The Doldrums

The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), known by sailors as The Doldrums, is the area encircling the earth near the equator where winds originating in the northern and southern hemispheres come together.

The Itcz is beginning its climatilogical climb further north, despite it's day to day flucuations n and s.

Presently, the ITCZ appears to be quite active, but it's running quite low in the western side of the cAtl near the equator. Climatologically, I believe it's running lower than average, especially on the wAtl side. This may allow for a longer period of SAL intrusion into the Atlantic as well, but that remains to be seen. As it moves further north, activity will eventually pick up and create opportunities for tropical waves to organize and produce spinning storms, but that is more likely to occur a little further into the season. A more northerly Itcz makes it easier for developing storms to coriolis. And, more Itcz moisture further north also weakens SAL and dry/stable air, making development conditions more favorable.

Blame Game

You've probably dealt with her before, but without realizing it. La Niña is best known as the little sister of the famous weather phenomenon El Niño.
You remember El Niño, right? Or least all of the hype a few years ago: excessive droughts and floods? Blame it on El Niño! Plane crashes and shipwrecks? It was El Niño!

It has been many many years ago since we were introduced to the weather patterns El Nino and La Nina (mainly meaning Little Boy and the Girl).

You would hope that after all these years, the boy and girl would have grown up.
But nope.

Still the little boy and the girl continue to cause major weather havoc around the world.

Sometimes I wonder if it is really them or we have just got used to blaming them for everything, so it is a convenient blame. El Nino and La Nina have been blamed so many times over the years that I've become immune to the news about them.

Just like we blame the weaker for a lot of things, I guess this blame game will continue.

Considering the weather patterns are opposite of each other, don't they just cancel each other out? I guess that way, the weather remains the same. One place gets hotter, another gets cooler ... but the balance remains.

Let's Make A Change!

- This portrait looks funny. But the topic it shows isn't.

Climate change, global warming and the greenhouse effect are all names used more or less interchangeably for the same thing, often incorrectly.

Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average.

I don't believe it is necessary to say much more than that the average climate change is causing several effects, some of them potentially severe. It does not really matter whether the change is caused by human activities, it is happening. The obvious ones have been mentioned in the press that we are all sick and tired of hearing them: ice cap meltings, atolls and low-lying land disappearing, increased desertification, biota changes, increasing violent weather phenomena etc.

The only statement that can result from this is:
if the changes are due partially to human activity, as seems most probable, then we should do everything in our power to reduce their effect as quickly as possible; if they are not due to this, then it will do no harm if we try to reduce their effect. In other words, we should do our best to restore the average climate to what it was over a century ago.

It's not too late. Let's make a change.

I'm A Defender of the Ozone Layer. :)

I guess this photo looks like Mother Earth - when it isn't stratospheric ozone layer of the air acts like a shield in the atmosphere that protects life on Earth from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. A mere fact that stratospheric ozone layer was getting thinner.

But what is Montreal Protocol?

- I felt confusion at this point. But based on my research, The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for ozone depletion.

Yes, I could barely understand what was this. Well, with care, the effects of ozone-depletion will not be too bad in the world. On the other hand, a mechanism for the disposal and safe destruction of ODSs does not reliably exist and should be implemented as soon as possible, with qualified and conscientious personnel for the maintenance.

Be one of those who care for Mother earth. Be a defender of the ozone layer. :)