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Cold fronts, not global warming, fueled Harvey

In a recent letter, Karen Wagner blamed climate change and/or so-called "fossil fuels" for the massive rainfall dumped in and around Houston, compliments of Hurricane Harvey. She was, and remains, dead wrong.

Has anyone noticed how cool it's been lately? August, especially early August, is usually quite warm and sometimes downright hot. We did have some hot days this past August, but we also had a lot of cooler days as well, and WCNC-NBC Charlotte (N.C.) had an interesting explanation.

From that news agency, dated Aug. 24: "Drier and cooler air have moved into the Carolinas bringing a break from the heat and humidity, but the cold front is bad news for people living in Texas as Hurricane Harvey gains strength. The same front that brought us refreshing air, will block Harvey and park it along the Texas coast for the next couple of days. That's going to be bad news," said First Warn Storm Team Chief Meteorologist Brad Panovich."

A bit further down, I read this: "Forecasters expected the storm system to be either slow-moving or possibly stationary for three to five days, which heightened concerns over heavy rainfall." They sure got that one right.

Cold fronts blocked Harvey, stopping the storm with part of it over land, and part over the gulf. The part over the gulf kept sucking up moisture, and the other part dumped it as rain, day after day after day. There's your scientific explanation for all that rain/flooding.

One could argue that because it was cold fronts that stopped Harvey, perhaps it was more a matter of global cooling than warming that was at fault. Just saying …

John Babush

Big Rock

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