NASA: It Rained So Hard the Oceans Fell

[pampango]

“The year 2010 was one the worst years in world history for high-impact floods. But just three weeks into the new year, 2011 has already had an entire year’s worth of mega-floods. “ – Meteorologist Jeff Masters.

I spend hours a day researching what New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman calls “global weirding”: the destabilization of our weather system fueled by the three million tonnes of fossil fuel pollution we inject into it each hour. So it is a rare day when something shocks me as much as a recent U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) report on last year’s extreme rainfall.

According to this jaw-dropping NASA report, worldwide rainfall and snowfall were so extreme, in so many places last year, that sea levels fell dramatically.



Sea levels have been rising steadily for over a century as the ever warmer ocean water expands and the world’s remaining glaciers and ice sheets melt. In fact sea levels are rising twice as fast now as they were a few decades ago. As the NASA chart above shows there have been some ups and downs but nothing in the modern satellite record comes close to the 6 mm drop worldwide last year.

So just where did all this missing water go? The ringleader of the great water heist was one of the strongest La Nina cycles of recent times. La Nina shifted and altered weather patterns causing extreme precipitation to funnel into places like India, Pakistan, Australia, and northern tiers of both South and North America.

http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/10/02/332364/nasa-rained-so-hard-oceans-fell/

[ZenCiti]

1. About 5000 pounds of it fell on my house this year

My house is like a wet cardboard box

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. Welcome to DU, keep dry!

:toast::hi:

[malaise]

2. Well we'e been warned

Taiwan was hit this week with a 50 year flood
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2011/oct/10/weatherwatch-floods-vietnam-hurricane-mexico-smog-milan?newsfeed=true

[JVS]

3. It does take time for water that's been deposited on land to work it's way back to the ocean.

Also fresh water lakes may be higher than normal because of the rain, which would lower the ocean.

Also, it could be in the air in the form of humidity, or stuck in plants that grew more with greater amounts of rain.

[Amonester]

4. Only the beginning, alas...

Everything should be made to make it the 'ending' instead of 'unlimited growth' because...

Well... because...

[lynne]

6. It fell over land masses and has yet to work its way back to the ocean -

- its in the floods we've been seeing, our rivers, lakes, creeks and in our aquifers. Some of it may be locked into ice, depending upon where it fell. It will make its way back to the ocean eventually.

[iris27]

7. Wish more of it would come to Texas.

Unfortunately it's that same La Nina drenching everyone else that's keeping us bone dry.

[theophilus]

8. I believe that during the last Ice Age the Ocean levels were quite a bit lower.

All of that H2O is tied up in glaciers and such. I also believe that the last Ice Age (or little Ice Age?) developed in a very, very short period of time.....just a few years. When the mile thick ice is grinding over what was New England (or Olde England) then the sea levels will be hundreds of feet lower. Oh what fun we'll have walking to the seashore......

[stevedeshazer]

9. It went here.

The Pacific Northwet.

[Odin2005]

10. Wow, that's crazy!

:wow:

[The Straight Story]

11. That could be good - Created more fresh water :) (nt)

[Historic NY]

12. We have finally had 8 days now w/o rain in NY..my yard is still soaked...

as its never been.

[lonestarnot]

13. WOW!

:wow: