2006-01-28

Fun with hurricane trends?

Over at http://www.eas.gatech.edu/research/candr.htm there is some fun, with Webster/Holland/Curry/Chang disagreeing rather strongly with Gray (also findable via this) over... yes you guessed it, hurricanes and trends. Its all a bit more raw and bloody than usual science correspondence (In spite of his concerns about data between 1970 and 1984 in the WHCC analysis, Gray nevertheless uses data from 1950 to bolster his arguments. Gray presents an alternative hypothesis for variations of hurricane characteristics in the North Atlantic that involves salinity variations; this hypothesis is not substantiated either in his paper or in the published literature. His analysis of the impact of warmer sea surface temperature on the stability of the lower troposphere contains basic errors in thermodynamics. In summary, there is no credence to any of the issues that Gray raises), so worth a quick read. JA's quote from Myanna Lahsen I think also applies.

[ps: I think I found this via SB; but it may have been CB; in either case I can't remember where. Please remind me...]

[pps: Over in Bogota even weirder things are happening...]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In another age words like those would have led to a meeting at dawn with pistols or swords.

Anonymous said...

I get the credit for the find! I only spotted it because I was at Judy Curry's site looking for something else and followed the hurricane link just to see what was there. Apparently they posted it but didn't mention it to anyone. Anyway, is it quite the knee-capping it appears to be?

Speaking of knee-capping, a comment I just made over at CA may have set a new standard for flame bait: http://www.climateaudit.org/?p=513 .

William M. Connolley said...

OK, credits to Steve for the find: thanks. Feel free to let me know directly if you find similar elsewhere.

CA... haven't looked at them in a while... maybe a post in there somewhere.