The Dubious Dance of Cooling Glaciers in a Warming World
5 hours ago Charles Rotter 16 Comments
In a climate discourse saturated with the axiom that global warming is the harbinger of unidirectional catastrophic changes, a recent study from Nature Geoscience stands out—not for its groundbreaking insights but for the peculiar manner in which it contorts observations to fit the prevailing climate change narrative. The study, focusing on the Himalayan glaciers, notably those around Mount Everest, reveals a cooling phenomenon, where localized areas experience temperature drops despite the global trend of rising temperatures.
The Paradox as Presented
Abstract
Understanding the response of Himalayan glaciers to global warming is vital because of their role as a water source for the Asian subcontinent. However, great uncertainties still exist on the climate drivers of past and present glacier changes across scales. Here, we analyse continuous hourly climate station data from a glacierized elevation (Pyramid station, Mount Everest) since 1994 together with other ground observations and climate reanalysis. We show that a decrease in maximum air temperature and precipitation occurred during the last three decades at Pyramid in response to global warming. Reanalysis data suggest a broader occurrence of this effect in the glacierized areas of the Himalaya. We hypothesize that the counterintuitive cooling is caused by enhanced sensible heat exchange and the associated increase in glacier katabatic wind, which draws cool air downward from higher elevations. The stronger katabatic winds have also lowered the elevation of local wind convergence, thereby diminishing precipitation in glacial areas and negatively affecting glacier mass balance. This local cooling may have partially preserved glaciers from melting and could help protect the periglacial environment.
The authors of the study document a decrease in maximum air temperatures and a reduction in precipitation in the glacierized areas of the Himalayas, a pattern observed over the past three decades. The narrative quickly turns to global warming as the prime mover of this paradox, attributing the local cooling to enhanced katabatic winds driven by increased glacier melt—a consequence of global warming.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-023-01331-yhttps://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/05/14/the-dubious-dance-of-cooling-glaciers-in-a-warming-world/
