Global Warming alarmists have long claimed that snowfall would soon be a thing of the past in the Swiss Alps, that the glaciers would melt, tourists would leave, and the ski industry would die. There CERTAINLY would not be any snowfall at lower altitudes, or any snowfall even before the official start of autumn. Yet today there fell snow as low as 1200 meters, with heavy falls in St. Moritz, a very early time for a blizzard in the alps.
As reported by NZZ Online:
Translation to English:
Earlier onset of winter in the Alps
Several disabled passes
With the first snow in the mountains in the middle of the winter moved in September. In Graubünden the snow line was at 1,200 meters. In some places the snow piled up to half a meter high. Yet the soil is warm, the white splendor should melt quickly.
(Sda) On Sunday, a cold front moved from west of the Jura and the Bernese Oberland Grisons in the Alps. In the high alpine regions, there was up to half a meter of fresh snow. In parts of the Grisons, the snow line was at 1,200 meters above sea level or even lower. In the Midlands at the weekend when temperatures dropped some heavy rain and thunderstorms to just over 10 degrees. In Valais, the temperatures were on Saturday still climbed to 28 degrees.
In the snow caused traffic in the Alpine passes of disability. According to the traffic information service Viasuisse since Sunday afternoon, the Furka Pass and Klaus are locked. Snow covered are the Gotthard and the Nufenenpass. The entrance to the San Bernardino tunnel is more difficult.
The Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in Davos warns climbers, hunters and hikers in the face of the snowfall to be cautious in steep terrain. Below 3000 meters the snow could slide off on the warm ground. Climbers could also bring fresh-driven snow fields to slip.
Note: There have been no Al Gore sightings in the region recently…
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
A delayed backlash to Gore’s CRP perhaps.
And not just in Switzerland …
Source
What is the surprise? All that mising Arctic ice has to go somewhere.
The news from Breckenridge was snow (at least temporarily) down to timberline on Sept 17. As for Whistler-Blackcomb… if this year it doesn’t RAIN in December, that will be a Climate Change for the recordbooks.
Oceans are colder. Arctic ice being less than “normal” allows more heat to radiate out to space from the open water, thus cooling the oceans. It’s gonna be a long, cold winter. Bundle up.
Meanwhile, CO2 continues to rise. Slowly, but it’s rising.
No reports of Al adjusting his chakra there?
Waxing ’em up.
Not another year of measuring global warming in feet and inches. After 2 feet I’ll fire up my snowmobile.
CO2 in aquariums if I remember rightly, slows in colder water or is it the opposite. Been 20 years
at least possibly 30 since I kept marine, cold and tropical aquariums. I know in a pond a friend of mine in Canada lost all her big Koi carp in one night. The ice formed was 8 inches deep, and off
cause you have to break it to allow the fish to breath and CO2 to escape.
Maybe you’ll all get a white Christmas this year again, especially in UK? But about 40 years ago
we had snow all up the Eastern Coast to the Queensland border. I remember writing to my
sister in law in UK saying we had experienced snow in Australia before she did. That was in November our late Spring here.
My theory is that the EU and the Global Warming Scam will collapse together. If the Euro goes first, probably because of Greece, then the EU elites will be so hated that Europeans won’t listen to their rubbish about Global Warming. Talking about using more debt to build windmills will just make people angry. When the Germans find out how much Merkel has committed them with guarantees, they won’t be listening to talk of spending on windmills. Or the scam could end first. This winter is likely to be very cold in Europe. Germany has shut down nuclear power stations. Britain relies on power from France as Britain has no spare capacity for cold weather. France’s nuclear power stations can’t supply France, Britain, Spain and Germany during a freeze. If there are extensive brownouts and blackouts this winter, no-one will be in a mood to listen to the EU elites. Talk of giving money to the PIGS while factories are shut and people freeze due to power outages will make people angry.
Either way, this northern winter should be the end of the Euro and the Global Warming Scam. The scary bit is what the EU elites will do to hang onto power. Will they try a fascist power grab, silencing all criticism, as part of an emergency?
I’m not a weatherman, or meteorologist, but I can look at a satellite video clip and see a monster cold front headed our way.
Has anyone seen this? It’s headed for the West Coast of the USA.
http://www.goes.noaa.gov/GSSLOOPS/wcwv.html
REPLY: There’s a high pressure ridge in front of it, so the gate into CA isn’t open, it will mostly go up and over. About all we’ll get is some high clouds and cooler temps later in the week.
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/sfc/90fbw.gif
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/qpf/99qwbg.gif
– Anthony
Check out what Luboš Motl has said on this 🙂 http://motls.blogspot.com/2011/09/summer-snow-cripples-austria.html
Roger Sowell says:
September 19, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Oceans are colder. Arctic ice being less than “normal” allows more heat to radiate out to space from the open water, thus cooling the oceans. It’s gonna be a long, cold winter. Bundle up.
************
So CO2 causes warming which causes cooling ?
