October 21, 1998 transcript # 256-3
Subject(s):asteroids
Title: ASTEROID!Hi, I'm Dave Thurlow and this is The Weather Notebook. You know, our show is about weather, it’s not about astronomy. It’s about Inner Space, not Outer Space. But sometimes when the two combined, such as with meteors and asteroids, we like to talk about it.
Asteroids crashing into earth seemed to be a big hit at the movie theatres this summer. But we all know that those are just movies, right? They’re not real life. Well, the fact is that asteroids have hit the earth before, and they will again. And if they're big enough, say some scientists, they may have a profound effect on our weather and climate. A couple of different things could happen:
The first scenario: a huge meteor or asteroid hits the ocean. It would vaporize a lot of water. In the atmosphere, the water vapor could act like the glass in a greenhouse and trap heat that would normally radiate into space. As the earth's temperature rose, more and more water would evaporate into the atmosphere, trapping even more heat, evaporating more water and on and on. Global warming would spiral out of control; sea levels would rise, setting off heat waves, hurricanes, droughts and other disasters all around the world. And that's the good scenario.
Now imagine a big space rock hitting the ground, the continent. The force of the impact would spew an unimaginable amount of debris into the atmosphere. Slowly, as the dust spread, the entire planet would become shrouded in darkness. Temperatures would drop and without sunlight, most plants would die. You know what that would mean for the food chain—no plants, no people.
But don’t panic yet. It's highly unlikely that such a destructive asteroid would hit without months, or years, of warning, and that would give us plenty of time to panic.
Thanks to contributing writer George Homsey. The Weather Notebook is produced by the Mount Washington Observatory. Funding is provided by Subaru, the beauty of all wheel drive, and by the National Science Foundation.