Acid rain

Acid rain is a term used to describe the acidification of water and while not being as catastrophic as other issues it is still important as it has a lot of impacts on a micro scale. Over time our rain has become more acidic and this has had adverse effects on the environment. Trees have been documented to have stunted growth as a result of the more acidic rain and have their leaves also damage by the acidic levels of the water. Acid rain also affects the water that fishes live in making it so acidic that they can no longer live in the water really wrecking local ecosystems. Most of the acid rain is caused by the particle from the exhaust by cars and factories so reducing these emissions would greatly reduce acid rain.

https://www.livescience.com/63065-acid-rain.html


he term acid rain was coined in 1852 by Scottish chemist Robert Angus Smith, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry, which calls him the "father of acid rain." Smith decided on the term while examining rainwater chemistry near industrial cities in England and Scotland. He wrote about his findings in 1872 in the book "Air and Rain: The Beginnings of a Chemical Climatology." 

snow and heart attacks

When there is heavy snow the rates of heart attacks tend to go up for a verity of reasons. One of them being that shoveling snow was be a very strenuous activity and often people who are not fit are put most at risk because they are not used to the exercise. This is only made worse because when a body feels cold it constrains the blood vessels in the extremities to prevent loss of body heat. This increases a persons blood pressure and high blood pressure along with someone who inst used to exercise runs a high risk of having a heart attack. Furthermore, people tend to do activities that also increase blood pressure such as drink coffee eat breakfast and shovel snow early in the morning without warming up. All of these activities increase blood pressure or diver blood from the heart also increasing the risk of a heart attack.

https://www.metrohealth.org/cardiology/winter-heart-health

"some activities such as snow shoveling, walking through heavy wet snow or in a snow drift, downhill and cross-country skiing, snow-boarding, can strain the heart enough to cause a heart attack.

Snow shoveling can be more strenuous than exercising full throttle on a treadmill. While this may not be a problem if an individual is healthy and fit, it can be dangerous if not.

Shoveling, even pushing a heavy snow blower, can cause sudden increase in blood pressure and heart rate, and the cold air can cause constriction of the blood vessel and decrease oxygen to the heart. All these work in concert to increase the work of the heart and trigger a potentially fatal heart attack"

what causes aurora-borealis

Aurora borealis are the bright lights that are seen in a night sky the usually in areas that are farther north. The bright lights are similar to that of neon lights as molecules are excited in this case using electricity to produce the bright light. In the case of the aurora borealis charged particle from the sun are shot at earth they then interact with the earth's magnetic field.  It is this interaction along with hitting other particles in the atmosphere that causes the particle to be excited thus giving off bright lights. The shape of the lights fallow is that similar to the way the magnetic field and it explain the at times wavy and odd shapes. the colors of Borealis tend to be green as oxygen in the air is what often gets excited the most. Nitrogen despite being the most abundant gas in the air only gives off faint blues or reds hints.

https://earthsky.org/earth/what-causes-the-aurora-borealis-or-northern-lights

"What does it mean for an atom to be excited? Atoms consist of a central nucleus and a surrounding cloud of electronsencircling the nucleus in an orbit. When charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, electrons move to higher-energy orbits, further away from the nucleus. Then when an electron moves back to a lower-energy orbit, it releases a particle of light or photon."

what are waterspouts

Waterspouts are similar to tornadoes at first glance and some even are just tornadoes that have moved over water. Waterspouts can come in tornadic or fair; tornadic waterspouts are tornadoes that form on land, but then move over a large body of water these tend to be more destructive in nature as they can have extremely fast winds. Fair waterspouts then to be more common and less destructive in nature when compared to tornadoes. While tornadoes form from the air to land fair waterspouts from in the water and move upwards towards the air. This is because of a great difference in the warm body of water vs the extremely cold air causes the water spouts to form. As a result, they tend to form in Michigan during the fall time in the months of August September and October.

https://www.weather.gov/apx/waterspout

"Waterspouts occur most frequently in northern Michigan during the months of August, September, and October, when the waters of the Great Lakes are near their warmest levels of the year. Waterspout formation typically occurs when cold air moves across the Great Lakes and results in large temperature differences between the warm water and the overriding cold air. They tend to last from about two to twenty minutes, and move along at speeds of 10 to 15 knots."

