AccuWeather Founder and Executive Chairman Dr. Joel N. Myers discusses how the Earth's climate has changed over time and how that has affected the weather.
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00:00Well it's always good to be with Dr. Joel Myers, AccuWeather's founder and
00:04executive chairman, today to talk about climate change. Dr. Myers, how has the
00:09climate changed over time? It's changed dramatically, obviously over most of the
00:15history of the world there's been little or no ice. It's been warmer than it's
00:19been and more recently, but over the last two million years there's been two great
00:25advances and retreats of the ice and it's hard to believe but just 12,000
00:31years ago we were in the heart of an ice age, 12,000 years ago, and at that time
00:37the ice was more than two miles thick over Montreal, Canada. So the northern
00:43continents, the northern hemisphere, covered by ice down to New York City.
00:48There was a southern boundary that's across the United States, Canada all under ice for
00:52the most part, so much of the United States was unlivable. It was just so
00:57cold and then the ice started melting and at that time the water levels in the
01:03ocean, because there was so much ice on the continents, was 450 feet lower than
01:08it is today. So there was much more land accessible. That was just 12,000 years
01:16ago and at that time there was between 1 and 10 million humans on the entire
01:22planet. So it was a whole different world and so then gradually was warmed
01:29as the ice melted and but when we fell into the Little Ice Age from 1300 to
01:351850, which was quite cold, a lot of crop failures and so on, and then we started
01:41coming out of it and warming naturally and then of course over the last 70
01:47years humans have contributed significantly to further warming and
01:51we've seen the effect of that particularly over the last couple of
01:54decades. And in what ways has the warming atmosphere affected extreme and
02:00severe weather in terms of impact and frequency? Greater water vapor in the air
02:04as the temperature warms, so you have more fuel for heavier rains. Hotter
02:10temperatures mean stronger updrafts which condense more water vapor out of
02:15the atmosphere, leads to bigger hailstorms, can lead to more violent
02:20tornadoes, and of course hurricanes. If everything is right, a hurricane can be
02:28more intense than it might have been with cooler ocean temperatures and so
02:35more rain, even more wind potentially, some more category 4 and 5 storms in
02:40certain situations. Well Dr. Joel Myers, great to be with you to talk about
02:44climate change. My pleasure as always.