Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Rainfall - Oil Spill Link???

If you've read previous posts on my blog, you'll know that we've gotten a lot more rain this year than is usually the case.  So much so, that spring seeding of crops is only 64% complete as compared to the usual of 96% for this time of year and much of what has been seeded is lying underwater due to flooded fields.  This has caused a  number of municipalities (more than 30) to declare themselves as agricultural disaster areas.

A caller to a radio talk show that I listened to today made an interesting suggestion - wondering if the excessive rainfall is connected in someway to the BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.  The caller's reasoning: "The spill creates a large area which is darker than surrounding water; dark patches absorb more sunlight causing more evaporation of ocean water...."


File:Controlled burn of oil on May 19th.JPG

In my fertile imagination I can see other factors - the huge plumes of smoke generated by controlled burns of the spilled oil....

.... and potentially the smoke and ash generated by the Icelandic volcano (Most went east, causing Europe and the UK problems, - but not all).... since dust, smoke or ash in the air is a necessary component for rain to form (rain clouds are often "seeded" in drought areas by spraying the clouds with particles onto which rain can form.)


As a theory, there's probably nothing to it.... but it does make you go, hmmmm!