Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 1: January 2014 | Page 58

Given the weather is less predictable and
weather reports less reliable, what do we do?
We develop coping strategies.
rapidly melt.
The one thing that gives climatologists pause is according to the cycle
temperature plot, we are supposed
to be on a gradual cooling trend. Yet
for the past couple hundred years the
average temperature of the earth has
warmed. High temperature records
(since temp has been recorded) have
been set around the globe. It is true
that the rate of increase has slowed a
bit since 1998, but it is still warming.
Recent research has shown that the
heat increase in the past decade has
been transferred to the ocean—that
great equalizer. The ocean layer from
2300 to 6500 feet down has recently
been found to have risen dramatically
in temperature. We are soaring pilots.
We know that heat lower down will
eventually become unstable and the
ocean currents will be altered (probably not a good thing) and the heat
will bubble to the surface to possibly
heat the air in a rapid runaway.
We could go on, but it is easy now
to find information online. I will
note, however, that the only group
worldwide that appears to be opposing global warming science is the US
conservative interests (that’s partially
because they don’t understand the
scientific process. Do we need an aptitude test for political candidates?). In
all other countries the conservatives
are often leading the quest for finding
solutions to global warming because
they realize the effects of warming
is changing things drastically and
will be very bad for business. While

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HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

China is donating a lot of carbon to
the atmosphere and graying my blue
skies, I have found major interest in
alternate energy and cleanup there.
Time will tell.

THE PILOT’S DILEMMA
I assume most of you have skipped
the above scientific ramblings, so to
get you up to speed: something—be
it global warming or the spaghetti
monster—is screwing with our
weather. Don’t just take my word for
it. At world meets, both hang and
para pilots from around the world are
reporting a change in the weather.
Mostly they don’t like the change.
When we just fly with our buddies
and look at our local site(s) it is easy
to think we are simply the victim of
bad luck/karma/kismet/juju/hoodoo
or timing. But it ain’t necessarily so.
Thirty or forty years ago we would
get some wet years or some spells
when conditions seemed to be off, but
it wasn’t so variable and unpredictable. I’m not just talking about pilots
having less luck, but the big guys,
too—the ones who get paid to tell us
wind velocity, cloud cover and chance
of rain.
I recently heard a climatologist talk
about these changes and she said one
of the main reasons for the unpredictable conditions is that the difference
in temperature in the lower temperate
zone and the arctic is lessened as the
north heats, so the jet stream is less
vigorous resulting in more meandering of its path. In other words, it

waves further south and further north
as it flows around the globe. This
action creates stronger lows, stronger
hurricanes and stronger storms. But
there’s another factor, too. With more
heat in the atmosphere, more moisture gets evaporated. Water vapor
is a great transporter of heat energy,
so we should expect more vigorous
thunderstorms, tornados and hurricanes. Welcome to Oklahoma and the
Eastern Seaboard.

THE PILOT’S DELEMON
When you are served lemons, make
lemonade. Someone with gumption
said that. Given the weather is less
predictable and weather reports less
reliable, what do we do? We develop
coping strategies.
We have a very fine local northwest-facing launch that is our best
post-cold-front XC site. Typically it
works from early spring through June
and picks up again in late August
through too-cold-to-fly. But this past
year the site wasn’t flyable from fall of
2012 until the last week of September
2013. The cold fronts didn’t bring
NW winds, or passed by in a rush
while the winds quickly clocked. Our
recourse was to pay more attention
to our other sites facing other directions. That’s the first defense for this
pesky peripatetic weather: Find more
sites facing a variety of directions.
Necessity is the mother of intention.
Of course, that approach isn’t possible in all areas, so perhaps towing is
a viable option, even in mountainous
regions.
It is predicted that wet areas are
going to get wetter, and dry areas
are going to become drier. Don’t t