Volume 22/Number 1/Spring 1998
Volume 22/Number 1/Spring 1998
Clouds do more than just hide the sun, moon and stars--they also hide a lot of information about the radiation balance of the earth. The more we learn about the effects of clouds on our climate, the better will be our understanding of what our climatic future holds.
Clouds and rainfall--that's the unifying theme of this issue of the Advisory. We hear so much about what we might see of these phenomena in the future, that we thought them worth a closer examination. We've performed some of our own analyses to try and find out what's really been going on, in and coming down from Virginia's skies and we discuss our findings in the first two articles here. The results are interesting and enlightening--but, perhaps, not for the reasons you expected.
And, speaking of rain--that's probably been the number one hot topic of phone calls to the State Climatology Office so far this year. Across the Commonwealth, precipitation in 1998 is setting some new records. But where's all the flooding? Read on to get all the soggy details and find out how things are stacking up in your neck of the woods.
Lastly, we'd like to thank the Advisory faithful, who dug deep to continue receiving the hard-copy version of this publication. Please tell your friends who may have forgotten, that they can still subscribe or join us for free on the Internet!
Dr. Patrick J. Michaels, State Climatologist
Philip J. Stenger, Research Coordinator and Advisory Editor
Paul C. Knappenberger, Senior Analyst
Peter D. Schwartzman, Dustin Hux, and Stephen Gawtry, Research Assistants
Tracey Lewis, Assistant Research Coordinator
The Virginia Climate Advisory is a quarterly service publication of the Virginia State Climatology Office, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Virginia. The Advisory's purpose is to present information about our climate, its impact and related research findings. We reserve the right to do this in a humorous fashion. The Advisory is available by first-class mail subscription at $12.00 per year or free of charge via the Internet at the State Climatology Office web site: www.people.virginia.edu/~climate. We welcome your comments. Subscriptions are available be writing or calling this office (804-924-0548).