Alberta floods

[Topaz]

The pictures out of Alberta are heartbreaking and at times unbelievable!! They are similar to to pictures we see in Europe, where homes are washed away. I'm sure all Canadians hope for the best after this disaster. http://ca.news.yahoo.com/alberta-floods/?cache=clear

[GostHacked]

That's a LOT of water. What a mess. Downtown is going to take a lot to clean up. Too bad, it's a nice lookin city.

[Sheogorath_The_Mad]

It'll be funny to watch "staunch" Alberta conservatives come cap in hand to the feds.

[The_Squid]

Certainly shows how quickly anyone could become homeless and destitute through no fault of their own. But the rest of Canada will be there to help.

[ReeferMadness]

The only key thing to remember is that this event has nothing to do with climate change. Since climate change doesn't exist, it did not contribute to this freak event.

Now let's all bow our heads and pray to the great gods of Capitalism. They will tell us what to do.

[Shady]

The only key thing to remember is that this event has nothing to do with climate change. Since climate change doesn't exist, it did not contribute to this freak event.

Right, because bad floods never existed before so-called climate change.

[Pliny]

It'll be funny to watch "staunch" Alberta conservatives come cap in hand to the feds.

Good handle.

[waldo]

Right, because bad floods never existed before so-called climate change.

per the World Meteorological Organization's (March 2013 release) of its annual Statement on the Status of the Global Climate: WMO statement on the status of the global climate in 2012

... continued warming leading to climatic changes generating increased extreme weather-related events, including "major heatwaves and extreme high temperatures, major drought and wildfires, extreme precipitation and floods, snow and extreme cold, and tropical cyclones."

The continued upward trend in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases and the consequent increase in radiative forcing of the Earth’s atmosphere confirm that the warming will continue.

.

.

Natural climate variability has always resulted in such extremes, but the physical characteristics of extreme weather and climate events are being increasingly shaped by climate change.

[margrace]

Climate change is certainly affecting us all. We had floods in our area never seen before. And I believe this is a warning. On the other hand one of the things being covered over is the coming shortage of oil. Prices will only go up and supply in the future will be limited. Do any of you realize what this will do to the price of food. As gas and diesel becomes scarcer and more expensive how will this big farmers all over Canada be able to afford the price of it. Those big tractors take a lot of fuel. Consider for a moment a story from my younger days about a farmer who had just bought a tractor, previously he had used horses. The same field that took a week to plow now took only a half day. Horses are not the answer nor are windmills and solar systems. We have to change our ways, the price of food will sky rocket as it is starting to do now or have you not noticed.

Our governments are all talking carbon exchanges, this will have nothing to do with your food. As food and water too at the rate we are wasting it becomes scarcer and scarcer there will be mass protests.

Unless we quite this stupidity of our government and big business' we will all be in trouble. I am too old but like me some of you must have grandchildren who may have no idea where their food comes from.

[Shady]

per the World Meteorological Organization's (March 2013 release) of its annual Statement on the Status of the Global Climate: WMO statement on the status of the global climate in 2012

... continued warming leading to climatic changes generating increased extreme weather-related events, including "major heatwaves and extreme high temperatures, major drought and wildfires, extreme precipitation and floods, snow and extreme cold, and tropical cyclones."

Right, because heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods never existed before so-called climate change. Apparently there can never be another instance of such weather again, in the rest of the existence of the earth, without it being attributed to so-called climate change. LOL. Nice try.

[Guest American Woman]

Floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes - people sure can, and do, lose their homes basically in a heartbeat. My heart goes out to them. Thankfully, as has been pointed out, they will have the country behind them. Others, elsewhere, are not as fortunate in that regard as we are in our countries. Fortunately, too, the death toll hasn't been higher. Best of luck to all affected ....

[BubberMiley]

Right, because heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods never existed before so-called climate change.

No, they existed. But if you notice, the "one-in-a-100-year" events are happening a lot more often. I had a one-in-a-hundred year rainfall over my house on Wednesday. But I don't think it was bad as the one we had last year. Or the year before.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/66-basements-flooded-after-Thursdays-storm-212512071.html

Edited June 22, 2013 by BubberMiley

[Guest American Woman]

Right, because heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods never existed before so-called climate change. Apparently there can never be another instance of such weather again, in the rest of the existence of the earth, without it being attributed to so-called climate change. LOL. Nice try.

Sure we had them before, but they are occurring on a difference scale, a different force. Scientists understand the difference while it might not be all that apparent to some of the rest of us. Climate change most definitely is occurring, and some of it is caused by our actions and some of it is unavoidable. I also think floods and fires can occur because of changes in our landscape, a result of human activity.

[Shady]

No, they existed. But if you notice, the "one-in-a-100-year" events are happening a lot more often. I had a one-in-a-hundred year rainfall over my house on Wednesday. But I don't think it was bad as the one we had last year. Or the year before.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/66-basements-flooded-after-Thursdays-storm-212512071.html

And how do you attribute that to so-called climate change? Where's the rule that it's only allowed to happen every 100 years? Is that 100 years exactly to the day, or just the month? Does nature know about this rule? How many floods has the Alberta community experieced in the past 100 years? Were the floods before this one natural, or also so-called climate change related? If natural, what caused them, and are the same natural causes happening or not happening today?

