Random Florida Fact: The 1992 rogue wave
A freak wave strikes Volusia County beaches just hours before the busy Independence Day weekend of 1992. On today's special episode of Your Florida Daily, weโre diving deeper into one of my favorite random Florida facts of 2022: The story of the mystery wave and how it challenged scientists to confirm what sailors around the world already knew. That "rogue" waves are real.
Forecasting Change: Hereโs where the planet is warming the fastest
This week on Forecasting Change I want to show you the part of the planet that is warming the fastest. Unbelievably, it is not Florida! We have focused on our warmer days, hot fall weather, and droughts that are part of the โnew normalโ in climate change, but it is the Arctic that is changing fast and where the evidence of our changing climate can be seen.
Putin hails Russian military's performance in Arctic drills
In this handout photo taken from a footage released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on March 26, 2021, A Russian nuclear submarine breaks through the Arctic ice during military drills at an unspecified location. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday hailed the military's performance during recent Arctic drills, part of Moscow's efforts to expand its presence in the polar region. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)MOSCOW โ Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday hailed the military's performance during recent Arctic drills, part of Moscow's efforts to expand its presence in the polar region. Navy chief Adm. Nikolai Yevmenov reported to Putin that the exercise has featured three nuclear submarines simultaneously breaking through Arctic Ice, and warplanes flying over the North Pole. The video also showed three nuclear submarines that smashed through the Arctic ice next to one another.
EXPLAINER: Topsy-turvy weather comes from polar vortex
Meteorologists blame the all-too-familiar polar vortex. That's the polar vortex, which spins like a whirling top at the top of the planet. AdThis particular polar vortex breakdown has been a whopper. Warming in the Arctic, with shrinking sea ice, is goosing the atmospheric wave in two places, giving it more energy when it strikes the polar vortex, making it more likely to disrupt the vortex, Cohen said. PATTERN HAS BEEN OBSERVED FOR DECADESThere were strong polar vortex disruptions and cold outbreaks like this in the 1980s, Cohen said.
Polar Express: Arctic outbreak to invade parts of US
ORLANDO, Fla. โ The northern tier of the country has been in the grasp of Arctic air for the last week. The core of the potentially record-breaking cold air will settle right into the Nationโs heartland over the weekend. The second is the stratospheric polar vortex which forms in the winter and resides over the polar regions way up in the stratosphere. When the stratospheric polar vortex is weak, the tropospheric polar vortex or polar jet stream also tends to weaken, allowing for Arctic air to spill into the Lower-48. (NOAA)The Arctic oscillation tracks the stability of the polar vortex.
Hot again: 2020 sets yet another global temperature record
(AP Photo/Scott Sonner)Earthโs rising fever hit or neared record hot temperature levels in 2020, global weather groups reported Thursday. โWeโre expecting it to get hotter and thatโs exactly what happened.โNOAA said 2020 averaged 58.77 degrees (14.88 degrees Celsius), a few hundredths of a degree behind 2016. Japanโs weather agency put 2020 as warmer than 2016, but a separate calculation by Japanese scientists put 2020 as a close third behind 2016 and 2019. Earth has now warmed 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times and is adding another 0.2 degrees Celsius (0.36 Fahrenheit) a decade. Schmidt said fewer cooling aerosols could be responsible for .09 to .18 degrees (.05 to .1 degrees Celsius) warming for the year.
Hereโs where Christmas 2020 ranks among the coldest all time in Central Florida
ORLANDO, Fla. โ Christmas 2020 will rank among the coldest Christmasโ on record for Central Florida. Christmas 2020 will take a spot in the top ten coldest of all time, tying with 1995 for the sixth coldest Christmas on record. The Christmas chill arrived in dramatic fashion on Christmas Eve night with a strong Arctic cold front blasting through Central Florida. Temperature drop behind Christmas Eve's Arctic cold frontThe biggest drop in temperature occurred after the cold front moved through after 7 p.m. Christmas Eve. Florida sees numerous cold fronts plow through every winter, but they are rarely as strong as the one that moved through Christmas Eve.
Arctic blast: Coldest Christmas in 25 years coming to Central Florida
ORLANDO, Fla. โ Central Florida will experience two seasons in twelve hours as a strong cold front ushers in Arctic air. Highs Christmas Eve will be extremely warm, climbing into the upper 70s and low 80s. Temperatures plummet Christmas Eve nightHigh temperatures for Christmas will likely officially occur at midnight. Coldest Christmas' in the last 25 years. The coldest night in almost three years arrives Christmas night.
Scientists return from Arctic with wealth of climate data
The icebreaker Polarstern, carrying scientists on a year-long international effort to study the high Arctic, has returned to its home port in Germany. The RV Polarstern arrived Monday in the North Sea port of Bremerhaven. โWe went above and beyond the data collection we set out to do," said Melinda Webster, a sea ice expert at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, whose work is funded by NASA. โThis is an extremely exciting time to get into Arctic science because of the changes that are happening," she said. โWe are watching the Arctic sea ice die,โ said Rex, adding that he thinks it's possible there may be no summer sea ice in the Arctic soon.
Warming shrinks Arctic Ocean ice to 2nd lowest on record
Ice in the Arctic Ocean melted to its second lowest level on record this summer, triggered by global warming along with natural forces, U.S. scientists reported Monday. The extent of ice-covered ocean at the North Pole and extending further south to Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Russia reached its summertime low of 1.4 million square miles (3.7 million square kilometers) last week before starting to grow again. Arctic sea ice reaches its low point in September and its high in March after the winter. This year's melt is second only to 2012, when the ice shrank to 1.3 million square miles (3.4 million square kilometers), according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, which has been keeping satellite records since 1979. In the 1980s, the ice cover was about 1 million square miles (2.7 million square kilometers) bigger than current summer levels.
