Over at The Hockey Schtick, some very interesting information (probably manufactured by Big Oil And Big Coal, ya know!)
A paper presented this week at the INQUA Bern conference reconstructs storm activity over the past 7000 years along the French Mediterranean coast and finds that global warming during the Medieval Warming Period was “characterized by low storm activity” in comparison to cold periods such as the Little Ice Age. The paper concludes that cold periods increase storm activity because of the increase in thermal gradient between the tropics and poles.
Why do we get such an interesting tornado season in the spring? Cold, dry air coming down from the north meeting warm, moist air from the tropics. So much of storm activity is caused by a difference of temperature gradients.
Increased storm activity during Holocene cold events in the NW Mediterranean Sea
Pierre Sabatier et al
Abstract: A high-resolution record of paleostorm events along the French Mediterranean coast over the past 7,000 years was established from a sediment core from a lagoonal environment in the Gulf of Lions. Using a multi-proxy approach that integrated grain size, faunal analysis, clay mineralogy and geochemistry data with a chronology derived from radiocarbon dating, we recorded seven periods of increased in storm activity at 6,200; 5,400; 4,600-4,200; 3,600-3,100; 2,600; 1,900-1,500 yr cal B.P. and over the Little Ice Age. In contrast, our results show that the Medieval Climate Anomaly was characterised by low storm activity.
See what they did? They used actual, physical evidence, rather than relying on computer models. The Hockey Schtick points to other papers that say the same thing, as well. Head on over.
