planetwater

I went running this week in Stuttgart, it is mid January, and I was wearing a t-shirt. All of Europe is having a warm winter, including the storm “Franz“. Such a storm would normally be expected in the fall or in the spring.

Like in Europe, Canada witnesses an extraordinarily warm winter — one in which the Hudson Bay is not frozen [from CBC’s cyberjournal:

Aboriginal people living in northern regions of Canada are increasingly concerned about the unusually warm winter. Aboriginals in Canada’s remote northeastern regions are concerned about the environmental impact of higher temperatures on their traditional lands and way of life. The aboriginals mention the vast body of water known as Hudson Bay as an example of where warmer weather is having an impact. Typically, Hudson Bay’s shallow waters are ice-covered by now, but so far this year there is no ice. Aboriginal elders say this has never happened as far back as they can remember.

Some areas however are experiencing not warmer, but colder weather conditions than normal. The state of California is in the middle of a record cold snap

At the same time, California is getting ready for two massive damn projects. These reservoirs are built so water from melting snow-packs can be held back…

Precipitation of 10mm to 15mm per hour for a duration of up to 15hours (about one fifth of SW Ontario’s annual precipitation) lead to extreme flow in surface waters, and is according to the Globe and Mail’s Article cause for turbidity and sediments in the water supply in the greater Vancouver area. Intense precipitation was one of the causes leading to the contaminated water supply in the town of Walkerton in 2001, where seven people died and thousands are still sick (see also CBC’s archives).

The article also talks about extreme weather conditions (storms with rain) in Toronto and the USA. Is this an example of “increasing occurence of extreme weather conditions” due to warmer average annual temperatures?

Update: See also CBC

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