Ball lightning

Ball lightning is a very interesting phenomenon where a ball of electricity forms floating varying slightly in size shape and color. Accounts of ball lightning have been recorded in various places and all describe similar things bright floating glowing orbs. There is no 100 percent known reason known for why ball lightning occurs but there are some theories. The most prevailing theory is that when lightning hits the ground and strikes particles like silicon it causes the silicon to turn to a gas. When the gases cool down the silicon vapor becomes dust and that dust is then attracted to each other because of the lighting charge. The dust then clumps into ball shapes and creates the ball lighting. this can also happen with other materials but silicon seems the be the one with the most evidence behind it.

https://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/ball-lightning1.htm

"This theory also suggests materials other than silicon -- such as aluminum and iron metals -- may also cause the orbs, and that any atmospheric discharge, not necessarily lightning, may explain why ball lightning has been sighted near power poles, electrical fitters, and even active faults."

global waming and marine life

Marine life is a very essential part of the earth ecosystem and also given that over 70 percent of the earth is covered in the water there will be huge impacts on the earth oceans. A lot of sea organisms are sensitive to changes in temperature in the water and could take a huge hit if the water was increasingly getting hotter. Since a lot of what is contributing to global warming is carbon dioxide the waters are also becoming increasingly acidic. This acidity slowly erodes coral reefs which a lot of different species really on for survival and a majority of those organisms would not be able to adapt and survive without the coral reefs.  A lot of economies rely on the fishing industry and if things like overfishing and global warming making it increasingly difficult for the fish to survive and thrive it could be a lot of people out of business and into poverty.

https://www.c2es.org/document/coastal-and-marine-ecosystems-global-climate-change-potential-effects-on-u-s-resources/

"Critical coastal ecosystems such as wetlands, estuaries, and coral reefs are particularly vulnerable to climate change. Such ecosystems are among the most biologically productive environments in the world. Their existence at the interface between the terrestrial and marine environment exposes them to a wide variety of human and natural stressors. The added burden of climate change may further degrade these valuable ecosystems, threatening their ecological sustainability and the flow of goods and services they provide to human populations."

why are california fires so bad?

The fire in California recently have been increasingly bad, but why is that?  In 4 out of 5 wildfires it can be determined that the cause of them was direct because of humans. Whether that be leaving a fire unattended or causing it through action. But that isn't the full story as the fires have also increasingly become worse over time as the climate is getting increasingly hotter and dry in California only giving wildfires more perfect conditions to thrive in.  Along with people moving more and more into areas and the conditions getting a lot better for fires is also what is causing the fires to be so much more deadlier and more damaging. The problems also compound as firefighters have to split their attention between saving people and stopping the fire as if the fire doesn't stop it will only spread and further affect people.

http://time.com/4985252/california-wildfires-fires-climate-change/

"Wildfires are a natural and annual occurrence in California, typically appearing toward the end of the long, dry summers. In four out of five cases, people provide the igniting spark. At the same time, the environment has also become more flammable. As the state grows hotter and increasingly subject to prolonged droughts, and as more people live in high risk areas, the fires simply get bigger, more severe and more costly to put out."

California wildfires and the protection of homes

Fires that raged in California burn thousands of homes and displace many more. Something people don't realize is that the homes in the area were not built to withstand the severity that the fires have possessed recently. On top of that, a lot of the house do not even have any sort of fire resistance, to begin with. Another issue is that homes that a lot of houses were also built on areas where there were high risks of fire, but it was in fine print so a lot of homeowners had no idea. This means that they took no action in adding any form of fire prevention to their houses which added more available fuel to the fires that ravaged the state. Researchers say that sometimes even fireproofing a house won't be enough because where a house is built plays a bigger role in if the house will catch fire than if it is fireproof or not.

https://www.npr.org/2018/12/09/673890767/fire-resistant-is-not-fire-proof-california-homeowners-discover

"California's building codes are not keeping up with the severe, wind-driven wildfiresthat are becoming the norm.Ten years ago, the state passed strict new standards for homes built in high fire-risk areas.
But even homes built to those standards were destroyed in last year's massive Thomas Fire. Now, those burned out homes are being rebuilt in the same places, under the same codes."