What doesn’t CO2 do? It is surely a wonder gas.
When we had war winters in the early 2000’s we were told that snow would be a thing of the past. Now we are told CO2 causes cooling.
What doesn’t it cause ?
Leprosy ? No that has been covered already.
Whatever happens has been predicted !
Is this some kind of joke ?
By predicting everything CAGW predicts nothing.
REPLY: There’s a high pressure ridge in front of it, so the gate into CA isn’t open, it will mostly go up and over. About all we’ll get is some high clouds and cooler temps later in the week.
Yes, it’s still California. It’s either high & dry, or dumping cats & dogs, with a smattering of in-between.
Come on. This is an extreme weather event, predicted by AGW and therefore furthwr proof it is happening.
And therefore, because the extreme weather event is happening sooner, its worse than we thought.
QED
The North European climate may be heading toward ‘9 months of winter and 3 months of bad sledding’
— originally said of Russia
Here in Colorado this past weekend the higher peaks got a covering of snow. Went on a dual sport ride the weekend before this last one and did Schofield Pass (10,707 elev.) near Crested Butte. Continued east from the pass toward Gothic and found the road blocked at Emerald Lake by last years snow pack. Snow blockage was about 100 yards long. I’m now interested in going back next summer to see if it is gone or still there. I’m betting right now that it will still be there and perhaps bigger than this year.
Ah, yes. I guess this is why they changed the term “global warming” to “climate change”, eh? Looks a little like Whitehorse, YT last May.
@ur momisugly NetDr,
I’m simply trying to emphasize what many seem to have overlooked in the intense interest in, and hysteria over, the shrinking Arctic ice cap. Ice acts as an insulator, keeping the water below it from freezing and from radiating heat to space. Less polar ice extent indicates there is more open water that loses heat to space, thus cooling the planet’s oceans. Cooler, or cooling, oceans is indeed the situation right now as shown by Bob Tisdale’s work and reported here on WUWT.
The almost-record low for Arctic ice extent in 2011 is allowing huge amounts of heat to radiate into space, thus cooling the oceans more than “normal.” The oceans will eventually cool down, the Arctic ice will begin to grow again, and the system self-corrects via negative feedback.
If CO2 traps any heat at all, a concept of which I am not at all convinced, it is so tiny as to be negligible. To me, it is patently obvious that the Northern Hemisphere is in for very cold and very bad winters because the ice extent is low, the oceans are cooler, and temperatures are dropping. California, with temperatures largely a function of the Pacific Ocean temperature, has been cooler than the long-term average for about two years now. Apparently, CO2 over California just is lazy or otherwise can’t be bothered to go to work. Perhaps the CO2 is calling in sick and is off riding the waves, “dude.” (nothing personal meant there, just that California CO2 is so, well, Californian.)
With the sunspots late in arriving, and fewer in number compared to the last few solar cycles, we can expect the cloud cover to increase and thus the oceans to cool more than “normal.”
As I said earlier, bundle up.
How did the poster of this story reach his conclusions? The 1st link, a Beniston paper, makes almost no predictions; it analyses 50 years of snowfall data and makes vague statements about snow cover at various elevations if there happens to be warming and persistents highs in the early season combined with recurrence in mid-winter would “likely” cause reduced snow cover.
The second link, from 2007, predicts a 75% reduction in glacier coverage within 45 YEARS! I can’t vouch for the accuracy of that prediction but one season’s freak snowstorm isn’t likely to derail an event so far in the future.
The 3rd link notes the impact of 3 snow-deficient winters on number of tourists, but also indicates that the higher altitude ski areas benefited from poor coverage lower down. It also states that 85% of Swiss ski areas are snow-reliable and that would drop to 63% if 2degC of additional warming is reached. We’re still a ways off from that much warming and while the paper forecasts a severe drop in ski areas, there still be plenty of places to go, albeit somewhat higher up.
Lastly, here’s a link that talks about the $1 sale of the low-altitude resort – if you read it, you’ll see it’s a bit more complex than just “Global Warming destroys Swiss skiing”
http://snowheads.com/ski-forum/viewtopic.php?p=732444#732444
But…but…but…this is just weather! Right?
And here I’ve got the AC on here in the Sacramento Valley. 🙂
My son is visiting from Norway on Wednesday…I fear he will want to take the sun back with him, as it’s already cooling and rainy there in Oslo.
This complies with GW predictions: as gulfstream ceases to exist, winters in Europe become colder. This is a major reason why Europeans embraced GW religion — who likes cold weather?
What? The data are not conforming to the models? The data obviously need to be adjusted in accordance with the norms of post-normal (climate) science.
More failed predictions!
gyptis444 says:
September 19, 2011 at 8:15 pm
More failed predictions!
The predictions are 110% correct, it is the observations that are at fault.
Carl Chapman says:
September 19, 2011 at 6:49 pm
I think you migh be right.
Douglas