Religion and weather

[SouthernFriedInfidel]

You know, when the weather turns dry like it is here now, it is never long before local preachers start reminding their flocks that God punished Israel using a drought. Apparently, the idea here is that God might just be doing the same thing, punishing Greensboro for not being godly enough. I actually attended a church service some years ago where the pastor said exactly that.

But I often wonder about the more godly places of our country -- you know, places like Oklahoma and Alabama -- do they start worrying about whether God is after them when the weather turns nasty on them? I should think that might be a particular issue in Oklahoma, where tornadoes attack in proper swarms.

Just wondering...

[Questioner]

But I often wonder about the more godly places of our country -- you know, places like Oklahoma and Alabama -- do they start worrying about whether God is after them when the weather turns nasty on them? I should think that might be a particular issue in Oklahoma, where tornadoes attack in proper swarms.

Just wondering...

Hey! You be careful now. You're talking about "God's Country". (That is what most of the folks in the bible belt call their state). If you aren't careful, you just might get zapped into a block of salt and we'll have to put you out there as a deer lick.

Seriously, with global warming, it isn't just the southern coasts that are going to get hit with monster hurricanes, but the areas of the country subject to tornados (which has gotten a LOT bigger in my lifetime) are going to see lots of really bad tornado seasons.

By the way, seems like every year now I hear of bad tornados in Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and other southern states. I don't remember ever hearing about tornados being much of a problem in the South when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s. But now it seems as if several hit and cause lots of damage in Florida and other Southern states every year.

I expect tornados in Tornado Alley--primarily the great plains sweep of flat lands that stretches from Texas to North Dakota and up into Canada. The worst ones are usually in Oklahoma and Kansas, but Nebraska, Texas, South Dakota and North Dakota are also in that corrider and get their share of tornados.

Even London got a tornado several years ago, and I didn't think western europe ever got tornados!

[A Person]

One of the problems with looking at severe weather events (SWE) is that our memories are short. The population in the south - and coastal areas in particular - has boomed enormously, so the impact of a SWE is so much higher. Every SWE is blamed on global warming - whether or not that is justified.

According to Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Hurricane research Division current activity is not particularly high. Hurricanes do follow a cycle and we are coming out of an unusually quiet spell in the mid 1900's.

Busiest Hurricane Season for the U.S.: 1886
Busiest Hurricane Decade for the U.S.: 1890's
Most hurricanes ever in one day: August 22, 1893 (4)

During the 20th Century, Georgia did not have even a single major hurricane make a landfall along its coast. However, such absence did not continue back to the 19th Century. In contrast, Georgia experienced three major hurricanes in the later half of the 19th Century

Some scientists have predicted reduced hurricane activity from global warming - others predict higher. The science is still out on this.

Personally I wouldn't invest in real estate in the Netherlands or New Orleans (New Orleans flooded many times pre-globalwarming - and pre-subsidence from dewatering pumping) let alone on the Florida coast.

[A Person]

Coral reveals increased hurricanes may be the norm

The recent increase in the number of major Atlantic hurricanes may just be a return to the norm after a period of unusually low storm frequency, say researchers.

Johan Nyberg of the Geological Survey of Sweden and colleagues used marine sediment cores of coral samples from the northeast Caribbean to build a proxy record of wind shear and sea-surface temperatures since 1730, and from this they estimated hurricane activity since that time.
...
The team found that the frequency of major hurricanes decreased gradually from the 1760s, reaching an all-time low in the 1970s and 1980s.

Since then, numbers of large hurricanes have started to climb again, leading to several very active hurricane seasons. Most notable amongst these was the summer of 2005, which culminated in the devastation of New Orleans in the US by hurricane Katrina (see Hurricane season refuses to blow over).

In 2005, Peter Webster of the Georgia Institute of Technology, US, published a study showing that the frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones has almost doubled globally since the early 1970s (Science, vol 309, p 1844).

Nyberg says that, when considered in the context of the past three centuries, this sudden burst of large hurricanes is simply a return to the norm.

Better get ready for them.

[RebelSnake]

Nyberg says that, when considered in the context of the past three centuries, this sudden burst of large hurricanes is simply a return to the norm.

But everyone's going to be hollering "Global Warming!! It's Global Warming!!"

[BecauseHeLives]

Maybe its not global warming. Maybe its the wrath of God.

[A Person]

It would be in character.

[RebelSnake]

Maybe its not global warming. Maybe its the wrath of God.

Nah, it's like A Person said. It's part of a normal cycle. Why is it religious people always think god did it when a natural disaster strikes? I never hear them talk about weather patterns or meteorology. It's always "the wrath of god"!! People need to start facing reality.