Hurricanes and global warming

The warming of the earth is having a terrible effect on earths weather specifically with hurricanes. The warming of the waters causes the hurricanes that occur to be more frequently more powerful. Within the last 100 years that we have measured hurricanes have gotten worse in severity and they cause more damage year after year. Not only that, but hurricanes maintain a lot more of their strength as they traverse waters because the waters are getting warmer and warmer meaning this lets hurricanes keep their strength while also gaining some more while at it. This also means that hurricanes will increase to throw more water onto shore and with already increasing sea level this will only spell disaster for anything that is close to coasts.

https://www.gfdl.noaa.gov/global-warming-and-hurricanes/

 "turning to future climate projections, current climate models suggest that tropical Atlantic SSTs will warm dramatically during the 21st century, and that upper tropospheric temperatures will warm even more than SSTs. Furthermore, most of the CMIP3 models project increasing levels of vertical wind shear over parts of the western tropical Atlantic (see Vecchi and Soden 2007). Both the increased warming of the upper troposphere relative to the surface and the increased vertical wind shear are detrimental factors for hurricane development and intensification, while warmer SSTs favor development and intensification. To explore which effect of these effects might “win out”, we can run experiments with our regional downscaling model."

Global warming and what it means for weather in the u.s

While the earth is increasingly getting warmer people who oppose global warming usually use the current weather to argue that isn't happening because there is still snow or it is cold outside. While global warming is more about the average temperature of the earth getting warmer it doesn't really get rid of snow or cold days. On the topic of snow in the United States, global warming could also cause worse snow storms and worse heat waves than ever before as hotter temperatures cause high highs and low lows in the polar jet stream meaning that hot days will be hotter and might last longer and cold days could be colder and last longer too. The polar jet stream being disrupted could have really have adverse effects on the lives of people as hotter days and colder storms could endanger lives and this could also disrupt agriculture and really damage the U.S economy.

https://www.ucsusa.org/global-warming/science-and-impacts/science/cold-snow-climate-change.html#.XA8V6WhKhPY

"The polar vortex was notably unstable during several recent winter seasons, which in turn influenced the jet stream. For example, during the 2011/2012 winter, there was a shift in the position of the jet stream. Typically New England, the Great Lakes, and parts of the Great Plains sit north of the jet stream and remain cold in the winter season. However, the 2011/2012 position of the jet stream meant these regions were south of it for most of the winter, which helped produce the fourth warmest US winter on record. The lack of snowfall and snowpack for the winter of 2011/2012 and the following spring was a precursor to the large drought episode that impacted two-thirds of the nation during the following summer and autumn."

Heat waves and their increasing occurrences and severity

Heat waves in the united states have been increasingly common and have also been increasing in severity over the past 10 years daily high temperatures have occurred twice as often as records lows. Meaning that over time our atmosphere has only been getting hotter and hotter while the colder temperatures aren't getting low their. This might not seem as bad on the surface as hot days only get slightly hotter from an average person view but this couldn't be worse. A lot of things suffer from hotter weather like agriculture which requires cool nights and moderate heat in the days. With the days becoming hotter it could be too much for crops and even in the nighttime where it is supposed to be cool, it would be hot instead. Electric grids may also suffer as hotter days mean there is a higher need for cooling which usually requires electriicty further compunding the problem if methods of electricity arnt clean.

https://www.c2es.org/content/heat-waves-and-climate-change/

"Extreme heat is the deadliest natural disaster in the United States, killing more people on average (about 600 per year) than hurricanes, lightning, tornadoes, earthquakes, and floods combined. The Billion Dollar Weather Disasters database compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lists heat waves as four of the top 10 deadliest U.S. disasters since 1980. Two heat waves in 1980 and 1988 were particularly deadly and account for the vast majority of extreme weather-related deaths in the database, with Hurricane Katrina (1,833 deaths) as the only non-heat wave event that caused more than 500 fatalities."

what is hail and how does it form ?

