Snowman Mike with a Snowicane Update
Snowman Mike Talks Texas and Moscow Snow
Record Snow in Moscow, Dallas Hit with MORE Snow
Let’s start with Texas, because it’s not just Dallas. Midland/Odessa and south to Marfa is getting snow this morning. It’s snowing in San Angelo and Abilene. Waco is expecting snow. These are areas that rarely see snow and some are having a second or third round this winter (as AccuWeather predicted). Dallas only needs 2 inches from this storm to break their all-time record.
All of this southern snow has more to do with El Nino than global cooling, but if global warming were really real, and snow is going to be a “rare and exciting event,” wouldn’t all of this snow be falling as rain??
Meanwhile, even cold places are cold and snowy by their standards. Moscow has 2 feet of snow on the ground. Apparently that is a lot even for them.
Snowman Mike on England’s COLD Winter
Here’s the article Snowman Mike was talking about. WTG AccuWeather!
Snowman Mike Global Warming Update, 2/12/10
Snow in all 50 states!
Almost. Florida is the only state without snow on the ground and 2-4″ is forecast today for parts of the panhandle. In regards to yesterday’s article that the blizzards in the mid-Atlantic don’t prove that global warming is dead, can a record foot of snow falling yesterday in Dallas, snow in Jackson, Mississippi and much of Louisiana into north Florida help strengthen the case?
A student in Oklahoma is collecting pictures of snow on the ground in all 50 states. Not sure if that’s ever been possible before today, but if so, I imagine it’s a rare occurrence.
Meanwhile, Rome, Italy was hit with their biggest snow in 25 years. Add to that the coldest, snowiest Winter in decades across much of Europe, especially the U.K. and I wonder… how’s that man-made global warming working for you?
Epic Snow Means it’s Warming up! or Something
Al Gore's New Home?
So say the global warming believers, and some climate scientists. Of course weather isn’t climate, but weather over time is. Global warming scoffers (OK, I’m guilty) and other climate scientists point out that more snow now could indeed mean that it’s colder and getting colder, not warmer.
The New York Times has a story this morning that sort of scratches the surface of the discussion swirling around the record snow for the mid-Atlantic. Was more snow predicted by the climate models? Some are saying yes:
Jeff Masters, a meteorologist who writes on the Weather Underground blog, said that the recent snows do not, by themselves, demonstrate anything about the long-term trajectory of the planet. Climate is, by definition, a measure of decades and centuries, not months or years.
But Dr. Masters also said that government and academic studies had consistently predicted an increasing frequency of just these kinds of record-setting storms because warmer air carries more moisture.
They also point out that the Winter Olympics is fixin’ ta start with not much snow in Vancouver, BC.
Most climate scientists respond that the ferocious storms are consistent with forecasts that a heating planet will produce more frequent and more intense weather events.
But some independent climate experts say the blizzards in the Northeast no more prove that the planet is cooling than the lack of snow in Vancouver or the downpours in Southern California prove that it is warming.
However, at least one very prominent global warming advocating climate scientist is quoted as saying that snow would be a rare and exciting event in a few years. He said that 9 years ago!
One more point from today’s article (emphasis mine):
A federal government report issued last year, intended to be the authoritative statement of known climate trends in the United States, pointed to the likelihood of more frequent snowstorms in the Northeast and less frequent snow in the South and Southeast as a result of long-term temperature and precipitation patterns….
Um, its not only record snow this year in the mid-Atlantic, but it’s snowing again for the 3rd time this season in Dallas, Texas. True, one year doesn’t not a cooler planet make, but the planet has been coming off of it’s high’s for the last 7 to 9 years.
This January’s weather pattern in the Northern Hemisphere almost mirrored the ’70′s when many of the same scientists were warning of the coming ice age. AccuWeather also NAILED this Winter’s forecast (released in October) including heavy mountain snow in Arizona (we’ve been hammered), snow in the south (yep), heavy mid-Atlantic snow (you think?), AND even the lack of snow in Vancouver, B.C. for the Olympics.
Depending on who you believe, we are either headed for more warming after this brief cooling pause, or we are still warming and the record piles of snow support that, or it’s getting colder and that is the trend for the next 30 years or so. Since most civilizations do better when it’s warm, better hope it’s not the latter. If it is, we can expect more mocking from folks like me and Senator Inhofe.
As an illustration of their point of view, the family of Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, a leading climate skeptic in Congress, built a six-foot-tall igloo on Capitol Hill and put a cardboard sign on top that read “Al Gore’s New Home.”
The extreme weather, Mr. Inhofe said by e-mail, reinforced doubts about scientists’ conclusion that global warming was “unequivocal” and most likely caused by human activity.
