rain in the driest of areas making the mass of dried debris more flammable.