Experts argue global warming’s impact on Sandy’s unusual path to N.J.
It wasn’t supposed to happen. That’s what the weather experts kept saying immediately before, during and after Sandy smacked New Jersey in the face. Not this far north, they said, not in autumn, and certainly not this bad.
New Jersey was hit by a category 2 hurricane in October, 1878
Which is why the global warming finger-pointing that usually begins after a natural disaster, preceded this one. But six weeks before Sandy was even a specter threatening the Caribbean, Rutgers scientist Jennifer Francis — not your normal climate change Cassandra — issued a warning during a teleconference call on global warming.
The melting ice caps, she said, appeared to be tied to recent extreme weather events, especially those occurring in the fall.
Antarctic ice set a record high this autumn – the most sea ice ever measured at either pole.
“It’s probably going to be a very interesting winter,” she said.
I predict that there will be cold, snow and storms this winter, with lots of climate destroying Christmas lights.