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Comment by cool_look | Hacker News Reader

And what precisely does this have to do with man made global warming ??

Not every drought / flood / tornado is a result of global warming.

In fact there have been recent studies showing that extreme weather ( drought, flood as mentioned ) has not gotten more frequent since we started emitting large amounts of CO2.

Recent Study (2016): Trends in Extreme Weather Events since 1900 An Enduring Conundrum for Wise Policy Advice - Prof MJ Kelly

http://www.omicsgroup.org/journals/trends-in-extreme-weather...

Comments and refutations instead of mere downvotes appreciated.

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Pine Beatle population is partly controlled by how cold of a winter one gets: "However, unusually hot, dry summers and mild winters throughout the region during the last few years, along with forests filled with mature lodgepole pine, have led to an unprecedented epidemic" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle

It's not really about extreme events as defined in the paper you reference ("events that are several standard deviations away from the average of the distribution by which they are measured and described") by their nature very extreme events are rare. So whether California has gotten more or less floods isn't relevant.

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2016/climate-trends-con...

Specifically check out California here: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/temp-and-precip/state-temps/

http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/forests/fire-insects-disturbances/top...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2664.2010....

That is a compelling explanation.

I agree that mild warming has clearly occurred. the hot summers and warmer winters are both clear and must also have been corroborated by local people ( im in the UK so completely unqualified to say )

i dont put much stock in the new highs that nasa have documented. we have had warming but the warming has decelerated IMO. New highs are to be expected and we are not currently getting cooler

California drought though is mainly caused by the lack of snow in the Sierras which isn't replenishing underground aquifers as it should. That lack of snow is directly correlated with global warming :(

But the Sierras could lack snow for either of at least two reasons:

1. It's too warm in the region, so water remains liquid and snow does not accumulate.

2. The moisture that normally falls out of the air as snow has gone somewhere else in the world.

I suspect the drought is due more to [2] than to [1] which makes the link between the drought and global warming less direct and more tenuous. But I would love it if someone who knows more about the relevant meteorology could share some facts about this.

Can't fight faith with facts cuts both ways...

Ain't that the truth.

Neither side is free of lynch mobs and people conveniently ignoring facts that don't fit their pre-agreed agenda.

This is just a side account of a regular HN user so sick of lynch mobs that I have to use a pseudonym.

Are you seriously comparing down votes with lynching?

I suspect OP wasn't literal. You think he was?

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