 Poster: A snowHead
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VIENNA Europe's Alpine region is going through it's warmest period in 1,300 years, the head of a climate study said. The project aimed to reconstruct the climate in the region over the past 1,000 years. "We are currently experiencing the warmest period in the Alpine region in 1,300 years," Reinhard Boehm, a climatologist at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, said.
Article taken from the Independent, Wed 6 Dec.
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 6-12-06 20:14; edited 1 time in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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kartman, interesting. I wonder why it was just as warm 1,300 years ago?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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I have found the full acticle on yahoo news...
VIENNA, Austria - Europe's Alpine region is going through its warmest period in 1,300 years, the head of an extensive climate study said Tuesday.
"We are currently experiencing the warmest period in the Alpine region in 1,300 years," Reinhard Boehm, a climatologist at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics said.
Boehm based his comments on the results of a project conducted by a group of European institutes between March 2003 and August 2006. Their aim was to reconstruct the climate in the region encompassing the Rhone Valley in France to the west, Budapest, Hungary to the east, Tuscany, Italy to the south and Nuremberg, Germany to the north over the past 1,000 years.
Boehm said the current warm period in the Alpine region began in the 1980s, noting that a similar warming occurred in the 10th and 12th centuries. However, the temperatures during those phases were "slightly under the temperatures we've experienced over the past 20 years."
Humans first had an impact on the global climate in the 1950s, Boehm said, noting that at first, the release of aerosols into the atmosphere cooled the climate. Since the 1980s, however, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have warmed it up, he said.
"It will undoubtedly get warmer in the future," Boehm said.
Sponsored by the European Union, the project sought to homogenize climate data collected in the Alpine region over the past 250 years. Climate reconstruction focused on seven parameters, including temperature, sunshine periods and cloud cover. Tree rings and ice core measurements were also taken into consideration.
The unseasonably warm weather this fall has caused concern in Austria's ski resorts where slopes are still largely covered in green grass instead of snow. Many have had to postpone the start of their skiing season and some have tried attracting tourists with alternative programs, such as hiking.
The lack of snow has also put a damper on international winter sports competitions. At the end of October, high rainfall and warm weather predictions led to the cancellation of the opening races of the World Cup ski season.
In some cases, organizers have had to be creative to make sure their events take place as planned.
In Hochfilzen, Tyrol, organizers of an upcoming World Cup biathlon went to the Grossglockner — Austria's highest mountain — to get the snow they needed to prepare their track.
It took about five days to truck between 7,000 and 8,000 cubic meters (9,200 - 10,500 cubic yards) of snow from the road leading up to the Grossglockner to Hochfilzen, said Thomas Abfalter, chief of the organizing committee.
"But now the track is ready and it'll last until early next week," Abfalter said.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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could be a phase, if it was warm then it could prove we are on a cycle.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Also discussed here.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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This is something that has always confused me. How do we know what the temperature was 1300 years ago (8thC). As far as I'm aware the thermometer was not invented until the 16th century and for the next few hundred years would only be found as a scientific curiosity in the fashionable cities of Europe or on marine explorations. Any reporting of Alpine temperatures would be either "good - not many people died of the cold" or "bad - all the livestock died in the blizzards"
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colin_g, I think over this period width of tree-rings are the usual proxy (in sub-arctic latitudes). However, I assume that depends on the seasonal variation of temperature, amount of precipitation, timing of frosts and other weather variations - not just average yearly temperature - as well as finding enough old trees. I think in the study above they used anecdotal historical evidence as well, and maybe other things. I agree that it would be interesting to know how accurate this can be.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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There are a number of proxies, not just tree rings (though they are a big one), and they have to be merged to get a continuous time line . I don't recall a list, or have one to hand but coral is another one.
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skanky, not in the Alps, I imagine. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Ice cores are the best indicator I think - some info here.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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rob@rar, again, does that apply to the Alps, which I think is what this article is about?
Greenland and Antarctic ice cores provide a record going back tens of thousands of years, IIRC. From what I read before, I think they can't be read year-by-year. I think there's some proxy measure of time as well of as temperature. I've found it difficult to get information on the accuracy, but I suppose it's around somewhere.
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| laundryman wrote: |
rob@rar, again, does that apply to the Alps, which I think is what this article is about?
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No, global temps I think, rather than Alpine. I didn't think that ice core analysis is that fine a tool for looking at paleoclimate data, so fairly approximate and relative to current climate data.
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You know it makes sense.
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Utter dangly bits.
How much coral grows in the Alps?
The truthful statement would be that his study suggests that by his estimation it is possible that the alps look as thought they might have been as warm as they are now. The key words are: indications, estimations, assumptions, models, approximate, etc.
And a "group" of European institutes? Anyone seen academics working together? I'm amazed they even got organized enough to decide what geographic region they were going to discuss. Thankfully it appears that no north americans were involved or we could comfortably expect a quiet apology in a couple of weeks that they'd confused metric with imperial data...
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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skanky, do you feel it would be useful for (the results of) an analysis of the uncertainties in these types of study to filter through to the general press? My feeling is that press presents the conclusions of many studies with unjustified certainty.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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laundryman, I don't know. It's a discussion that's been going on the scientific community for years. It could be argued that (one of the) role(s) of education is to enable the public to understand this sort of thing (generalising obviously). No science study should place its results as certain, but as soon as they use language that states the fact that little (nothing?) is certain, people dismiss the whole thing. The levels of uncertainty can also seem larger than they actually are if you read the conservative prose of the papers themselves. Maybe humans need certainty and that's why religion is so popular?
It's worth noting that most of these press reports tend to be re-hashings of the press releases and some of the blame (if there should be any) for any misrepresentation/overstating of the results. That said, maybe the press should do a bit more than just re-hash press releases (and all organisations and papers do this).
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Well there seems to have been plenty of snow betweem 2003 and 2006.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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| kartman wrote: |
Humans first had an impact on the global climate in the 1950s, Boehm said, noting that at first, the release of aerosols into the atmosphere cooled the climate. Since the 1980s, however, greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane have warmed it up, he said. |
Surely we should gear up to release aerosols as much as possible, then?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Cedric, I have a theory that the Indians and Chinese dishing out tons of grot to the atmosphere has counteracted CO2-based global warming to some extent in the last decade (it seems to have been levelling off since about 1998 I think). Mind you, great uncertainty attaches to my calculations. 
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