Fires, Floods, Snow extremes
Breaking news about Wild Land Fires & Floods and snow storms in the Boulder, Colorado area.
CU study: Soot suspect in mid-1800s Alps glacier retreat
Sep 2nd
The research, published Sept. 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may help resolve a longstanding scientific debate about why the Alps glaciers retreated beginning in the 1860s, decades before global temperatures started rising again.
Thomas Painter, a snow and ice scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., is lead author of the study, and co-authors include Waleed Abdalati, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Glacier records in the central European Alps dating back to the 1500s show that between 1860 and 1930, loosely defined as the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe, large valley glaciers in the Alps abruptly retreated by an average of nearly 0.6 mile (1 kilometer). Yet weather in Europe cooled by nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) during that time. Glaciologists and climatologists have struggled to understand the mismatch between the climate and glacier records.
“Something was missing from the equation,” Painter said.
To investigate, he and his colleagues turned to history. In the decades following the 1850s, Europe was undergoing a powerful economic and atmospheric transformation spurred by industrialization. Residents, transportation, and perhaps most importantly, industry in Western Europe began burning coal in earnest, spewing huge quantities of black carbon and other dark particles into the atmosphere.
When black carbon particles settle on snow, they darken the surface. This melts the snow and exposes the underlying glacier ice to sunlight and relatively warm air earlier in the year, allowing more and faster melt.
To determine how much black carbon was in the atmosphere and the snow when the Alps glaciers began to retreat, the researchers studied ice cores drilled from high up on several European mountain glaciers. By measuring the levels of carbon particles trapped in the ice core layers and taking into consideration modern observations of the distribution of pollutants in the Alps, they could estimate how much black carbon was deposited on glacial surfaces at lower elevations, where levels of black carbon tend to be highest.
The team then ran computer models of glacier behavior, starting with recorded weather conditions and adding the impact of lower-elevation black carbon. By including this impact, the simulated glacier mass loss and timing finally were consistent with the historic record of glacial retreat, despite the cool temperatures of the time.
“This study uncovers some likely human fingerprints on our changing environment,” Abdalati said. “It’s a reminder that the actions we take have far-reaching impacts on the environment in which we live.”
“We must now look closer at other regions on Earth, such as the Himalaya, to study the present-day impacts of black carbon on glaciers,” said Georg Kaser, a study co-author from the University of Innsbruck and lead author of the Working Group I Cryosphere chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s upcoming Fifth Assessment Report.
Other institutions participating in the study include the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and the University of California, Davis.
CIRES is a joint institute of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and CU-Boulder.
[includeme src=”http://c1n.tv/boulder/media/bouldersponsors.html” frameborder=”0″ width=”670″ height=”300″]
Boulder Tornado watch, flooding, rain until 10:00pm
Aug 3rd
By 5:00 pm yellow clouds rolled in over Boulder. Sheriffs dispatch tells Boulder Channel 1 news that “what is in the clouds is dust, humidity and low laying clouds stirred up by 70 mph winds from Weld county north east of us.
Boulder Police department dispatch then started getting calls but most of the action was in the East county. By 8:39 flooding had occurred at 63rd and Lookout Road according to dispatch. Trees were down all over county. Arapaho was closed for a while due to flooding and downed trees.. Tornado warning sirens went off in the county though no funnel clouds were seen. Dispatch told BC1 news ” there was no official weather warning but Sheriffs department was proactive since we were on the ground and could see what was happening.
The office of Emergency Management opened. At 7:30 pm Boulder OEM sent out a press release 3 hours late which would have done nobody any good. seen below:
“Are you wondering why sirens went off in the communities around Erie tonight when the tornado threat was only in Erie?
siren technology allows a specific number of programming options. Most tornado warnings are more widespread than the warning we saw in Erie tonight. For this reason, tornado sirens are programmed to go off in small regions. Otherwise, there would be a severe delay in cases where officials need to alert a handful of towns all at once.
Remember, when you hear a siren or other warning, gather additional information and take action for your safety. Weather radios, news stations and www.BoulderOEM.com are good places to seek additional information”
It is very clear Boulder dodged at weather bullet on this day. Erie, Superior, Lafayette and Louisville took the brunt of this storm.
Boulder Sheriff’s fire ban extends to county borders
Jun 17th
The dry conditions, along with the consistent reports of new large fires across Colorado and the western United States, have moved many federal fire aviation and ground crew resources out of the area. In addition, the holiday camping season is close at hand, increasing the potential for human caused fires.
(See attached map)
State statutes authorize counties to impose a fire ban “to a degree and in a manner that the Board of County Commissioners deem necessary to reduce the danger of wildfires within those portions of the unincorporated areas of the county where the danger of forest or grass fires is found to be high, based on competent evidence.”
The amended fire ban allows for:
- Indoor fires in fireplaces or stoves.
- Smoking indoors or within an enclosed vehicle.
- Campfires in improved and maintained public campgrounds that are currently open to the public, as long as the actual size of such fire is smaller than two feet in diameter by three feet in height.
- Liquid or gas fuel stoves use on private and public lands.
- Charcoal grill use on private and public land.
- Smoking outdoors in areas free of flammable material.
The amended fire ban prohibits:
- All other outdoor burning, slash fires, use of any kind of fireworks, model rockets, and all other outdoor spark or flame producing activities.
The fire ban does not affect open fires within incorporated cities and towns; however citizens must comply with applicable ordinances and regulations in their respective cities and towns.
Anyone found in violation of the fire ban may be convicted of a class 2 petty offense and may be subject to a $500 fine, in addition to any possible civil penalties. Higher fines may be imposed for subsequent offenses.
For current fire and shooting restrictions for United States Forest Service properties go to the following website:http://www.fs.usda.gov/alerts/arp/alerts-notices
For current fire restrictions in Eldorado Canyon State Park go to the following website:http://www.parks.state.co.us/Parks/eldoradocanyon/Pages/EldoradoCanyonHome.aspx
This media release may be found on the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office website at: http://www.bouldersheriff.org