Tuesday, January 06, 2009
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How’s this for cold comfort? Sask-atoon’s deep freeze is likely the longest streak of low temperatures below -25 C that has numbed this city since record-keeping began in 1892.
The 24-day streak started cruelly Dec. 13 after relatively mild temperatures and continued at least through Monday, said David Phillips, Environment Canada’s senior climatologist.
“That’s the thing that’s brutal,” Phillips said from Toronto, where he was enjoying a temperature of -4. “We can all handle a few (cold) days. It’s the long haul that wears you down.
“It’s really a shocker, the duration of the cold.”
Phillips said he couldn’t find a longer cold snap in Saskatoon’s recorded weather history during a look through the records Monday. Even during the infamous January of 1950, when temperatures hit -46 and -45 (not counting any wind chill), the cold streak of -25 or lower lasted “only” 21 days.
The first two mild weeks of December kept the month from being Saskatoon’s coldest ever. It still averaged -20.6, the sixth-coldest December on record and the most frigid since 1983.
Prince Albert was slightly colder in December, with an average temperature of -21.4, while Regina registered -18. Neither of those burgs have suffered a -25 streak approaching Saskatoon’s, Phillips said.
The normal average temperature for Saskatoon in December is -14.3.
The historic streak could end today. Environment Canada was forecasting a low of -23 for today, before another drop Wednesday.
There’s no good news on the horizon.
January is expected to be colder than its normal mean temperature of -17, said Environment Canada meteorologist Bob Cormier. The three-month period of January through March is also expected to be colder than normal, he said.
The frigid temperatures and the bad timing of the New Year’s Eve snowstorm has left city snow crews well behind schedule.
As of Monday, snowplows still hadn’t touched almost one-third of the priority streets, which range from arteries such as Circle Drive and Eighth Street to bus routes and minor collector streets. The major arteries have been cleared once, but may need a second pass, said Gaston Gourdeau, manager of the city’s public works branch.
Ninety per cent of bus routes are cleared, but many minor collector streets still haven’t seen a snowplow.
“We’re looking forward to warmer temperatures,” Gourdeau said. “It’s been tough for everybody.”
The New Year’s Eve storm was a double-whammy for snowplow operators.
Many city staff were on holidays. Hydraulic parts of heavy equipment respond more slowly, like everything else, in the cold, forcing crews to get less done than they normally would.
Gourdeau predicts snow crews will be in some neighbourhoods clearing out trouble spots by the end of the week.
He said he decided against implementing a street parking ban to speed up snow clearing for two reasons.
The city hasn’t had the staff to guarantee cleanup within 72 hours until this week.
In frigid weather, it’s also difficult to ask residents to move cars off the street to spots where plug-ins may be unavailable, he said.
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The UK can report a similar extended cold snap. I wonder why the cold air is coming out of the Arctic in two opposing directions…?
I note that the Ice Extent figures still appear to be pretty low, though.
Fairbanks, Alaska is averaging -44F for the month.
http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/PAEI/2009/1/6/MonthlyHistory.html
I live somewhat near by (9h drive away in Calgary). It was cold here for 23 days strait (not quite that cold, but still too cold). For the last few weeks, when global warming is mentioned, everyone laughs.
“The UK can report a similar extended cold snap. I wonder why the cold air is coming out of the Arctic in two opposing directions…?
I note that the Ice Extent figures still appear to be pretty low, though.”
I guess this is because all the cold is beeing sent to inhabitit areas, making it not quite as cold in the high arctic.
Yeah, right, super-interesting. In Sydney today, it’s 32 C, or 6 C above average for this time of the year. I find it as interesting as a clod streak in a small Canadian village in the winter.
REPLY: Interesting or not, at least I manage to spell “cold” correctly. 😉 Has Sydney reached a similar streak of record warm days? – Anthony
Ice extent things are interesting:
Baring Strait appears much higher ice than normal. Round at Kamchatka and in the Barents sea less than normal. Newfoundland lagging slightly, but mouth of St Lawrence well ahead of schedule.
Don’t understand the nsidc.org graphs at all. All this cold, but the daily trend now is EXACTLY the same as last year. EXACTLY. After a prolonged flat lining to bring it ‘into line’.
Very suspicious.
Or REALLY COINCIDENTAL.
Any views on which it is?
It’s all short term and 2009 will be the warmest on record! Get ready for the Hansen / Obama CO2 tax to lower coal and oil usage plan. Arctic ice will be gone forever, none, even in the winter if we continue to cause CO2 to be released. Cows need to be eliminated from the planet as well. Go green, eat green. (smile)
Hum, if we have no CO2, I wonder how the plants will grow…oh, we can figure that one out latter. (smile)
The sun, it’s not a factor. (smile)
Concerning the ice extent: I’m also “surprised” it somehow ‘disappeared” from headlines here since the moment it reached the lowest values of these last years. After having a constant extent for more than a week, which is pretty rare. But I’m quite sure it will come back soon (say, when it will grow a little bit more rapidly).
The same holds for global temperatures… What about the RSS results which showed increasing global temps?
REPLY: Gosh, like Saskatoon’s cold streak, I must have missed thousands of things you are not interested in. RSS gets posted every month here. For example, I pointed out (in early December) for November that RSS went up.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2008/12/05/rss-for-november-is-out-up-slightly/
And, if you’ll check this data:
http://www.remss.com/data/msu/monthly_time_series/RSS_Monthly_MSU_AMSU_Channel_TLT_Anomalies_Land_and_Ocean_v03_2.txt
You’ll see that RSS for December is not out yet. As for the ice. There was a lot of speculation going on as to the cause, and if you’ll loom though comments you’ll find that I chose not to get involved in the speculation until the reason for the change was better understood.
