John Wheeler: Even if the air stops warming, the ice will still melt – InForum

FARGO — If you place a block of ice outside in a large tub on a hot day, it instantly begins to melt, but takes a long time to melt. The response of sea level rise to atmospheric warming is the same. Most of the warming since the last advance of the Ice Age occurred between 21,000 years ago and 11,000 years ago. Based on pollen from sediment core samples and gas isotopes from ice cores, Earth’s average temperature rose about seven degrees Fahrenheit and sea levels rose an average of 280 feet in those 10,000 years.

Over the next 8,000 years, with the global average temperature more or less stable, sea levels rose another 150 feet. This is the main concern of climate change today: even if the rise in temperature is halted, the ice will continue to melt and sea levels will continue to rise.

John Wheeler is chief meteorologist for WDAY, a position he has held since May 1985. Wheeler grew up in the South in Louisiana and Alabama and cites his family’s move to the Midwest as important to developing his fascination with weather and climate . Wheeler lived in Wisconsin and Iowa as a teenager. He attended Iowa State University and earned a bachelor’s degree in meteorology in 1984. Wheeler worked for about a year at WOI-TV in central Iowa before moving to Fargo and WDAY.