No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Global Warming Comes Every Spring

by @ 10:21 on March 26, 2009. Filed under Miscellaneous.

At least that’s what President Obama would now have you believe.  Look at Obama’s comments regarding the flooding that is occurring in the Red River Valley:

“If you look at the flooding that’s going on right now in North Dakota and you say to yourself, ‘If you see an increase of 2 degrees, what does that do, in terms of the situation there?’ ” the president told the reporters. “That indicates the degree to which we have to take this seriously.”

Obama began by saying that “the science around climate change is real; it is potentially devastating.”

I’ve been a resident of the upper Midwest my entire life.  I’m very familiar with the Red River Valley having most of my extended family still living in the Valley.  With that background, I have to admit some confusion on President Obama’s remarks.

My recollection of the Red River area is that it gets very cold and typically receives a fair amount of snow each winter.  My recollection also is that melting in the spring tends to turn snow to water.  That water needs a place to run off.  Given the scale of the Valley area, that can be a lot of snow becoming a lot of water running to basically, one spot.  When a lot of water runs to one spot, that tends to create rising water.  When the water rises too much, because too much snow turned into too much water, that creates flooding.

Maybe President Obama believes that because there is a river running through this area and it’s way up north, the river is carrying water from the melting arctic ice caps and that is causing the flooding? Nope, while most of the rivers in the US do run from north to south, the Red River is north of the Laurentian Divide. As a result, the Red River is one of the few rivers in the US that actually runs north, toward the ice caps. I’ll bet the President doesn’t know that!

OK, maybe I’m being a bit too technical for the President.  Maybe a simpler view would help.

Obviously, the flooding is driven by moisture in the area. Take a look at this chart from NDSU and you will see that the Fargo area, the heart of the Valley, has received moisture that is about equal to the most moisture ever received. A ha! Global Warming! Um, nope. You see, the record to date for the most moisture recorded in the valley is the ’96 – ’97 winter. Um, no, that’s not 1996, that’s 1896! My history tells me that there weren’t a lot of carbon belching engines at that time. In fact, there weren’t even a lot of carbon belching people in this area at that time!

In a speech that he gave on the night that he was assured the Presidential nomination by the Democrats, Barack Obama said that as a result of his nomination:

this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal

Hmmm, I guess he was being literal, he only controls the oceans and not the rivers.  I wonder who controls the rivers?  Maybe it’s one of those spots that we haven’t been able to fill in Treasury?

H/T Powerlineblog.com

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