Hail is a very interesting weather phenomenon is occurs when supercooled water droplets hit each other in a stormcloud causing them to freeze instantly and form into ice.  Depending on how strong and consistent an updraft is can also help determine the size of the hail as the hail will only come down the updraft disappears or when the weight of the hail overcomes the updraft causing it to also fall. Hail vary widely in size any where from the size of a pea to the size of a golfball , although they can get bigger than that. The biggest one was 8 in diameter and was also 18 in circumference that is bigger than a softball.
https://www.nssl.noaa.gov/education/svrwx101/hail/

"Hail is usually pea-sized to marble-sized, but big thunderstorms can produce big hail. The largest hailstone recovered in the U.S. fell in Vivian, SD on June 23, 2010 with a diameter of 8 inches and a circumference of 18.62 inches. It weighed 1 lb 15 oz."

the melting glaciers

Glaciers and meting and disappearing at a rapid rate providing evidence to the effects that global warming is having on the environment. In 1910 when glacier national park was created it had around 150 glaciers today it only has 30 glaciers as they have all melted and disappeared. This is only bad new as the ice that turns into water will only mean sea levels will rise putting millions of people near the coasts at risk as they could be displaced by rising sea levels. Furthermore, the current glaciers we have won't last much longer as most glaciers recede more and at a quicker rate than they normally do. This is mostly due to the high amounts of fossil fuels we keep using only making the greenhouse effect worse and further warming our earth.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/big-thaw/

"Rising sea level, sinking land, eroding coasts, and temperamental storms are a fact of life for Curole. Even relatively small storm surges in the past two decades have overwhelmed the system of dikes, levees, and pump stations that he manages, upgraded in the 1990s to forestall the Gulf of Mexico's relentless creep. "I've probably ordered more evacuations than any other person in the country," Curole says."

the iceberg that sank the titanic

The iceberg that sank the Titanic was a giant mile-long behemoth. The iceberg most likely came from the west coast of Greenland from one of its many glaciers. The Iceberg had started its journey 1000 years prior to the incident the years of new snow falling on top of it over and over the years compressed the snow turning it into ice only further adding to the iceberg. This iceberg was special in the fact that it was able to make it that far out as most icebergs melt before they can make it to Atlantic waters. out of 13000-15000 icebergs that are calved only 1 percent of them make it to Atlantic waters meaning that they are an anomaly, to begin with.

https://www.wired.com/2012/04/titanic-iceberg-history/

"This next photo was taken by a Captain De Carteret of the Minia, one of a few cable ships – vessels ordinarily used to lay deep sea cables, such as those for telecommunications – sent to the site of the shipwreck to recover corpses and debris. The captain claimed this was the only iceberg in the area, and the red paint was again a clear sign that a ship had recently struck it. There's some disagreement over whether this was the only iceberg in the area, but it certainly seems likely that something had hit it, and the odds are good that that something was the Titanic."

Chicago tornado proof city ?

A lot of people when it comes to tornados tend to believe that because Chicago has so many big skyscrapers that it affects the flow of air to the point where tornados won't form. While it is true that the skyscrapers in Chicago do disrupt the create different airflows in the immediate vacinity they are not enough to stop tornadoes. Chicago will be hit by and has also been hit by tornados but the ones that do don't tend to be that catastrophic usually. Although they don't tend to be catastrophic there have been some that have been. Specifically, there was one in 1967 that went through the oak lawn that killed 33 and injured 500 also causing 250 million dollars in damage using today's money.


https://www.wbez.org/shows/curious-city/chicagos-tornadoproof-delusion/07f3d6cc-3669-4ec6-80a0-d3fef840d478

"a historical timeline and a map are not enough to answer the question, consider first-person accounts. Here’s just one example. On April 21, 1967, a tornado hit the south side of Chicago. It tore across the Dan Ryan Expressway during rush hour, tipped a tractor-trailer, and then spun out over Lake Michigan. That storm is known as the Oak Lawn Tornado, named for the village that bore the brunt of that storm’s devastation. And that village is not a far-flung suburb. It’s right on the city’s southwestern border, sandwiched between the neighborhood of Beverly and Midway airport."