Sunday, December 25, 2011

Must read: Extreme weather and why we can't study it

The New York Times is running a story today covering the weather record for 2011:

William Luther/The San Antonio Express-News, via AP
  But the more important and core thrust of the story is why our government agencies are not doing all they could to build good analysis of extreme events, which would help inform business and government about what to prepare for in the future:
   Lately, scientists have been discussing whether they can do a better job of analyzing events within days or weeks, not years.
    “It’s clear we do have the scientific tools and the statistical wherewithal to begin answering these types of questions,” Dr. Santer said
But doing this on a regular basis would probably require new personnel spread across several research teams, along with a strong push by the federal government, which tends to be the major source of financing and direction for climate and weather research. Yet Washington is essentially frozen on the subject of climate change.
There's a lot more, it's worth your time: Harsh Political Reality Slows Climate Studies Despite Extreme Year