” And the snowcover at the end of the month was 10″, not the 1″ you so claim.”

You know, you are correct. I checked-the snow’s were down to 1 inch or so 2 weeks later. So much for anecdotal memory.

Roger Sowell (15:58:52) :

Possibly, but Western Washington alone is not the whole story.

Check this out for snow cover in North America.

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims_gif/ARCHIVE/USA/2008/ims2008363_usa.gif

I know, wasn’t trying to imply that it was. But I’ll wager the same cold air mass hit the rest of the now snow-covered places in much the same way. The cold had to come first, otherwise it wouldn’t have snowed.

As I’ve said before, it’s blatantly apparent to me that albedo is a follower and not a leader or driver.

Dan Gibson (05:59:10) :

While last February was the snowiest on record for Burlington , the end of February saw about and inch of snow on the ground. That because of the prodigious rainfall that accompanied each snowfall.

Seems to me there was 2 rain events in Burlington last February. One on the 1st (.61″) and another on the 18th (.32″). And the snowcover at the end of the month was 10″, not the 1″ you so claim.

I track snowfall and snow depth for several locations around New England at http://wermenh.com/sdd/index.html . Unfortunately, I don’t have time to record data from Coop observer reports, though that may be getting to be something I could automate. I do go out of my way to track the “famous Mt. Mansfield snowstake” near Stowe, but my web pages only have monthly data.

I’ve concluded that snow depth is nearly as awful a way to gauge climate as are Atlantic Hurricanes. However, it is interesting. While Burlington had 1″ (or was that 10″) at the end of February, I had 34″ near Concord NH on the morning of Feb 29th. (The peak depth of the season was the next morning, 39″, far, far above average.) Over at the snow stake, they had 87″. I get that data from a site that Pierre should like, http://www.uvm.edu/skivt-l/?Page=.%2Fmansel.php3&dir=. Other than the latish start and earlyish end, their season had well above average snow depth.

Yes, yes, this is a new understanding of science. When the earth warms, due to mankind exhaling CO2, it causes a backlash of cold that freezes the planet. See who horrible this all is? It’s getting hot, melting the glaciers, then that causes the earth to freeze. People need to stop breathing out CO2 – or they should pay a tax for the privilege. Or we’re all gonna die! We’re gonna burn up and freeze to death, all at the same time!

[Um, snip ~ Evan]

While last February was the snowiest on record for Burlington , the end of February saw about and inch of snow on the ground. That because of the prodigious rainfall that accompanied each snowfall.

Seems to me there was 2 rain events in Burlington last February. One on the 1st (.61″) and another on the 18th (.32″). And the snowcover at the end of the month was 10″, not the 1″ you so claim.

A good indicator of cold here is lack of snowfall. When it’s struggling to get out of the single digits F during the day and -20 or -30F at night for a week or two each January

Just go back and look a mere 4 years ago to January 2004. 10 days with highs in the single digits or below zero and 10 nights of low temperatures -10°F or less; the lowest being -20°F on 1/15. Snowfall that month was 14.9″ but came in only .47″ of liquid equivalent and the monthly temperature departure was -9.2°F.

You can’t expect near record cold all the time.

I don’t believe that Anthony is trying to imply anything of the sort. At the top of the page you can see what drives this blog:

“Commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts”

To ascribe any other motivations to Anthony is, I believe simply incorrect.

The warm day was much appreciated for clearing snow and ice of around our yurt, though when we got there it and most everything else was covered in heavy dew.

Dew points above freezing make for a remarkable amount of snowmelt. An old reference to “Snow eating fog” has it backward – the snow chills the air and as water vapor condenses on snow and in air, snow melt and fog happen.

Possibly, but Western Washington alone is not the whole story.

Check this out for snow cover in North America.

http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims_gif/ARCHIVE/USA/2008/ims2008363_usa.gif

It appears that a part of Earth’s self-regulatory albedo mechanism is already kicking in this winter in the Northern Hemisphere, as evidenced by the abundant snow and the wide extent.

I disagree. The snow was a result of cold are from the north. The cold air was NOT a result of snow. As soon as the cold air mass passed through, our temps went back to “normal” for December here in Western Washington. If albedo had anything to do with it we would have gotten colder and colder. As it was the initial cold blast was the worst, plunging us into the teens. After the snow fell, it went up near 30 and stayed there for a few days.

@Robert A Cook PE
The UAH day-to-day:
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/execute.csh?amsutemps
Press “draw graph”.
Nov 2008 UAH: 0,26
DEC 2007 UAH: 0,11
difference 0,15K or around 0,3 F. So if not UAH in average is 0,3F higher than last year, we will see dive from nov 2008 to dec 2008.
The last 2 days difference where higher than +0,3F but else far from.

I know that there are different sorts of adjustments to be used when calculating precisely, so “you never know for sure” the monthly result.

So true. My sister had to drive to work from downtown Portland. She now plans on buying chains…as soon as the stores have stock. Apparently, they’re sold out.

I didn’t need chains up on Whidbey Island, my 4×4 F250 did just fine in the foot of snow we ended up with after a week. My wife’s small economy car, however, only just now has been able to get out after a week and a half.

Dan, if you really want to make sense of the fact that it is raining in some places, snowing in others, freezing and dry in still other places, and sunny somewhere else, check out jet stream patterns here:”

Pamela

The point of my post was to indicate that, while I see a lot of anecdotal posting of cold events on WUWT as implied indications of global cooling, back here at the Fletcher PO and General Store, we are seeing consistent year to year anecdotal evidence to the contrary. I don’t see jet stream considerations being taking into account to explain the cold events, so why resort to non anecdotal evidence to explain the warm events? I consider myself skeptical of all arguments on climate change and would incorporate both groups of anecdotal evidence in my evaluation process if I was to use anecdotal evidence. Thanks for the links in any case.

“If you look at daytoday UAH temps, it appears the UAH for dec seems to be headed to for a dip down to the level of 2007 DEC, slightly higher.”

—

Where are day-to-day UAH temperatures available at? I’ve only seen the end-of-month graphs. Sure, like the stock market, sunspots, or the weather, you can’t change or influence day-to-day temperatures, but it is interesting to watch….A train wreck coming.

A word of caution, regarding the suggestion to feature Dr. Latour’s comments on WUWT. And, to Roger Carr, I fully appreciate and concur with the spirit in which the suggestion was made, to disseminate more widely important information. I have done exactly that by publishing the link not only on this forum, but also on a few other blogs and sending the link to many in my email address book.

However, articles and letters-to-editor in Hydrocarbon Processing are copyrighted, so I would suggest contacting Mr. Les Kane, Editor, for written permission first. I received written permission from Mr. Kane to re-publish on my own website an article I wrote and had published in HP some years ago. He was quite gracious, requiring only that I include proper attribution to the original publication. I was glad to do it.

I find his letter quite stirring and inspirational and will do all I can to spread it. Perhaps, Anthony. you would consider featuring it?