Hunga Tonga Heat

 

 Last meeting, I talked about how Hunga Tonga has made fall through spring wet, and the rain was early this year in mid-August.  But seawater in the stratosphere doesn’t only make clouds and rain; it also makes heat, because water vapor is the most powerful and abundant of greenhouse gases, and in the stratosphere, it has few molecules in the way of infra-red heat reaching the ground.   

The first two years after the volcano blew 150 million tons of water into stratosphere, we had much hotter 100-degree-plus weather in July and August. But that heat showed up only on clear days, which one would expect.  This year, it happened on partly cloudy days most of the summer.  It reminded me of the weather in Arizona during monsoon season, and we have been getting more monsoon weather coming from the Southwest this year.

This makes me think that there is a bell curve to the amount of rain coming out of the stratosphere, and we are in the middle of the curve, if scientists are right that Hunga Tonga weather effects will last only five years.

The forecast for this winter calls for a warm winter with a lot more rain.

 

9-17-2025 2-minute Speech to Grants Pass City Council

Published at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and shared on Facebook and Nextdoor

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 Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener           541-955-9040                rycke@gardener.com

Hunga Tonga

           

 Eruption touching space, 1-16-2022

Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai is an underwater volcano in the South Pacific.  It was 450 feet underwater when it started to erupt December 8, 2021.  It built a cinder cone that reared up over the waves.  January 15, 2022, it blew its top 450 feet under water. 

It scattered the cinders as it threw 150 million tons of seawater up through the troposphere; the stratosphere, and punched the mesosphere, touching space and leaving a visible hump that is on the NASA website.  Search NASA, Hunga Tonga.

That water in the stratosphere has been slowly falling into the air where weather is made, which was first noticed on our West Coast in September of 2022, causing flooding and mudslides in California, according to the Los Angeles Times.  December 31, 2022 is when Wikipedia says it started flooding California.  It continued through spring 2023.

Wikipedia blames it all on climate change, though it mentions some unnamed scientists saying it could have other causes.  It doesn’t mention the underwater volcano that sent 150,000,000 tons of seawater into the stratosphere, a nameless one-day wonder on the evening news, a bit of video showing the blast expanding as it neared the satellite directly above it.  It will be affecting our weather for a several more years.

 9-3-2025 2-minute Speech to the City Council

Published at GardenGrantsPass.blogspot.com and shared on Facebook and Nextdoor

Like Ratepayers for Fair Water and Sewer Pricing on Facebook

 Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener           541-955-9040                rycke@gardener.com