UN agency laments summer's 'deep wound' to Earth's ice cover
GENEVA The United Nations weather agency says this summer will go down for leaving a deep wound in the cryosphere -- the planets frozen parts -- amid a heat wave in the Arctic, shrinking sea ice and the collapse of a leading Canadian ice shelf. The weather agency said in a statement that many new temperature records have been set in recent months, including in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. The town, located in Siberia above the Arctic Circle line, reached 38 degrees Celsius (100 F) on June 20. She noted a heat wave across the Arctic, r ecord-breaking wildfires in Siberia, nearly record-low sea ice extent, and the collapse of one of the last fully intact Canadian ice shelves. The WMO is preparing to release on Sept. 9 a report on the impact of climate change on the cryosphere.
Dutch man killed by polar bear on Norway's Svalbard Islands
The Longyearbyen camp site after a polar bear attacked the site and killed a man in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands in the Arctic, Friday Aug. 28, 2020. The polar bear was killed. (Line Nagell Ylvisaker / NTB scanpix via AP)COPENHAGEN A polar bear attacked a camping site Friday in Norway's remote Svalbard Islands, killing a 38-year-old Dutch man before being shot and killed by onlookers, authorities on the Arctic island said. This is also a strong reminder that we are in polar bear country and must take the precautions to secure ourselves, Elvedahl later said. ___A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the last fatal polar bear mauling was in 2011, not 2001.
Scientists on Arctic mission make unplanned detour to pole
BERLIN A German icebreaker carrying scientists on a year-long international expedition in the high Arctic has reached the North Pole, after making an unplanned detour there due to lighter-than-usual sea ice conditions. Expedition leader Markus Rex said Wednesday the RV Polarstern was able to reach the geographic North Pole because of large openings in sea ice above Greenland, where shipping would normally be too difficult. The mushy ice conditions the Polarstern encountered this year provide further evidence of the warming that scientists say is taking place in the Arctic. The MOSAiC expedition involves scientists from 17 nations, including the United States, France, Russia and China. The coronavirus pandemic almost caused the mission to be cut short, as travel restrictions made resupply and crew rotations difficult.
Canada's last intact ice shelf collapses due to warming
Much of Canada's remaining intact ice shelf has broken apart into hulking iceberg islands thanks to a hot summer and global warming, scientists said. Canada's 4,000-year-old Milne Ice Shelf on the northwestern edge of Ellesmere Island had been the country's last intact ice shelf until the end of July when ice analyst Adrienne White of the Canadian Ice Service noticed that satellite photos showed that about 43% of it had broken off. The biggest is nearly the size of Manhattan 21 square miles (55 square kilometers) and 7 miles long (11.5 kilometers). Without a doubt, it's climate change, Copland said, noting the ice shelf is melting from both hotter air above and warmer water below. By 2005 it was down to six remaining ice shelves but the Milne was really the last complete ice shelf, she said.
US names new Arctic envoy in push to expand reach in region
WASHINGTON The Trump administration on Wednesday named a special envoy for the Arctic, filling a post that had been vacant for more than three years as the administration seeks a greater role in the region and tries to blunt growing Russian and Chinese influence there. Pompeo has spoken in the past about the Trump administration's determination to prevent Russia and China from playing a dominant role in the Arctic, which is heavily affected by climate change. Russia has expanded military bases in its Arctic regions, and China has sought to declare itself a near-Arctic nation despite having no territory near the area. DeHart is 28-year foreign service officer and was most recently senior adviser for security negotiations and agreements. 2 diplomat in Norway, which has extensive Arctic interests.
Climate change makes freak Siberian heat 600 times likelier
(Olga Burtseva via AP)Nearly impossible without man-made global warming, this years freak Siberian heat wave is producing climate changes most flagrant footprint of extreme weather, a new flash study says. International scientists released a study Wednesday that found the greenhouse effect multiplied the chance of the regions prolonged heat by at least 600 times, and maybe tens of thousands of times. World Weather Attributions past work has found some weather extremes were not triggered by climate change. This event is really worrying, said study co-author Olga Zolina, a climate scientist at the P.P. These types of studies allow people and world leaders to connect the dots between extreme weather events and climate change and prepare for them, said French climate scientist Valerie Masson-Delmotte, who wasnt part of the research.
Russia detains managers of plant that spilled fuel in Arctic
MOSCOW Russian authorities have detained three top managers of an Arctic power plant that leaked 20,000 tons of diesel fuel into the ecologically fragile region. Together with Vyacheslav Starostin, another manager at the plant arrested and charged earlier this month, they may face up to five years in prison. Much of the spilled fuel fouled waterways in the Norilsk area and there is concern it could affect wildlife or make its way into the Arctic Ocean. Some of it has seeped into a lake, connected by a river to the Kara Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean, but local authorities hope to contain it there. The power plant is operated by a division of Norilsk Nickel, whose giant plants in the area have made Norilsk, 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) northeast of Moscow, one of the most heavily polluted cities in the world.
Siberian governor says leaked oil spilled into Arctic lake
This handout photo provided by Vasiliy Ryabinin shows oil spill outside Norilsk, 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) northeast of Moscow, Russia, Friday, May 29, 2020. Russian authorities have charged Vyacheslav Starostin, the director of an Arctic power plant that leaked 20,000 tons of diesel fuel into the ecologically fragile region on May 29, 2020, with violating environmental regulations. (Vasiliy Ryabinin via AP)MOSCOW Some of the 20,000 tons of diesel oil that leaked from a power plant has seeped into a fragile Arctic lake, the regional governor said Tuesday. The fuel leaked when a storage tank at the power plant in Norilsk collapsed. The director of the power plant was charged Monday with violating environmental regulations.