| Subject: Couldn't happen to a nicer lying POS. |
Author:
Curmudgeon
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Date Posted: 09:13:27 03/12/08 Wed
In reply to:
DE
's message, "Sci guy gonna cook..." on 18:52:16 03/09/08 Sun
>Bad as it is today, the future looks worse in
>environmental study
>
>Published: Friday, March 07, 2008
>
>Fed up with unpredictable winter storms cancelling air
>flights, closing highways and dumping enormous amounts
>of precipitation, like Saturday?
>
>Too bad.
>
>Canadian scientists say get used to it.
>
>
>Laeticia Luare gets covered in snow as she walks down
>Bank Street in Ottawa during a recent storm.
>Chris Mikula/Ottawa Citizen
>
>
>In a major forthcoming report on Canada's changing
>climate, scientists warn of everything from increased
>severe storm activity in Atlantic Canada to hotter
>summers and poorer air quality in urban Ontario.
>
>British Columbia may face retreating glaciers and snow
>loss on its mountains, causing potential water
>shortages. The Prairie provinces will continue to
>struggle with drought, impacting agriculture rurally
>and potentially causing water rationing in urban
>areas.
>
>The 500-page report is the work of 145 leading
>Canadian scientists. They've examined the current and
>future risks climate change presents coast to coast
>and what they have to say isn't comforting.
>
>But it's not necessary to wait for the future to
>experience intense storms. A taste of that can be had
>this weekend as yet another major system moves in from
>the Gulf of Mexico.
>
>This one will dump up to 50 centimetres of snow over
>Ontario and Quebec and bring winds of up to 70
>kilometres an hour, as it churns over Central Canada
>through Saturday and into Sunday. The same system will
>drop 40 to 70 millimetres of precipitation along the
>Nova Scotia side of the Bay of Fundy and send rain and
>freezing rain into New Brunswick.
>
>And, yes, as travellers head to the airports for March
>break, it's very likely some flights will be cancelled
>and traffic will be snarled once again.
>
>Perhaps one of the people least surprised by the
>wicked weekend weather, is Norm Catto, a geographer at
>Memorial University in Newfoundland and one of the
>climate report's lead authors.
>
>On Friday, he said the intensity of weather events is
>increasing.
>
>When hurricane Juan swept through Atlantic Canada in
>2003 the storm surge didn't coincide with high tide.
>But next time it could and the level of the water
>could be 40 to 50 centimetres higher.
>
>"Are we ready for that?" Catto asked. "That's the sort
>of question we're trying to ask here and get people to
>consider."
>
>Quentin Chiotti, a senior scientist with Pollution
>Probe in Toronto and another study author, echoed
>Catto's concern. In Ontario, for example, intense
>dumps of precipitation could lead to floods of the
>sort Toronto and Peterborough endured in 2005.
>
>Chiotti said such floods illustrated that much of the
>region's critical infrastructure was based on
>standards developed following hurricane Hazel in 1954
>and is in need of updating.
>
>Like many of the scientists, Chiotti warned that the
>weather will become increasingly unpredictable. "When
>you put more heat into the atmosphere, you're going to
>start getting more wacky weather, and that's going to
>be more variable from season to season and year to
>year."
>
>Catto said Northern Canada faces permafrost erosion,
>retreating coastlines and problems with maintaining
>the ice roads that provide vital transportation links
>in winter.
>
>On the Prairies, drought could potentially affect the
>power supply. Problems with water reservoirs could
>leave utilities without sufficiently high levels of
>water to generate the amount of power required
>
>"Each of the regions does have its own challenges,"
>Catto said.
>
>Suren Kulshreshtha, a professor in the University of
>Saskatchewan's bioresource policy department and
>another report author, agrees. "I think the only
>things these models are telling us is there will be a
>likely increase in the events of extremes."
>
>People in Ontario and much of Quebec know all about
>"extremes" as they cope with the sixth major snow
>storm of the season Saturday.
>
>The storm, which originated in the U.S. South and
>gathered power as it moved north, was expected to dump
>between 30 and 50 centimetres of snow on parts of each
>province.
>
>As much as 30 cm of snow was expected in Toronto, up
>to 40 cm in Ottawa and maybe even more -mixed with ice
>pellets -was anticipated to cover the streets of
>Montreal.
>
>Alittle more than 171 cm of snow already has been
>recorded this winter at Toronto's Pearson
>International Airport.
>
>The highest recorded snowfall for a Toronto winter was
>the 207 cm, which fell in 1938.
>
>The worst winter recorded in the nation's capital was
>that of 1970-71, when 444.1 cm of snow fell, only
>about 83 cm more than already has fallen so far this
>winter.
>
>Environment Canada says usually at this time of the
>year, temperatures begin to rise to an average in the
>1 C to 4 C range in Ontario, but the forecast for
>mid-March likely would be filled with temperatures in
>the -3 C range for many parts of the region.
>
>In Montreal, the city was drifting depressingly close
>to matching or even breaking the record of 383
>centimetres of snowfall set in 1971. So far this
>season, the city has recorded 316 centimetres as of
>Thursday.
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