Flanagan, please check before you rant. Or is it the ranting that you truly enjoy?
– Anthony
LOL!!
Over on accuweather’s global warming blog Brett posted a couple days ago a study done on the effect of global warming…in that Exact Area!!!:
http://global-warming.accuweather.com/2009/01/once_a_sink_now_a_source_1.html#comments
The Weather Service office in Pendelton keeps saying NE Oregon is supposed to warm
up and Rain-It is snowing and 29f at my house (approx3000ft.) in La Grande,Oregon.
I have noted a Warmist bias here…
So,
I guess we don’t have to worry about the pine beetles decimating the northern canadian forests for a while, eh!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801772.html
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0710-hance_pine_beetles.html
Gary
Saskatoon? Never ‘eard of it!
And where’s this Cananda yer on about?
Gary:
Pine Beetles are probably spreading thanks to human activity, but not the way the greenies would have us believe (but I’m pretty sure you know this). Fire and Ice, that’s what does them in… and our forests are no longer allowed to burn. Not even a little. Not even a quick flash-through every few years. BC is not exactly known for its cold (well, this year they are, but hey, that’s just anecdotal).
Although, cold as it may be in poor Saskatoon and P.A. (both places I spent far too many hours in last year), this is NOT outside the range of normal. I laugh at all the people I hear saying that our current cold snap (Calgary here, too) is somehow unusual, because it’s not. Winter 95-96 was truly brutal… and we had over 30 days below minus 30.
Apparently our collective memories are short when it comes to weather.
Global warming causes wars.
There will be a mass exodus from the coastal cities to the higher ground of the mountains due to the rising sea levels.
There will be intense fighting over view lots in the Himalayas in Asia and in the Andes in South America.
I am preparing to occupy and defend a pre-selected, choice high-meadow in the Sierras. (:-)
The AGW alarmists are the real deniers, in that they deny the reality of Nature and accept the fallacy of the AGW computer models..
————————————————————-
Global Warming May Become the Instigator of World War IV
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/hot_war.php
Global warming is the cause of a number of damaging effects to the earth and its inhabitants, such as climate change, glacier retreat, rising sea levels, and now we may have a new threat on the horizon… world war! According to the 2007 CNA Corporation report, there is clear indication that as the tensions of global warming continue to heat up, so may the possibilities of war… a Hot War!
Crowding and Territorial Tensions
“…the rising sea level will cover over parts of much of the land, minimizing usable farm area, fresh water, and cattle herds. In some cases, entire islands may become submerged.”
Competition of Newly Habitable Lands
“The opposite scenario of crowding may also occur as the open space around the Arctic regions becomes available due to the increased air temperatures. As these uninhabitable areas become habitable for the first time in history, competition from the various coastal countries and islands who have lost their native homeland will become fierce.”
“The greatest danger however remains in the fact that many people still refuse to recognize its (global warming) presence in the world no matter how much proof they are shown.”
VERY cold here in England. I live in the south, and it was -7c last night with a promise of -10 tonight. Funnily enough, February is usually colder here than January, so we’re not looking forward to that!
Dr. Roy Spencer puts it in perspective…and makes me laugh!
http://www.drroyspencer.com/2009/01/50-years-of-co2-time-for-a-vision-test/
I wonder if man can eat those bettles? We need to harvest them, they be all that’s left to eat. The planet is warming so fast, it’s most likly too late to do anything. Been nice knowing everyone here, we are doomed.
Russia is doing it’s best to lower CO2..no heat for Europe
The dispute, the second in three years, shows how Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin are willing to use natural resources as a weapon to achieve political goals. European nations are burning more gas, the source of 24 percent of the world’s energy consumption last year, to reduce emissions linked to global warming.
Our Met Office weather forecaster told us yesterday that for December, our part of England (the mild south-west) was more than 2degC colder than the average. And January has started off even colder, with no end of the “cold snap” in sight. My river is icing over.
Its pretty chilly in Europe too. Berlin is forecast -18 Celsius tonight, Paris -9, Madrid -5 and London -6.
The ice age is only “masking” Global Warming. In 11,000 years Global Warming will be back with a vengeance! 🙂
We better not waste what’s left of this optimum, it might be a while before we get another.
I’d expect RSS to show a .2-.3C increase in Dec. I think Jan will be a different story tho.
Flanagan said, and Anthony replied:
No, I think he was being insulting. He was referring to clods streaking around in Canadian villages. He’s pretty parochial, really.
alec “Global warming center” = We have to keep the charade up or there will be no “center” left …that is why.
Flanagan: 99% Australians believe in AGW so they will never admit to any data thats why as well LOL
Hmm, NCDC now has December 2008 in the database. Annual North American temperature since 1998 (11 years of data) is falling over the period at a rate of 0.78C/decade or 7.8C per century. At this rate we will be in an ice age within 5 decades. If you can get the graphic, the heavy black like is the average over the century 1901 to 2000.
REPLY: Interesting. I’ve made a post out of this, since it is new information. Please share the choices of data and URL for the generator at the post now on the main page of WUWT – Thanks Anthony
The way the jet stream’s running, it doesn’t look like there’s any relief coming any time soon. In fact, it looks like some of that cold air may be heading down into the lower 48 this weekend.
All I’ve got to say is, is it Spring yet?