http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0v2e2nyJYQ&feature=related

In the book “1421″ the author talks about how the Chinese Armada sailed across the northern edge of Canada. They mapped the land mass. The only way they could sail across is because it was warmer. If you recall the English explorer Henry Hudson could not find passage across Canada. A mini ice age started by 1430.

At one time wine vineyards were growing in Greenland and in Nova Scotia.
Not any more.

“Lakes did not freeze over as predicted…”

Um… were there really those predicting that lakes would freeze over? It takes more than a few hour dip below freezing for that to happen.

I’m doing my best. But since California is insanely green, a light coating of white might be good for them

REPLY: I’ve posted on this, thank you for the tip. – Anthony

Good observation. I remember that now. It never really melted enough to clear all of the snow/ice off the sidewalks during the winter.

My prediction is that we’ll have a bumper crop of bright leaves if this cooler than average weather pattern holds up without a freeze. (Since it is almost useless to predict the weather for the winter…)

Nice site you linked to. w/respect to “Can someone explain to me what the deal is with Mexico?” I was there in late July, north of Mexico City (Queretaro and Tecozautla), and I had to wear a jacket in the mornings, it was high 50’s low 60’s where I was. Warmed up nicely during the day. Its a dry, mountainous area so maybe that’s not so unusual, but the map colors that area pink, as warmer than normal.

Similarly (more anecdotal) a few weeks before that I was on the coast of the Dominican Republic in the last week of June, first part of July and I was very comfortable taking afternoon naps with only a fan going. In April 2007 I was sweating like a horse in that same area, this year’s July was much milder.

But I agree, the map for Mexico looks strange.

On the other hand, I recall in the 60s that frost almost always came in early September (like Labor Day, the first week of school) and a freeze by October 1st… but that hasn’t seemed to happen at all, the last 10 years at least. If we were getting frost by Sep 10th or so, regularly, I would think that frost in MN about now would not be unusual… freezing temps of course are, but is that widespread or just localized? And, will it continue, or is it just a temporary departure from the norm?

This winter was extremely snowy (which is the main reason for the disastrous flood here in Cedar Rapids), and that was due to a warmer winter (when it’s colder it doesn’t snow)… except that we usually have a warm spell sometime in January/February, which we didn’t this past winter.

On the other other hand, a few years ago it was SO warm that it was too warm for snow (it rained all December, which is why I finally mowed my lawn for the last time of the season in January that year, when it dried out), and April got into the 80s and never went down (but, in even earlier years it has actually snowed in May, not to mention April of course)

So, what to make of all this ‘evidence’? I have no idea, except that I predict it will be colder this year and less snow… unless it’s warmer, in which case we’ll probably have less snow… (We had a LOT of snow this past year!)

By the way, I wonder how Norway is doing? Form what I understand it was a very warm winter there, I wonder how their summer is?

But ultimately, I do have a question… accuweather keeps showing the monthly charts showing most of the world is warmer, even through this summer, with lots of red dots (+ variance) and only a few blue ones… yet I see so many people here talking about global cooling. How are the two resolved, where are the charts that show global cooling, I’d like to see that…

A bit of facetiousness, no doubt. I have read that Germans were having some problems with reduced barley acreage due to the competition between brew and fuel. (Home)brewers have been already hard hit by real hop shortages in terms of price and availability. The Great Hop Shortage of ‘08 is mostly due to market practices that plague commodities markets across the world (boom and bust cycles) and some bad weather in a few places.

Of course the corn crop in the Corn Belt is up from dismal predictions early in the summer with all of that La Nina rain we got this spring/early summer.

The solution (I guess): switch to grain alcohol. ;-)

DC was 92 today, +7 on the high. A 79 tomorrow would be -6. I don’t see the big deal. August will finish about normal on the month, following a very warm June and a warm July.

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/saisons/image_e.html?img=s234fe1t_s

“What do you call what happens in between, lets say 2-3 months, or 1-10 years?”

“Subseasonal” is a term I predict you’re going to be hearing more

http://weatherclimatelink.blogspot.com

Warning: This is an acronym-intensive website. This site

http://www.weatherlinkhub.com/climate/telec.html

may help you sort through it all.

I am trying to figure out what to call the short term trends (maybe I just did). Weather is defined as the conditions in the air right now. Climate is some kind of long term trend. What do you call what happens in between, lets say 2-3 months, or 1-10 years?

BTW. Thanks Anthony for making such a great site. It seems very friendly here.

REPLY: Thanks, everyone has to behave here.

Comments:
(1) Right now, there look to be a number of negative departures (especially Australia – our friends down under appear to be freezing), and most other regions are around average
(2) Can someone explain to me what the deal is with Mexico? It’s a bizarre map, to say the least.
(3) The one area that is bright red is part of the Former Soviet Union. I wonder how much weight that are will be given in the final anomaly analysis.

I know in DC it is supposed to hit a high of 79F tomorrow — 79F , in DC, in August, are you kidding me?