Snowfall In Hawaii at Possibly the Lowest Elevation Yet

Historic news has come with a winter storm, as Hawaii State Park is has been hit with snowfall for the first time in recorded history.

It is normal for snow to be seen at the tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa which peak at altitudes of summit elevations of 4207m and 4169m respectively, not a mere 1890m, which is about the elevation of Polipoli which has experienced snow.

According to USA today, Chip Fletcher, an earth sciences prof at University of Hawaii, has said "there's no place on the planet where (people) can expect to see conditions as they have seen in the past." Fletcher is also the vice chair of the Honolulu Climate Change Commission.

Hawaii is a dream vacation spot for many especially as a winter getaway, and it is possible that snowfall has not been seen at this elevation before in Hawaii.

Resources:
https://twentytwowords.com/snow-fallen-hawaii-state-park-first-time-ever/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2019/02/11/hawaii-extreme-weather-example-climate-change-experts/2843281002/
https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/3818-mauna-kea-access-road.html
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Mauna_Loa
http://time.com/5528417/hawaii-snow-storm-polipoli-state-park/

Soggy Soccery Sympton: Changing Climate Affecting Soccer, Cricket, and Golf Games in UK

The change in climate has been affecting sport enthusiasts in soccer, cricket, and golf whose playing-scapes have been made too soggy to play on, and rising sea levels from melting ice in Greenland to the Himalayas are causing the erosion of coastal golf courses in Scotland.

The Weather Network posted a Reuters report yesterday that mentioned six out of the seven wettest years on record in the UK have been since the year 2000. Piers Forster who is a professor of climate change at University of Leeds contributed to the study told International News Agency, Reuters, "Britain is particularly susceptible to storms coming in from the North Atlantic."

Image A: Image credit: GISS NASA / Jack Cool, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

The above illustration shows the flow of the North Atlantic current, its branches, and the flow of water it crosses paths with off the coast of UK.

Despite all these things that may pique curiosity for climate geeks and potential research project on the horizon, clearly not everyone feels the same way about this information:

Ok, I'll admit a cry of "the soccer fields are soggy" sounds trivial on its own and may cause flashbacks of schoolkids disappointed with the "tarmack-only" recesses.

And to be honest I don't even like golf. (There, I said it.)

Nevertheless there is a point to acknowledging this. It just seems like an interesting climate-related observation that everyday people like you and I might actually be seeing. If you or I frequented such fields, and that is assuming you are an 'everyday person' like me which might not be true in this context, but anywho... you probably get where I'm going with this. It's readily observable, and helps contributes details to an ever-so-slightly bigger-picture perspective.

Sources
News: https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/soccer-cricket-and-golf-handicapped-by-uk-climate-change/95195/
Image A: GISS NASA / Jack Cool, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/briefs/legrande_01/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:North_Atlantic_Circulation.gif
Image B: Under GNU Free Documentation Licence
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Circulacion_termohalina.jpg

Sunset Progression

Archived under October 10, 2017
Actually posted 2019-10-07

The Shape of a Raindrop

     Despite weather channel depictions and after years of drawing raindrops with a pointed top and rounded bottom, I was surprised to learn that raindrops are not shaped like teardrops.

     Air resistance is not the cause of the typically-drawn shape that appears as raindrops streak across windows or on peoples' face when we dry; that is caused by surface tension of the liquid water on the surface.

     As they fall through the air, raindrops are actually spherical in shape. Smaller raindrops have less air resistance so they are more spherical than larger ones. The larger the raindrop, the more air resistance there is, and greater air resistance actually just flattens the bottom; a pointed tail/trail is actually not formed by air resistance. When a raindrop gets large enough (usually more than 4mm), it will actually split in half and drastically decrease in surface tension, possibly splitting so small that the water just rejoins as moisture the atmosphere.

Sources

Baird, Christopher S.. What Makes Raindrops Tear-Shaped? December 17, 2012 Science Questions with Surprising Answers. http://sciencequestionswithchris.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/what-makes-rain-drops-tear-shaped/

Oblack, Rachelle. The Shape of Raindrops. http://weather.about.com/od/cloudsandprecipitation/a/rainburgers.htm