Climate change contributed to building's collapse

Tore Kvandesuggest of the Norwegian research agency SINTEF Byggforsk is suggesting that climate change may have contributed to Sunday's collapse of the apartment house at Trondheimsveien 6 in Oslo. Built in the late 1880s, the old brick structure crashed down suddenly, killing visiting aid worker Linda Henriksen. Kvandesuggest, who specializes in brick construction, observed that more precipitation and sudden temperature swings can loosen roofing, weaken a building's structure and cause a facade to crack. Hat tip to Melanie Kintz (aufbauost) for the link.

Linkage Between Global Warming and Hurricanes

J. Marshall Shephard of the Department of Geography at the University of Georgia reviews recent studies, generally supporting some degree of linkage but also indicating a need for further research and examination of meteorological data. Shephard's coauthor, Thomas Knutson, has developed a coupled ocean-atmosphere model which is run for 80 years with a buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide at 1 percent per year. The model results in a one-half category increase in potential hurricane intensity on the Saffir-Simpson scale and about a 20 percent increase in precipitation near the hurricane core.

Hat tip to Roger Pielke, Jr. at Prometheus who has also linked to the Shephard and Knutson paper.

So Hot that it must be Global Warming or just El Nino or. . .?

Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University writes and comments in detail on his blog, Real Climate, about this very warm winter and how it might or might not relate to both El Nino and Global Warming. Dr. Mann was also interviewed tonight on All Things Considered.