The Weather Notebook: GCC#6

GCC#6
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Starting a century ago, scientists suspected that we might be altering nature's own greenhouse effect by burning coal, oil, and gas. But it was 14 years agoÐon June 23, that the phrase "global warming" made the front page of many U.S. papers.

Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton for the Weather Notebook's special weekly segment on global climate change.

The summer of 1988 was blasting the country like a blowtorch. The Mississippi River hit record low levels, and much of Yellowstone burned to cinders. In Washington, then-congressman Tim Wirth sponsored a hearing on global climate change. He invited Jim Hansen, a NASA scientist.

Hansen took the stand on June 23, as downtown DC set a record high of 98 degrees. With his brief testimony, Hansen caused a sensation.

He didn't actually blame the heat wave and drought on global warming, but he did say he was confident the earth was warming and that this likely was related to an enhanced greenhouse effect.

Since that hot day in the nation's capitol, a lot more has happened.

A global treaty to limit carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases, is now making its way around the world. And temperatures have fluctuated from hot to cool, to hot again over the last decade. It appears we're once again on a warming trend with the first three months of 2002 tied with 1998 for the warmest January-to-March period ever recorded.

That's well above anything we saw back in 1988, when the words of one scientist set Washington on fire.

The Weather Notebook is a production of the Mount Washington Observatory. Our global climate change series is underwritten by the New England Science Center Collaborative and Roy A.Hunt Foundation. Thanks today to meteorologist and writer Bob Henson of Boulder, Colorado.