England Buried In Snow – image from The Times
According to the Rutgers University Global Snow Lab, last month had the second greatest December Northern Hemisphere snow cover since records were started in 1966. Snow extent was measured at 45.86 million sq. km, topped only by 1985 at 45.99 million sq. km. North America set a record December extent at 15.98 million sq. km, and the US also set a December record at 4.16 million sq. km.
Source: December Snow Cover from Rutgers University
Source: December Snow Anomalies from Rutgers University
This is not an isolated event for 2009, as can be seen in the graph below. Seventeen of the last twenty-one Decembers have had above normal snow cover.
Source: December Snow Cover Anomalies from Rutgers University
Nor is it an isolated trend for the month of December. January, 2008 was the second snowiest January on record, and six out of the last eight Januaries have had above normal snow.
Source: January Snow Cover Anomalies from Rutgers University
October, 2009 was the snowiest October on record in the US, and sixth snowiest in the Northern Hemisphere. Twelve of the last fifteen Octobers have had above normal snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere, similar to the pattern of the 1970s.
Source: October Snow Cover Anomalies from Rutgers University
A favorite mantra of the global warming community is that reduced snow cover will reduce the albedo of the earth and provide positive feedback to global warming – causing additional warming. Clearly that is not happening, at least not during the October through January time period.
2010 is also getting off to a fast start. Most of Europe and North America is covered with snow, as is much of Asia.
Daily Snow Cover from Rutgers University
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Brrrrrrrrrr. If that snow makes it to my neck of the woods, I’ll have to buy some warmer clothes.
Absurd. There is no snow. No ice. Everything is melting. Except where it isn’t.
Looks like the UK has a lot of snow. What does that do to wind turbines? Blade unbalance, anyone? Considering that they plan to run the entire country with them.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/08/wind-farms-power-uk/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+foxnews%252Fscitech+%2528Text+-+SciTech%2529
(this is so long it probably won’t work, but I have yet to figure out tiny.url)
The weather outside is frightful, the damage to AGW delightful…
In unrelated news, the Sun continues to produce anaemic sunspecks in an abject travesty of a solar cycle.
Of course, we all realize that this is “rotten” snow…
Down here in SC we had 2 good snow storms in December which rarely happens, much less having the snow stick around for as long as it has. Asheville, NC (home of the NCDC) still has snow on the ground…. go figure.
I’m sure that someone will trot out the old, “This is not inconsistent with our models” fare. Someone needs to ask those guys exactly how much snow and cold it would require for them to admit that their models have nothing to do with reality.
Something I have noticed this winter season is the seesaw of statistics–Cold, snowy October followed by fair November, then a rough December. So on this basis, maybe January will moderate some, then look-out for spring.
The winter of 1948-1949 was hell in the western U.S. I wonder how some of the months of that winter season would compare?
Actually feel sorry for the lady in the 2CV- good car in weather not on hills.
mainly due to the clearance and FWD…
What are the predicted effects of AGW? Is it colder and more snow? Or warmer and wetter? Hmm…
Can’t wait for the “extreme weather events are consistent with the theory of anthropogenic global warming” statement.
Isn’t there an increase of precipitation when CO2 rises? (ie. Global Warming)
Do the Brits have snow tires?
NOAA animation of last 31 days of snow cover. It ends with January 10, it isn’t just for the month of December.
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/ims/loop/nhem-1mo-loop.html
I voted ‘yes’ because of the Arctic blast that’s reaching southward and turning what would have normally been rain in January into snow.
Saw this on Gizmodo. Brrrrrr!
A favorite mantra of the global warming community…
They also say that warming will cause increased snow in winter from the humidity that warming creates. But this extra snow is not from a warming climate but from a cooling climate. So their hypothesis couldn’t apply to this snow.
Cross Country skiing anyone??
Remember, weather isn’t climate (unless it’s hot weather in which case it proves that Global Warming is true).
A few good graphics like these from the Rutgers Snow Lab are indeed worth a 1000 words (and then some). All one can say is that right now wherever the sun is shining in the Northern Hemisphere, a whole lot of solar energy is getting reflected from all of that snow-covered ground. . . .
SIDEBAR: CNN had a pretty good few 5 minutes or so on CNN Newsroom tonight; on the extent of the cold and snow cover all over the Northern Hemisphere. They didn’t focus on climate change; but gave a pretty good overview of how cold and snow-covered it is in much of N.A., Europe, and Russia.
If you are not into Skiing, how about dog sleds and snow shoes. I hear the Inuit would eat the dogs if things got really tight. Can’t do that with a snow mobile!!
Interesting. I suppose snow cover is a little harder to fake than temperatures (although who’s counting these millions of square units?). 17 of 21 Decembers is fascinating, especially since that includes what is supposed to be the two warmest decades ever.
However I noticed that February through September show BELOW average snow cover, and in fact if you follow the links and fiddle with the dates, months like June show 19 of the last 21 years having much below average snow cover…
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/chart_anom.php?ui_set=1&ui_region=nhland&ui_month=6
…this data almost suggests that summers and winters are both becoming more extreme… thoughts?
lots more in here anthony….
9 Jan: Philly Inquirer: Climate expert in the eye of an integrity storm
By Faye Flam
Mann points out that the hockey stick is not widely seen as a smoking gun implicating human activity in global warming. And it was not the giant graph used in Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. That was a graph of the carbon dioxide component of our atmosphere – which also is rising sharply.,,
Michaels also flagged an e-mail in which Mann discussed a reference he was writing for Jones. In that, Mann misstated a number called the “h index,” which measures a scientist’s productivity and influence.
Mann said it was just an error in a hastily typed private e-mail, in which he meant to say 52 but instead said 62. He produced a copy of the official letter, in which he got the number correct.
He said he was surprised that Michaels would castigate him over a typographical error. “They’ve sunk to a new low,” Mann said of the e-mails. “This shows they’ve given up legitimate debate.”
There is still much debate over how big a role human activity plays in the current warming trend, and how the future will be affected. Climate science – and earth science in general – is not expected to make the kinds of sharp predictions that chemists and physicists can make with repeated experiments. “It would be nice if we could do controlled experiments,” Mann said. “But we have only one Earth.”
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/homepage/81058187.html?viewAll=y
jonova: The Carbon Market Blinks — $130b trainwreck slows
Point Carbon issued a report this week estimating that the world wide market in carbon trading in 2009 totalled around $136 billion dollars, which is not much higher than the 2008 figure. After years of living in a rapacious bubble, prices are about 60% below the peaks of 2008, carbon traders are starting to peel out into other commodities, and the sails are looking decidedly flat on the Maxi Yacht known as Carbon-Credits Inc….ETC
http://joannenova.com.au/2010/01/the-carbon-market-blinks%e2%80%94130b-trainwreck-slows/
Increased snow cover will increase the albedo of the earth and provide positive feedback to global cooling – causing additional cooling. Not a good thing.
Carl Chapman (19:51:23) :
>Remember, weather isn’t climate (unless it’s hot weather
>in which case it proves that Global Warming is true).
Umm…I’ve suffered a defeat by a hair in posting that.