Effects of a Mild Winter
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2012-03-22/effects-mild-winter
Spring officially began two days ago. But in many places across the country, much of the winter felt more like spring. Forty-seven states had a warmer-than-average winter. Americans were delighted by lower home heating bills over the past several months. But scientists say there's a price to pay for the significantly warmer temperatures. Some regions can expect early allergy and wildfire seasons. And entomologists predict mosquitoes and flies will be showing up at back yard barbecues rudely early. Diane and her guests will talk about the effects of an exceptionally mild winter - and whether we're in for a blistering summer.
Guests
David Inouye
biologist, University of Maryland; researcher at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Colorado.
Dr. Michael Morris
otolaryngologist and allergist.
Robert Henson
meteorologist; science writer at the National Center for Atmospheric Research; author of "The Rough Guide to Climate Change" and "Weather on the Air: A History of Broadcast Meteorology."
Comments
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Water availability might be reduced due to less run-off after a warm sunny winter. Run-off is dependent on upstream sources not visible as snowpak and glaciers. In Piedmont NC our rivers are stressed by industrial (especially electric generation), agricultural, waste disposal and reservoir evaporation.
Might we see some uses rationed or shut down this summer. If drought comes things could get ugly. How do they manage in long-droughted areas of Texas?
Do golf courses come before coal plants and coal plants before domestic needs? I wonder.
Hint: Does engineered scarcity of health care resemble engineered scarcity of fresh clean water? Water: we're all gonna drink some sometime. But can we be forced to buy bottled water from certain privately owned corporations?
Can you ask your guests what this fall might be like as a result of the mild winter and early spring? I'm getting married in October in Ohio, I'm wondering if there will also be an early winter!
Do any of your guests think there will be a very active hurricane season due to the ocean water being so warm so early?
When you say 4000 "records" were set in the month of March (if I quote you correctly) what does that really mean?
Example: if Washington DC sets a record for a day and Baltimore sets a record for the same day, is that 2 records as you use the term? If the answer is yes, it seems somewhat misleading.
This winter/summer (!) the weather in Detroit has been warmer some days than Miami. Detroit is now a destination city!!!!
Back to the comments on the honey bee topic. Your guests addressed the 'commercial bee keeper'... but did not address the wild bee population.
The wild bees are the more important because the contact with wild plants by commercial bees is very limited.
I am interested in the fact that ruby-throated hummingbird migration is at least a month ahead of schedule. There is a website of migration maps at http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html -- granted these are individually reported sightings so no statoistical significance, but it's a fact that these tiny creatures have made their several-thousand mile journey 4-6 weeks early (they're already in Connecticut and upstate NY, for example). How does a phenomenon like this play into the grand scheme of warm weather and early flora/fauna events?
question: A story came out a few weeks ago of Russian scientists discovering huge plumes of methane bubbling up in the artic due to thawing of the permafrost. Will artic methane entering the atmosphere now cause a faster and more dramatic rate of climate change?
Greetings Diane & guests,
Good show, (as usual).
Being a 55 yr. old native of Northern Illinois, I am not complaining of
"the winter that wasn't". Nonetheless, I am also waiting for the other shoe to drop, remembering an old farmers saying -- "a green winter means a full graveyard". Have you or any panel members heard that one before?
(I know the ticks are out with a vengeance so far)
Thank-You. V/r, Dave Devine
As a child and young adult, I had bad allergies - hay fever and asthma - from cats, ragweed, dust. For years I took pills that made me drowsy and then had shots. Even took cortisone. Finally, a few years later, I began homeopathic treatment. Bingo. Now I almost never have allergic reactions and if I do, they're much milder and I can make them better with my homeopathic remedies - for me personally, the best remedy has been natrum muriaticum. Cheaper and so much easier on the system. I wish more people knew about the benefits of homeopathy.
What about the effects of gas drilling as explained in the excellent report "Drilling Down" by Amy Mall fo the NRDC.
It has been mentioned that every single gas well that is drilled can effect up to a 200 mile radius.
No one seems to want to call the gas drillers "out". I am 64 and live in Fort Worth. Before the gas drilling started I was never sick. Then last year, I had a cough for 7 days and had to go back to the doctor twice.
I used to sneeze about 60 times a day during allergy seasons. It was so terrible I had to lie down most of the time. A good homeopathic MD cured me. He gave me a dose of homeopathic medicine which gave me a reaction (I sneezed during 3 days) and then, it was gone! I have never suffered from allergies since that time. Allopathic medicine will not help you. It may relieve your suffering temporarily but will not help you on the long run. The key to homeopathy is to find a good homeopath. It is too bad the AMA "killed" homeopathy which was prevalent in this country until the turn of the 20th century. I would encourage anyone suffering from allergies to investigate homeopathy.