[BubberMiley]

And how do you attribute that to so-called climate change?

If what was once a one-in-a-100-year event becomes a once-every-two-year event, something has changed.

[Shady]

If what was once a one-in-a-100-year event becomes a once-every-two-year event, something has changed.

Yep. Weather during that 2 year period.

[GostHacked]

Floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes - people sure can, and do, lose their homes basically in a heartbeat. My heart goes out to them. Thankfully, as has been pointed out, they will have the country behind them. Others, elsewhere, are not as fortunate in that regard as we are in our countries. Fortunately, too, the death toll hasn't been higher. Best of luck to all affected ....

As crappy as it is to hear about deaths, with the large area affected by the floods, the death count is very very low.

[BubberMiley]

Yep. Weather during that 2 year period.

It's been longer than two years. In Manitoba, six of our eleven most significant floods have happened in the last 17 years. The law of averages says they're happening more often.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/flooding/historical_facts.html

Hopefully Alberta can act like Manitoba and get a significant government effort to address this and minimize future damage.

Edited June 22, 2013 by BubberMiley

[GostHacked]

If what was once a one-in-a-100-year event becomes a once-every-two-year event, something has changed.

When was the last time Calgary was flooded like this?

[waldo]

so-called climate change

so-called climate change.

so-called climate change

your last recent posts just within this thread: surely your usage of 'so-called' isn't that of "incorrectly or falsely termed"... surely! Surely you're not also denying... climate change. Or are you?

[waldo]

No, they existed. But if you notice, the "one-in-a-100-year" events are happening a lot more often. I had a one-in-a-hundred year rainfall over my house on Wednesday. But I don't think it was bad as the one we had last year. Or the year before.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/66-basements-flooded-after-Thursdays-storm-212512071.html

the Calgary 2005 flood was declared a 'once in a century' event.

The peak flow during the 2005 flood, considered a once-in-a-century event in many parts of the watershed, was 308 cubic metres per second.

On Thursday, the Elbow at that same point peaked at at least 513 cubic metres per second.

The monitoring station quit recording flows for about a four-hour period, said Silins. The river was still rising, so the peak flow was certainly quite a bit above.

[waldo]

Right, because heat waves, drought, wildfires, and floods never existed before so-called climate change. Apparently there can never be another instance of such weather again, in the rest of the existence of the earth, without it being attributed to so-called climate change. LOL. Nice try.

are you being obstinate for obstinate sake? I simply quoted you from the recently released World Meteorological Organization's statement on the status of the global climate in 2012... speaking to the increased frequency of extreme events associated with climate change.

the southwest Alberta floods are caused by, as described, "the confluence of a massive high pressure system, held in place by a loop in the jet stream, slamming up against the mountains". That same unusually placed jet stream has been responsible for the recent record Alaska high temperatures over the last couple of weeks. The jet stream!

again, see anthropogenic sources... see global warming... see accelerated Arctic ice melting... see Arctic Amplification... see changing/shifting jet-stream... see an expectation of "more extreme weather events, such as heavy snowfall, heat waves, and flooding in North America and Europe, varying in location, intensity and timescales".

[Shady]

Oh I know, every natural disaster from now on will be attributed to so-called climate change, regardless of whether it is or not. Despite warming being on a 20 year plateau, and despite normal temperatures in Alberta. And despite the fact that bad hurricanes, floods, tornados, etc have been occurring regularly since the beginning of time. Even with very little time separating each disaster in the past. How soon we forget about history. Instead we have alarmists claiming once in a hundred years event, and then when they're wrong, claiming that that's proof of it being so-called climate change. Anything to push an agenda, even while people are still trying to recover. They couldn't even wait a few days. All politics.

[waldo]

Oh I know, every natural disaster from now on will be attributed to so-called climate change, regardless of whether it is or not. Despite warming being on a 20 year plateau, and despite normal temperatures in Alberta. And despite the fact that bad hurricanes, floods, tornados, etc have been occurring regularly since the beginning of time. Even with very little time separating each disaster in the past. How soon we forget about history. Instead we have alarmists claiming once in a hundred years event, and then when they're wrong, claiming that that's proof of it being so-called climate change. Anything to push an agenda, even while people are still trying to recover. They couldn't even wait a few days. All politics.

no - all that is being said... all that I have said (here), is that there is a demonstrated increase in the frequency of extreme events. I quoted you the World Meteorological Organizations statement, in kind. Clearly, you choose to ignore it... or anything that might suggest that climate change is impacting on the appearance of increased extreme events. You continue to emphasize temperature... in spite of receiving several posts speaking to the shifting jet-stream (and the related cause of that shift). Are you purposely ignoring anything/everything posted and replied to you?

of course, there is also study analysis/result to show that, for certain extremes, not only the frequency has increased, the severity has also increased. More pointedly, scientists are working to more better correlate, directly - if it exists, the frequency/severity of extreme events to climate change. There are studies out there in this regard... would you care for... a few?

(note: your "20 year plateau" nonsense has been addressed in the other concurrently running thread)

[bush_cheney2004]

More "sky is falling" nonsense. It's a flood....just like other floods....from too much water. It is not confirmation of WMO statements.