#59 Postby Janie34 » Tue Jul 06, 2004 5:03 pm
Hrmmm. Something strikes me as interesting about this pattern, though. It is early in the season and the African train is making a move. There is a lot of talk about climatology.
While I agree that in many instances it is quite useful for month-to-month and yearly events, I doubt we posess enough information to make truly qualified judgements about the climate or what is or is not normal. Isn't "normal" a relative term? After all, how long have we as human beings kept reliable Wx records? 100 or even 200 years of accurate record-keeping is simply not enough data. I think sometimes the best we can do is make educated guesses, especially concerning such things as global pattern changes. TPC mentions that they have not known a tropical cyclone to form that far east this early. I'm just pointing out that hurricanes have been forming and moving across the pond looooong before anyone thought of attempting to predict their formation and path of movement. Millenia, even. It is possible that what we consider normal may be an abnormality. Given the great lengths of time in Earth's existence, humankind only accounts for a mere blink of the eye.
OTOH, all we have to go on is our records and our understanding of the atmosphere and all the associated dynamics. I just think its something interesting to ponder from time to time.
<We now return you to your regularly scheduled watch on the tropics>
0 likes
