From the Houston Chronicle
Melissa Phillip Chronicle
Excerpts:
Jose Umana builds a snow ball as he plays with his brother and father in the snow fall at Affordable Cars & Trucks on I-45, where his dad, Mario Hernandez, Sr. works.
Falling snowflakes glimmered in streetlights, so wide that they billowed to the ground like parachutes, and so tantalizing that even awestruck adults reached out their hands or stuck out their tongues to catch one.
By Wednesday evening, the flakes were big enough to hold their shape for a moment on the street before melting into the pavement, and a dusting had collected on parked cars in some parts of town.
The flurries tied a record for Houston’s earliest snowfall ever and warmed the hearts of winter weather lovers who have pined for snow since it last made an appearance on Christmas Eve 2004.
“I’ve got a pot roast in the Crock-Pot, and I’m going to go home, change into my warmest pajamas and eat pot roast and enjoy what may be the only real winter day we have all year,” said Tina Arnold, an Illinois native who took advantage of the wintry backdrop to pick up Christmas presents Wednesday at The Woodlands Mall.
Since 1895, records indicate, snow has fallen this early just once — on Dec. 10, 1944.
Late Wednesday, there were no reports of school or business closings Thursday morning in the Houston area.
Patrick Trahan, a spokesman for the city, said the icy weather was expected to taper off overnight and was not expected to disrupt morning traffic. He added that if conditions did not improve, the Public Works Department would clear the roads this morning.
Forecasters at the Houston/Galveston office of the National Weather Service said clouds and precipitation should give way today to sunshine and temperatures in the upper 50s.
Overnight lows for all areas but those north and west of Harris County were expected to stay above freezing tonight, said the weather service’s Paul Lewis.
Snowfall in the metro Houston area Wednesday caught forecasters somewhat by surprise. A significant chance for snowfall didn’t show up in computer models until about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
“The midnight crew adjusted the forecast at that time,” Lewis said.
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….. and now it is snowing in New Orleans. Latest hourlies :
LOUISIANA REGIONAL WEATHER ROUNDUP
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NEW ORLEANS LA
900 AM CST THU DEC 11 2008
NOTE: “FAIR” INDICATES FEW OR NO CLOUDS BELOW 12,000 FEET WITH NO
SIGNIFICANT WEATHER AND/OR OBSTRUCTIONS TO VISIBILITY.
SKY/WX – SKY CONDITION AND SIGNIFICANT WEATHER.
TMP – AIR TEMPERATURE. DP – DEWPOINT TEMPERATURE.
RH – RELATIVE HUMIDITY. PRES – PRESSURE.
HX – HEAT INDEX. WCI – WIND CHILL INDEX.
LAZ040-048-061>063-065-066-069-111600-
SOUTHEAST LOUISIANA
CITY SKY/WX TMP DP RH WIND PRES REMARKS
N.O. AUDUBON N/A 33 33 96 MISG N/A
N.O. INTL ARPT HVY SNOW 33 31 92 W14 29.85R VSB 1/8 WCI 23
N.O. LAKEFRONT SNOW 36 35 96 W25 29.83R VSB 1/4 WCI 24
SLIDELL LGT SNOW 34 32 92 W9 29.80R WCI 27
BELLE CHASSE HVY SNOW 34 34 100 NW14 29.86R VSB 1/4 WCI 24
BATON ROUGE SLEET 34 32 91 W7 29.83R FOG WCI 28
SALT POINT N/A 39 34 82 NW14G28 29.91R WCI 31
HOUMA CLOUDY 39 N/A N/A W17 29.90R FOG WCI 30
BOOTHVILLE CLOUDY 44 38 79 W21G29 29.83R
A significant chance for snowfall didn’t show up in computer models until about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The delusional scientists and politicians (pardon the redundancy) of the UN/IPCC.
Scientists try to mitigate climate change effects: http://wtopnews.com/?nid=220&sid=1543019
Last year, Pachauri’s IPCC, which collected the work of more than 2,000 scientists, said climate change is “unequivocal, is already happening, and is caused by human activity.”
But Pachauri said there was no conclusive evidence the world is in imminent danger.
“The skeptics are doing a good job because they are making us present ironclad proof,” said Lawrence E. Buja, a climate change researcher for the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
But since that battle is over, he said scientists need to move on and look at the detailed impact of climate change.
Buja, who contributed to the IPCC report, said scientists are looking at futuristic solutions to halt global warming, such as imitating the cooling effects of a massive volcanic eruption by spreading sulfur in the atmosphere, or scattering billions tiny refractors high in the air to dim the sun and lower the temperature.
Chem-Trails anyone? (:-)
Slightly OT, but at 11,650,000 sq km the north polar ice extent is now the largest it has been on Dec. 10 in this millenium.
