"Nick Gardner" wrote in message
...
There was a report on Spotlight (regional programme) the other day about
eroding cliffs and shifts in sand/pebbles on beaches etc.

The bit that caught my attention was when the presenter said that with
increasing global temperatures there will be an increase in the frequency
and size of the big waves rolling onto our beaches, thus increasing
erosion.

I sent him an email saying that with the Arctic warming disproportionally
more than the tropics, that the temperature difference is decreasing and
so are the severity and frequency of the Atlantic storms reaching our
shores. He agreed with the disproportionate warming but not with the
decrease in storminess.

He pointed me to this article:
http://xtide.ldeo.columbia.edu/~visb...ster/Woolf.pdf.

The article seems to point at an increase, being no expert on these things
is there anybody who could cast a comment on this?

I seem to recall that Graham has some interesting data showing a
significant decrease in gales for the west of Cornwall.

Thanks in advance.

Nick if the temperature contrast between the arctic and tropics diminishes
then Atlantic storms *on average* will not have as much energy - full stop,
you don't need a model to tell you that, it's simple basic dynamical
meteorology as you explained.

Will
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