Earth Science

As the weather in the UK is renowned for its unusually fickle nature, making any prediction as to whether the UK will experience good or bad weather in Summer 2010 is just like asking how long is a piece of…
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The meteorologist appears on your local news station with a concerned look on his face. “We are closely monitoring this area of low pressure for development, and will keep you informed as conditions change,” he says. Each year millions of…
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If you want to reduce global warming, you have to isolate sources of heat, so the heat is not emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere. Any heat emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere would contribute to global warming. A power plant produces…
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All data points to the sun as the primary source of short-term and long term climate change on Earth. While volcanic eruptions such as the current one in Iceland can affect short-term weather conditions over a region, planetary climate is…
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Thunderstorms are the most common forms of violent change in the weather.  They usually occur in the late spring and summer in the United States.  When the air is warm and humid there is a good chance that a thunderstorm…
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In his book Extreme Weather, H. Michael Mogil, quotes famous author Mark Twain by stating, “Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does all the work”. Lightning is indeed a most magnificent force. Simply put, this natural…
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My grandfather was a college physics professor who devoted his life to lightning research. He was the first person in the world to photograph ball lightning and prove its existence.  I grew up in a household where electrical theory was…
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Snow is the form of precipitation that is most eagerly awaited or dreaded by residents of the Snow Belt. Understanding the different types of snow is important for either group. The different types of snow are formed by the many…
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Frost is a component of winter weather that is often mentioned in poetry and stories. Jack Frost turns up in many fairy tales painting pretty pictures on windows and coating the world with silvery outlines. There are several different forms…
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Snow falls in the most inconvenient places sometimes.  It has been around just as long as man but it has only been in the last 200 hundred years have we finally figured out how to effectively control the snow when…
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