Somewhat related…per the IJIS web site, as of yesterday, 12/10/2008, the Arctic Sea Ice Extent is larger this year than any of the past 6 years in the data set. Lots of cold Arctic air spilling all the way south to Houston…
http://www.ijis.iarc.uaf.edu/en/home/seaice_extent.htm
OT, but is this sunspot an SC24 spot for an SC23 spot?
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/mdi_igr/1024/latest.html
oh, and by the way, i love how the photo in the Houston Comical makes the snow look more significant than it really was!
Snowfall in the metro Houston area Wednesday caught forecasters somewhat by surprise. A significant chance for snowfall didn’t show up in computer models until about 9 p.m. Tuesday.
Computer models, eh?
Just more examples of all powerful man caused weather from climate change!
The cold snowy winter in the UK has forced amateur meteorologists to take over from the global warming obsessed professionals at The Met Office.
For the longer term, it’s difficult to predict what kind of a winter the UK will be in for. Barry Grommett, a forecaster with the Met Office, says that the cold snap “pretty much bucks the trend of the milder winters we have become used to over the past few years”. But Harry Kershaw, an amateur weather forecaster from Sale, Manchester, predicts that the coming winter will be long, cold and very snowy. He thinks we may be in for a repeat performance of the winter of 1963 – the Big Freeze. In that year thermometers dropped to -16C, the sea froze to a distance of one mile from Herne Bay, the Thames was briefly turned into a skating rink, and snow settled on much of the country from January until March. In some places, snow drifts of up to six metres were reported.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/dec/11/skiing-snowboarding-wales-england?page=2
They’re calling for snow here in Western Washington before xmas. Hasn’t happened in the 6 years I’ve been here (I know, a very short time). But it rarely happened in Virginia where I grew up, and where it gets much colder in Winter. It’s not a matter of precipitation, either, since it rains pretty often in fall and winter in Western Washington State. It’s a matter of temperature. It’s colder than “normal”.
meanwhile, talk about a 180….
Climate change not imminent danger, UN panel chief says
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/12/09/climate-meeting.html
is this the same guy?
Truly inconvenient truths about climate change being ignored: IPCC’s Pachauri says “warming is taking place at a much faster rate”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/11/07/truly-inconvenient-truths-about-climate-change-being-ignored-ipccs-pachauri-says-warming-is-taking-place-at-a-much-faster-rate/
I am in Seabrook on Galveston Bay and had at least 2 inches of snow last night. To my surprise, there’s still a fair amount left this morning. I missed the ’04 Christmas Eve snow so I’m glad to have been around for this one.
It is very unusual to even get a freeze here so snow is really a special event. I don’t think my poor banana tree cared much for it though. I figured Al Gore would get me sooner or later but I’m a little surprised to have been bit so soon.
The world climate report has a good article.
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2008/12/03/rethinking-observed-warming/
The number of studies that suggest that much of the warming in the last 30 years is due to sea surface effects seem to be rapidly increasing. Certainly the ENSO charts show a much better correlation to the climate trends than the CO2 charts.
We want snow in the Carolina’s so sent it our way too. What will the global warming crowd say about this ?Snow in Houston and now Louisiana.They probably won’t say anything and pretent it never happened.
Snowing in New Orleans today also record snow for Lake Charles. See the DOT Cam for New Orleans.
“Snow totals in Louisiana through 6 a.m. CDT include:
* Forest Hill: 2.0″
* Vinton: 1.5″
* Woodworth: 1.0″
* Sulphur: 0.5″
* Lake Charles: 0.4″
The 0.4 of an inch at Lake Charles is an all-time record snow total for the month of December and just the second time snow has been recorded in December in the city.”
http://www.accuweather.com/news-top-headline.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&date=2008-12-11_08:39
OT with tty but the arcvtic sea ice area is back to the 1979 -2007 average value. See http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/ice-area-and-extent-in-arctic
ughh – not even a hat tip for reporting this in the last thread…. On the other hand, my daughter saw her first snowfall last night, so there’s not much wrong with the world today 🙂
So were not breaking any new graound here, then, are we?
Word.
Dill Weed
More news of catastrophic warming:
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES, LA
0934 AM CDT THU DEC 11 2008
…ALL TIME RECORD SNOWFALL SET FOR DECEMBER AT LAFAYETTE…
A RECORD SNOWFALL OF 1.0 INCHES WAS MEASURED AT LAFAYETTE ON DECEMBER 11TH 2008. THIS SETS THE ALL TIME RECORD SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER AT LAFAYETTE. THERE HAS BEEN NO OTHER RECORDED SNOWFALLS FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES, LA
840 AM CST THU NOV 13 2008
…RECORD EARLIEST MEASURABLE SNOWFALL SET AT BEAUMONT PORT ARTHUR……ALL TIME RECORD SNOWFALL FOR DECEMBER SET AT BEAUMONT PORT ARTHUR…
OFFICIALLY 1.8 INCHES OF SNOW WAS MEASURED AT THE SOUTHEAST TEXAS REGIONAL AIRPORT. THIS SETS THE ALL TIME EARLIEST MEASURABLE SNOWFALL RECORD FOR BEAUMONT PORT ARTHUR. THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS SET ON DECEMBER 22 1989 WHEN 0.7 INCHES OF SNOW WAS MEASURED.
