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96 comments on Checking in on SSTs

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totoneila on April 28, 2006 - 2:11am Permalink | Subthread | Comments top
Hello Stuart,

Excellent job! I have been periodically checking these charts myself.  I am no meteorologist, but if the Gulf Stream is not flowing as strongly as usual up the East Coast, then the GoM should be heating up more than normal-- which might explain the big red bullseye anomaly.  Any idea on how this affects the spinning off of those monster eddies from the Loop Current?

What worries me is if the GoM can actually get hot enough to spin up the birth of its own hurricanes--this would make it very difficult to shut down the oil ops in time to prevent an environmental castastrophe and/or safely evacuate the oil-workers, fishermen, shippers, and prepare land-based evacuations. A hurricane started near the Yucatan Strait could hit the hotspot of the Loop Current, then quickly grow to major status [Cat3-5] before hitting land a day or two later.  If it comes ashore before starting its eyewall replacement cycle-- it is at full force with a very tight eyewall.

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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Don in Colorado on April 28, 2006 - 2:47am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Well, then we should just evacuate the gulf oil platforms for the summer as a precaution.
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totoneila on April 28, 2006 - 3:30am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hello Don in Colorado,

Thxs for responding.  Yes, if it gets really bad in the GoM, we can send the oilworkers to look for oil in the offshore Artic-- see this shocking chart of how ice-free it is becoming:

http://www.physorg.com/preview63552889.html

I often wonder if the effects from Global Warming will accelerate faster and create more problems for us than Peakoil.  Consider this next link where scientists have now discovered huge rivers running underneath Antarctic glacial icecaps.
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British scientists have discovered rivers the size of the Thames in London flowing hundreds of miles under the Antarctica ice shelf by examining small changes in elevation, observed by ESA's ERS-2 satellite, in the surface of the oldest, thickest ice in the region, according to an article published in Nature this week.

The finding, which came as a great surprise to the scientists, challenges the widely held assumption that subglacial lakes evolved in isolated conditions for several millions of years and raises the possibility that large floods of water from deep within the ice's interior may have generated huge floods that reached the ocean in the past and may do so again.
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http://www.physorg.com/news64754411.html

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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Don in Colorado on April 28, 2006 - 11:54am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yeah, Bob, I've read about the under-ice rivers and the sub-glacial lakes that might flood into some place -- like the gulf stream in the Atlantic -- turning places like Britain into Lapland.

At this point, all I think you can do is watch in horror ... I don't think TPTB are thinking earth marines and everybody up here is still driving Dodge RAM diesels and swearing at the oil companies ...

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got2surf on April 28, 2006 - 2:25pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Howdy Bob,
love your writings.  I've been thinking about this lately.  When you say "what will create more problems for 'us ', PO or GCC?  Well, ask someone from NO, or a pacific islander.  I think the effects will be uneven.  If you live in cyclone/hurricane country and aren't really part of the oil economy, then its climate change.  Or a nomadic ice-hunter - they're experiencing TEOTWA They KI - RIGHT NOW.  If you live in suburban USA and drive an SUV, climate change is minor, for now, but not PO.  And if you're a rich bastard with a big secure compound, you won't feel either in your lifetime.
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totoneila on April 28, 2006 - 4:33pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hello Got2Surf,

Excellent point!  I fear the Phx leaders are ignorantly synchronizing both dire effects to hit the Valley of the Sun at the same time.  The recent addition of 500,000 new commuters adds to the Asphalt Wonderland of Sprawl and the heat island effects, and the continuing drought will eventually make it a dead-even price race between a gallon of water and a gallon of gasoline.  Kunstler and Jay Hanson have warned for years that the Southwest US is doomed postPeak. Oh, joy!  =(

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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tom deplume on April 28, 2006 - 2:42pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Ice under the pressure of a mile or two of glacier can melt at temps as low as -20F.
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totoneila on April 28, 2006 - 4:48pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hello Tom Deplume,

Thxs for the addition of more good news! =(

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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totoneila on April 28, 2006 - 4:08pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Hello Stuart,

Just a quick unscientific question on your latest update charts:  Does it now look like the Loop Current has expanded into a giant swirl that encompasses the entire southwest section of the GoM?  The piling up of all that hot water would explain why the east coast Gulf Stream is currently running so cold.  Recall that the Mars Platform had to delay some repairs because some Loop Current eddies made underwater work too dangerous.

Bob Shaw in Phx,AZ  Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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Dan Ur on April 30, 2006 - 12:49pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
If everyone were to look at the Current weather maps.  You will see a stationary heat blob, producting cloud and wind patterns that looks like it is using the heat of the gulf as a fuel source.  It is very windy where I am in Northern Alabama,  And the weather looks like rain for the next several days.  Several systems have cruised over the high plains and they all look like Hurricane remanents,  Its kinda odd looking.  

Then again the weather has been pleasant and not having a working AC this has been great so far.

I move to a cooler Climate soon, so I won't care so much about the Hurricanes, Just more tornados.

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