Making Sense of Weather and Climate

Mark Denny, 2017, Beaverton 551.6 DEN

• British Columbian author

A good general introduction to weather science, some phenomenolgical extrapolation towards climate.

• p051 power difference about 1 W/m²
• p073 1960s Mikhail Budyko 1-D energy balance model - hysteresis, but not albedo (volcano, etc.)
• discussion of general circulation model and computational accuracy
• p086 graphs of global temperature

• p088 about 0.8C higher from anthropogenic CO₂

• p103 Operational Environmental Satellites: GOES (geosync) and (POES) polar 14.1 orbits per day
• p146 Single cell thunderstorm, 1e15 J, 16e6 tstorm/year globally, 2k at once, US 1e6/year, 10% severe
• p147 supercell thunderstorm, cyclonic, many hours
• p151 typical lightning, 5e8 J, 30 KA, about 0.25 sec in 3 or 4 strokes, peak power 1e12 W (microseconds)
• p152 -23 MV, +79MV for one storm. globally 1.5 billion flashes per year
• p156 vapor saturation graph, g/kg: 50 @40C, 4.5 @0C, 2 @-10C, 1 @-20C, ~0 @-35C
• p163 lapse rates: environmental ~6.5C/km, dry 9.8C/km, saturated ~6C/km
• p182 hurricane rainfall carries 600 TW, perhaps 1.3e6 km²
• p207 prediction improving (longer timespan into future, a day or two for local weather, extra hour or two for tornados)