…RECORD EARLIEST MEASURABLE SNOWFALL SET AT LAKE CHARLES…
…ALL TIME RECORD SNOWFALL SET FOR DECEMBER AT LAKE CHARLES…
A RECORD SNOWFALL OF 0.4 INCHES OF SNOW WAS MEASURED AT LAKE CHARLES. THIS SETS THE ALL TIME EARLIEST MEASURABLE SNOWFALL RECORD FOR LAKE CHARLES. THIS ALSO SETS THE ALL TIME RECORD SNOWFALL FOR THE MONTH OF DECEMBER AT LAKE CHARLES. THE PREVIOUS RECORDS WERE BOTH SET ON DECEMBER 22 1989 WHEN 0.2 INCHES OF SNOW WAS MEASURED.
NOTABLY…DECEMBER 11 2008 AND DECEMBER 22 1989 ARE THE ONLY TWO TIMES IN RECORDED HISTORY THAT MEASURABLE SNOWFALL HAS OCCURRED IN LAKE CHARLES DURING THE MONTH OF DECEMBER.
-ends-
To one obsessed with the layered readings available on http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps+006
the snow makes perfect sense, i.e. upper-atmosphere cooling appears to be ahead of lower-atmosphere cooling (and has been just about all year). Take the funnel of an upper-level low to draw down the cold and you get weather events like the one detailed above.
If anyone hasn’t already done so, I recommend clicking through all layers of the AMSU site, then ticking all the boxes to show all the previous years for which records can be shown, and then click “redraw graph.” In many cases, more or less throughout the year, the 2008 value is the lowest.
Can you say solar minimum? This could obviously never influence climate at Earth’s surface!
Winter hates SE Va apparently….It is snowing in places where it isn’t suppose to snow hardly at all but here in SE Va it is going to rain so much that the river will be at the back doors of thousands…..I’m really starting to hate the weather….It really should be done away with all together.
OT, Don’t know if you have seen this by Pielke, Sr. http://climatesci.org/2008/12/11/comments-on-uk-met-office-press-releases-on-climate/
Summary — “The message in th UK Met Office press releases is that, since their is such poor skill with seasonal weather prediction, multi-decadal climate prediction must be a much less precise and accurate science than we have heard promoted by the IPCC and in the climate change press releases given out by the UK Met Office and others.”
As the city with the most SUVs per capita, Houston is paying for it’s evil ways. Global Warming will freeze you, Houston!!!
I admit, reading about people amazed at first snows in December will always amuse me… but hey, I live in Canada.
(Warning: I’m about to shift into geezer anecdotal weather chat mode)
Here in Calgary we got about 8-10″ last Sunday, which was our first significant snowfall of the season. The streets are almost clear, but there is still a lot of moisture on the ground. Our forecast is for a lot more snow tomorrow and Saturday, with a plunge on the weekend down to MINUS 30 C.
I’ve been paying attention to weather for a long time, so I can remember various types of winters. Calgary is unique in that we get chinooks, which are really warm winds that come over the mountains and give us temporary relief even in the coldest winter. It can go from -30 to +20 in just a few hours, with a heavy dry wind that will melt everything that might still be sitting on the ground… or we can have 30 or more days in a row below -30 with NO relief.
We tend to not get as much snow as some areas, being inland at 3500 feet, but we do get cold. As a result, we don’t really have the best stockpile of snow clearing equipment, so a heavy dump of snow really messes up the city.
Calgary facts: we had snow on August 22, 1992… during an ASA race, which result in them no longer coming here to race. Other than 1992, it has never snowed in August in my lifetime… I assume everyone here knows what happened that year. We had several feet of snow in May 1986, a real shocker that disabled the city for days. We had a massive snowfall in January 1989, and the biggest that most can remember was St. Patrick’s Day of 1998. If you look at the El Nino chart for 1998, see that little dip in March? Yeah… that’s when we got whacked. The funny part is, there was a guy living in my apartment complex from Houston who could not handle the heavy snow, I had to help him get his car out of his parking stall. He moved home shortly after.
Anyway, the anecdotal information keeps piling up this year: it’s NOT a hot year, the world is NOT burning up. I seriously wonder what it will take to wake people up… except I realize that most people are programmed now to just assume that all anomalous weather is Our Fault ™.