When any meteorologist speaks out on climate change, vigorous comment is sure to follow.  In fact, when any public figure addresses the topic, reaction is swift.  Conservation Minnesota recently posed a series of climate change questions to well-known forecaster Paul Douglas, and e-mail criticism and praise rushed in.  Paul is convinced not only that climate change is real, but that its signas are already becoming apparent in Minnesota.  And more are on the way:  “I think drought conditions will become the ‘new normal,’ especially over southern and western Minnesota. We’ll see more extreme local storms, more tornadoes, hail storms, downpours with record rainfall amounts. Winters will continue to trend milder over time, fewer subzero nights, fewer days with snow and ice on the ground. And I fear, with more water vapor in the air, the atmosphere will become more unpredictable in the years to come. We’re seeing things on a local, national and global scale that just leave us shaking our heads.”

Despite sometimes harsh reactions, Paul says he will continue to speak out.  It’s a good thing.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 3:17 pm by Dave Dempsey, Conservation Minnesota and is filed under Global Warming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.