The Sky is Falling!

[MBDiagMan]

Did anyone see the AOPA Aviation EBrief in the last day or two that claimed that Global Warming is going to change aviation? It stated that wings would have to be redesigned and flights would have to be scheduled after dark for cooler air. For a few milliseconds I thought it must be April 1st.

Last year was the warmest day on record by POINT ZERO TWO (.02) degrees.

I'm going to start right now lobbying for my local airport to extend the runway 1,000 feet.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Okay, I found the silly article that I was referring to:

https://www.smartbrief.com/servlet/...A3E-D507-41A1-A27A-326FA538B445&lmid=archives

For those who hate clicking on links:

"According to a report by climate scientist Ethan Coffel, global warming could disrupt the aviation industry, making takeoffs more difficult, and more expensive. Coffel says air density decreases as temperature increases, meaning that an airplane has to go faster to produce the same amount of lift. Hotter temperatures around the world could mean changes in wing design, or shifting flights to takeoff during the cooler evening hours."

A search for Ethan Coffel turned up this:
http://ethancoffel.com/

"I'm Ethan Coffel. I'm a PhD student at Columbia studying atmospheric science and climate change impacts in the Earth & Environmental Sciences department and working with Dr. Radley Horton at NASA GISS. My current research is focused on the causes and impacts of extreme temperature and precipitation events, and how the frequency and magnitude of these events may change over the next century. I study the effect of climate change on extreme weather using the NARCCAP and CMIP5 climate model suites. I am a fellow of the Northeast Climate Science Center, a group dedicated to studying climate change impacts in the northeast United States. I graduated from Northwestern University in 2013 with majors in computer science and integrated science."

 

[Jim Logajan]

I just saw on the news where record snow fall is expected in Boston over the next few days. I guess they haven't heard about global warming up there.

In all seriousness, best of luck to those in the path of the blizzard. Hunker down and be safe.

As you probably learned during your pilot training, as air warms it can hold more moisture.

 

[Jim Logajan]

And as it warms, moisture is not as likely to freeze? Yeah, all that warm air must be responsible for the snow.

Heat must be applied as the first step in getting water vapor into the atmosphere. Whether it precipitates out as liquid or solid in the second step can be independent of the first step.