Extreme weather, sea level, and links to climate change
It turns out if you add up all the rain that occurred there, it is equivalent to taking 2.5mm out of the global ocean and dumping it on Australia. The consequence was there was a big lake that was formed in the middle of Australia which you call Lake Eyre. This is pretty remarkable that you can actually lower the global sea level by this amount just by dumping so much water on land.”
Trenbeth on extreme weather and its links to climate change
The lecture is well worth watching in full as Trenbeth explains changes in the climate system and impacts on extreme weather events.
Kevin Trenbeth on the 2011 sea level bump and Australia’s wettest 2 year period, Indymedia 1 April 13“……….Here is what Trenbeth had to say on the sea level bump and Australia’s rainfall in 2010 and 2011:
“…….sea level goes up with warming both because the ocean is expanding and because there is more ice on land melting going into the ocean to fill the ocean up. Overall it is going up at a rate of 3.1mm per year. So a steady rise overall for this record.”
“Something like 55mm since the record began and this is when we launched into space a series of satellites in the different colours here that are looking down making measurements of the global sea level to millimetre accuracy using an altimetre…….
“What actually happened in this period. Looking now at January to April of 2011 versus 2010…. all this rain that occurred in Australia. Rains down here and up in Northern Siberia, the Missouri flooded in North America as a consequence of very very heavy snows at this time, and the tremendous amount of rains that occurred in Columbia and Venezuela. What actually happened here is that there was sufficient water taken out of the ocean and dumped on land in this event. This was a unique event, in recorded history at least, to lower the sea level by 5mm.
“The most spectacular example of this was what actually happened in Australia… Continue reading
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