New models predict drastically greener Arctic in coming decades

New research predicts that rising temperatures will lead to a massive “greening,” or increase in plant cover, in the Arctic. In a paper published on March 31 in Nature Climate Change, scientists reveal new models projecting that wooded areas in the Arctic could increase by as much as 50 per cent over the next few

Winter’s still hanging on

It looks like spring is going to take its time moving in this year. The main weather story for this forecast period is cool arctic high pressure, which looks to be the dominant player. A large ridge of arctic high pressure has been dominating our weather for the last week and looks as if it


Expert says climate change will alter the Prairies

University of Winnipeg geography professor predicts Manitoba climate will be more like Nebraska’s 
within a few decades, including weeks of plus 30 C summer days

Hurricane Sandy and the devastating Midwest drought have convinced many Americans that climate change is real, and Prairie residents may soon have reason to feel likewise, says a University of Winnipeg geography professor. “We are in climate change central in this part of North America,” Danny Blair said in a recent presentation at Ag Days.

Seasonable weather returns

Once again Mother Nature played her own game last week, as the weak system that was forecast to hit southwestern Manitoba last Thursday ended up being stronger and farther north than anticipated. This brought a good five to 10 centimetres of snow to much of southern and central Manitoba late last week. As predicted, the


Impact of climate change hitting home, U.S. report finds

Reuters / The consequences of climate change are now hitting the United States on several fronts, including health, infrastructure, water supply, agriculture and especially more frequent severe weather, a congressionally mandated study has concluded. A draft of the U.S. National Climate Assessment, released Jan. 11, said observable change to the climate in the past half-century

Climate change to hit Mexico hard

mexico city / reuters / A growing body of scientific evidence ranks Mexico and its southern neighbours near the top of the list of countries most vulnerable to global warming, and advances in micro-forecasting foresee a grim future in alarming detail. According to two new studies, a deadly combination of warmer weather and less rainfall



U.S. weather forecaster drops El Niño watch

Reuters / The U.S. national weather forecaster has called off its El Niño watch five months after raising the alert as it is now less likely that the much-feared phenomenon that can wreak havoc on global weather will emerge. Since June, the weather forecaster had predicted that El Niño conditions, essentially a warming of waters


Cold and wet – new pattern?

In the last issue we took a look ahead to see what the winter might have in store for us. In this issue we’re going to take our monthly look back at the weather and then look only a little ahead to try and see what November might bring us weather-wise. Well, I guess we

The secrets behind making a long-range forecast for winter

With winter just around the corner the various weather-forecasting companies and organizations are starting to come out with their winter forecasts. I will do a complete examination of all the different forecasts in next week’s article, as not all the forecasts are available yet. For this week I thought I would take some time to