How has the non-winter affected bird migration? Everything in the garden is happening early around here (Annapolis) but I noticed that the ospreys that nest across the street from my house arrived a few days ago, right on the normal schedule.
Even though it's crazy to have the bugs and warm weather when it should be cool and my allergies are bad, it is GORGEOUS here in the Cincinnati area. I can't do anything about the weather, but I'm embracing all of this gorgeous blooming!!
Have we reached the climate tipping point with the loss of Arctic sea ice? Might this be causing permanent changes in our weather?
Why aren't parents of young kids out in the streets demanding policies to reduce emissions? The children of today are insured of a very different (and difficult) future.
Mother Nature is giving us fair warning.
As we begin to get milder winters we need to talk BUG DEFENSE. Two words: DIATOMACEOUS EARTH. Grinds up the gears of insects but is mostly people safe. $15-$40 a pound online. A good house perimeter and a sprinkle in the closet floors, seat and bed feet, and under dressers stops bedbugs. Worth its weight in comfort.
Just a comment on the doctor's recommendation to exercise in the afternoon or evening. Here in Louisville the ozone pollution peaks in the late afternoon and stays high in the evening. The air pollution agency advises people to stay indoors. Apparently you have to balance allergy symptoms verses lung damage from pollution.
As harsh as it is, rubbing alcohol on a found tick's head makes it back out. I carry wipes camping and have helped many friends. Just push the pad on the skin and let the drip roll up to it. Count to three. The bite stings until it's numb.
Homeopathy helps me as well, under the guidance of an experienced MD who is trained in homeopathy. I got better through a different route. I used to be sick, really sick, and drugged out every spring through fall with allergies. I tried medications from the allergist, injections, inhalers, etc. Most of them made me so sleepy and lethargic I couldn't function. Then I discovered qigong. It's a practice based on the same principles as acupuncture. Once you learn the practice from a teacher, you can do it at home. The only real cost is the teacher. It balances your body. I now have very few allergy symptoms - occasional cough, slight stuffiness if I've been gardening. The only time I take allergy meds now is if I have to rake leaves or work in the mulch - mold allergies. I was very skeptical, but it worked. Not immediately. My allergies improved gradually over a period of years. I encourage everyone with allergies to try it
But without a full month of deep cold (Indianapolis didn't get more than 20 days) the pest insects don't have much die off and more eggs mature. Bedbugs eggs. We're getting them in Indy. I expect there to be more.
Response to Dave Devine's earlier comment.
This is likely an agricultural version of the old saying, "A green Yule makes a fat churchyard".
http://www.answers.com/topic/a-green-yule-makes-a-fat-churchyard
This saying speaks to the colloquial belief that, mild winter weather; thus unseasonable conditions; will result in higher than usual mortality due to the results of the - unseasonable weather conditions.
No clarification exists, regarding explanation for the WHAT such unseasonable conditions might be, and there are no documented verifications of increased deaths, due to such conditions.
Yet, it is reasonable to assess that ...
This saying was no doubt given, and passed down through subsequent generations, as a strong encouragement to - as all boy and girl scouts are taught - Be Prepared, regardless of what one is experiencing at the moment, Change happens.
And yes, even though in modern times we have a bit more control over our own personal environments - with heating and cooling technologies - we would do well to keep this warming close by, for regular reference.
Though, as an avid outdoorsman, with many years of 'tick experience'; having used Robert Hubbard's suggested method for 'tick removal' - with success; there are serious questions to the validity of using chemicals - of any kind, in any method - to safety remove an embedded tick, without fluids being injected into the bite-victim.
As well, just - hauling off and yanking a tick out - is NOT a smart action either. Methods and specialized instruments exist to make the operation both successful and safe.
This article, from the Eurosurveillance website (the European version of the CDC), presents a very good discussion for tick removal education and procedures.
http://www.eurosurveillance.org/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=3027
@dmiller: You are correct: each station's record high or low is counted separately. This means that many records will emerge if a heat wave or cold wave strikes a given region. There are benefits to having a dense reporting network, including the ability to cross-check weather stations located near each other and the ability to perform more sophisticated statistical analyses. You can examine the records database yourself at this excellent NOAA website: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/extremes/records/
@mlmccluer: Sudden/widespread methane release from a thawing Arctic is indeed a concern for long-term climate. It does not appear to be a major problem just yet. Here's more on the current state of methane: https://www2.ucar.edu/atmosnews/opinion/6466/whats-happening-methane