Time to buy a big coat in case Al Gore is wrong. You can’t build bigger glaciers without more snow. Maybe more snowstorms is natures way of bringing us from the brink of devastatingly warm days at the beach and catastrophic meadows and lilies where glaciers once scrapped the ground clean of all life. Whew, that was a close one!
Global Warming Means no Cold or Snow in D.C.?
An opinion piece in the Washington Examiner recalls an article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. just a year and half ago. In his article, RFK opines:
Snow is so scarce today that most Virginia children probably don’t own a sled. But neighbors came to our home at Hickory Hill nearly every winter weekend to ride saucers and Flexible Flyers.
No one disputes that warming has taken place since the ice age scare of the 1970′s. It’s also getting harder and harder to dispute that temperatures are cooling again. If anecdotal evidence is the standard, then nearly 30″ of snow from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. to Baltimore to the coast of New Jersey might be pretty convincing. And another big storm may be on the way!
The Mini Ice Age Starts Here
Next stop, Ice Age?
An excellent analysis in the Mail Online. The article details the natural cycles of both the Atlantic and Pacific Multi-Decadal Oscillations. Something I’ve written a lot about on this site for over a year now. The article points to research being done that shows when the ocean currents are in warm phase, the Earth experiences warming. When they are in cold phase, well, you get the idea.
The bitter winter afflicting much of the Northern Hemisphere is only the start of a global trend towards cooler weather that is likely to last for 20 or 30 years, say some of the world’s most eminent climate scientists.
Their predictions – based on an analysis of natural cycles in water temperatures in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans – challenge some of the global warming orthodoxy’s most deeply cherished beliefs, such as the claim that the North Pole will be free of ice in summer by 2013.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.
Did you see that? Read it again.
According to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado, Arctic summer sea ice has increased by 409,000 square miles, or 26 per cent, since 2007 – and even the most committed global warming activists do not dispute this.
Funny. I don’t remember hearing that on my telly. Is it possible that the American Networks are holding out on us? Just wondering out loud, but I digress.
The conclusion of the scientists interviewed in the article? While the rise in CO2 levels may play a part in rising temperatures, it’s a very small part. Mostly the climate is driven by natural forces. They say the ocean currents could be as much as 50% responsible.
Prof Latif, who leads a research team at the renowned Leibniz Institute at Germany’s Kiel University, has developed new methods for measuring ocean temperatures 3,000ft beneath the surface, where the cooling and warming cycles start.
He and his colleagues predicted the new cooling trend in a paper published in 2008 and warned of it again at an IPCC conference in Geneva last September.
Last night he told The Mail on Sunday: ‘A significant share of the warming we saw from 1980 to 2000 and at earlier periods in the 20th Century was due to these cycles – perhaps as much as 50 per cent.
‘They have now gone into reverse, so winters like this one will become much more likely. Summers will also probably be cooler, and all this may well last two decades or longer.
The article doesn’t address the fact that the Sun is putting out a lot less energy. The Old Farmer’s Almanac had an article last year that speculated what the affects might be of both the Pacific and now the Atlantic in cold phases combined with a quiet Sun. They mentioned the possibility of a mini ice age. There is at least one prominent Russian scientist who believes that is possible as well. The article in the Mail reminisces about the mid-70s when many scientists were also thinking that way… and blaming man:
Prof Tsonis said that the period from 1915 to 1940 saw a strong warm mode, reflected in rising temperatures. But from 1940 until the late Seventies, the last MDO cold-mode era, the world cooled, despite the fact that carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere continued to rise.
He recalled that towards the end of the last cold mode, the world’s media were preoccupied by fears of freezing.
For example, in 1974, a Time magazine cover story predicted ‘Another Ice Age’, saying: ‘Man may be somewhat responsible – as a result of farming and fuel burning [which is] blocking more and more sunlight from reaching and heating the Earth.’
Prof Tsonis said: ‘Perhaps we will see talk of an ice age again by the early 2030s, just as the MDOs shift once more and temperatures begin to rise.’
I know I harp on this, but it matters. Cap & Trade and global climate treaties to stop global warming are the wrong approach. They will cripple already ailing economies and do nothing but redistribute wealth and give power to bureaucrats at the U.N. It’s hard to know someone’s motives, but it does fit that perhaps that is the real aim. Not to “save the planet,” (such a lofty sounding goal) but rather to manufacture an issue and use it as a power grab. Thankfully all of this cold weather is giving a lot of people pause and may help thwart those evil plans. That is why I am all for global cooling!
Today’s Global Cooling Headlines – Snow, Sleet in Florida
Arctic air has invaded the South...
Cold freezes thousands of fish in harbor...
Even Norway's buses can't take it...
Cold snap death toll rises across Europe...
