It’s kind of like beating a dead horse, but fear mongering knows no bounds. From December of 2007 at the Climate Prediction Center:
The forecast
continues to indicate persisting drought across the Southeast, with the
odds favoring expansion into Florida and eastern portions of the Gulf
Coast. Year-to-date precipitation deficits are around 15 inches in the
exceptional drought areas of Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas.
Despite short-term rainfall, the ongoing La Ni?a is expected to bring
abnormally mild and dry weather to the region this winter.
And this from today:
More than 4.0 inches of rain fell in a large area . . . to the northeastern coastal Plain of North Carolina.
Isolated locations reportedly received as much as 8.0 inches of rain. This area has received
higher precipitation amounts over the past three to six months and six
to 12-month totals are near average. Improving conditions in central
and eastern North Carolina led to a one-category reduction of D2H
drought from parts of the Raleigh-Durham area northeastward to the
Tidewater area of southeast Virginia. Moderate drought (D1H) also
contracted along a southwest to northeast orientation in eastern North
Carolina and the abnormally dry (D0H) designation was dropped along
northeastern coastal areas of the state.
The truth is that climate prediction is still in its infancy and we would do well to seek to understand it rather than simply regulate our perceived effects on it. The economic disaster of man-made regulatory change could be far worse than any naturally occurring climatological occurrence.
