Environmental Law

Forecaster: Two phenomena responsible for world's bizarre weather ? This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

By STEPHEN HOLZER

The catastrophic weather events taking place across the globe ? from Brazil?s and Australia?s flooding to the Eastern United States? heavy snowfall ? have two likely explanations.

Tony Barnston, lead forecaster at Columbia University?s International Research Institute for Climate and Society, said two phenomena ? La Niña and the North Atlantic Oscillation ? are likely responsible for the patterns we?re seeing.

Though La Niña is different every time, it can be simply defined as a drop in water temperature in the eastern and central tropical Pacific Ocean. This particular La Niña appeared in July, Barnston said, and will last through spring

via news.blogs.cnn.com

Full post as published by Environmental Legal Blogs on January 14, 2011 (boomark / email).