Image Credit: Remote Sensing Systems (RSS)
By WUWT regular “Just The Facts”
I recommend that everyone watch this brief Weather Channel segment titled “Blame Climate Change for Long Winter“, the video description states that, “In much of the country this winter has stretched well into spring. The Weather Channel meteorologist Julie Martin asks the experts if climate change is to blame.” The Weather Channel segment puts forth the case that the “Long Winter” was caused by “Global Climate Change”, whatever that means. This argument is supported by this Huffington Post article “Climate Change ‘Causing Colder British Winters’ Says Met Office Chief Scientist“.
“Dr Julia Slingo told ITV News global warming may be responsible for the extreme weather.” “It definitely seems like the warming of the arctic is ‘loading the dice’ over cold dry winters.”
“As Britain experienced freezing cold weather and snow, with thousands of homes across the UK without power, the government’s outgoing chief advisor warned last month that climate change will bring greater extremes.
After the coldest March for 50 years, Professor Sir John Beddington said Britain was already experiencing climate change.”
Accuweather also adds support in their piece, “Historic Snowstorm Records; Climate Change to Blame?”
“While the debate as to whether climate change is responsible for the rare May snow across the Plains and Upper Midwest continues, there is no question that the snowstorm is historical with numerous records broken.”
“Before this snowstorm, “no station has reported an inch or more of snowfall in Iowa in May since 1967,” stated General Forecaster Jim Lee in a report issued by National Weather Service’s Des Moines Office.
Not only did the 3.1 inches of snow in Omaha break the previous May record of 2.0 inches from 1945, but also marked the city’s first measurable snow in 46 years.
Thursday was only the second time in recorded history that Kansas City, Mo., received measurable snow in May. A total of 0.5 of an inch fell Thursday, while the only other such occurrence was May 3, 1907.”
“For some, the historical aspect of this snowstorm raises the question as to whether climate change is fully or partially responsible.”
However, there are apparently some dissenting opinions who don’t think that Anthropogenic Global Warming/Climate Change are the cause of Long Cold winters and late winter storms, e.g. in the same AccuWeather article:
AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Bernie Rayno weighed in by saying, “I do not believe this [snowstorm] has anything to do with climate change. It is ridiculous that ‘climate change’ is being blamed for seemingly everything recently.”
As such, let us explore an alternate explanation for this year’s Long Cold Winter and late season snowstorms. RSS Northern Polar Temperature Lower Troposphere (TLT) – Brightness Temperature Anomaly – 1979 to Present;
was -0.27° K/C in March, 2013. Note that RSS uses a base period of 1979-1998 (20 years) versus the WMO standard of 1981-2010.
Also in this 3-Year snapshot of RSS Northern Polar Temperature Lower Troposphere (TLT) – Brightness Temperature Anomaly – 1979 to Present;
Northern Polar Troposphere Temperature is currently at its lowest point in the last three years.
I will leave it to WUWT’s readers to sort this one out…
Brits obsess with the weather, Americans obsess with weather statistics aka climate. I blame Baseball.
“After the coldest March for 50 years, Professor Sir John Beddington said Britain was already experiencing weather.” ”
There. Fixed it.
Er, weren’t the lamestream alarmists making all kinds of noise last year about how the Spring of 2013 was supposed to be exceptionally, scathingly, oppressively hot?
If this is the Gore Effect, might want to see him safely in an orange jumpsuit safely into some federal supermax on solitary confinement and suicide watch.
Without Internet access or even phone privileges.
This guy is simply too dangerous to have him talking to people.
Oops. Redundancy.
With no “edit” function on this site, we’ve all gotta play it safer, don’t we?
In other words, Slingo (sounds like a character out of Clockwork Orange) never looked at the arctic temperature record before blaming the cold European winter on arctic warming. Nigel Farage should call her to answer for this mis-representation before the House of Commons. HAD she looked at the arctic temperature record or hadn’t she? Either way she should be sacked.
Fish gotta swim,
Birds gotta fly,
Climate change causes weather,
And it will till I die.
Won’t help, blamin’ it on mankind.
********************
More Cult of Climatology fantasy science PROPAGANDA from Climate Rose.
There have been some pretty good minds that say look at the pole/equator temperature gradients for a fairly predictable winter forecast.
The Weather Channel segment puts forth the case that the “Long Winter” was caused by “Global Climate Change”, whatever that means.
And were “Long Winter(s)” predicted all along or are they just trying to make excuses after the fact?
Boiling oceans and longer winters don’t make a very convincing Story .
[snip -off topic -mod]
Weather Channel should change their name to “Entertainment Channel” with weather forecasting and reporting as a side interest. When I am interested in the nations weather that channel is off with the Coast Guard, fishing or stretching their imagination to come up with another storm name.
@ur momisugly Alan Rawls. 2206 4 May. Unfortunately, Mr Farage is not a member of the House of Commons, but a member of the European Parliament. The go-to climate realist in the Commons is one of the few scientifically qualified MPs, Peter Lilley, who regularly lacerates the warmists. An example of his work is here:
http://www.thegwpf.org/peter-lilley-green-spin-skewed-fracking-debate/
Yet another example the media creating fear, uncertainty and doubt. We climate realists were foolish for failing to hold these scoundrel’s feet to the fire for shifting their mantra from global warming to climate change. Consequently, the unsuspecting public is fed a steady diet of BS regardless of which way the weather swings.
Speaking of FUD, I fear we have lost our way and wonder how much longer the USA will exist as a free nation when our educational system produces endless waves of citizens devoid of independent thought? Of course, I could be completely wrong and some day we will prove that CO2 has the amazing ability to magically warm and cool the planet at once.
Accuweather makes an assertion, then promptly sets about proving it wrong. Similar events have happened in history, yet this particular one is obviously different.
As it is an extension of cold weather, it would seem silly to blame global warming (the old bête noir), so let’s fall back on the default position: Climate Change! As if climate doesn’t change. A very quick look back in history will show that climates are always changing; but no: let us ban winter, which is effectively the equivalent of what (western) governments are intent on doing, and if it returns next year – panic! Fall into a paroxysm of self-flagellation and guilt – it is all our fault (or, more specifically, it is all the WHITE MAN’S fault; everybody else is allowed to continue as normal).
It may seem rather off-topic, but this video does explain what could actually be behind the whole charade: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4yOAadmUcU
Please be patient with it; the dull start hides a powerful truth.
You don’t think all this cold and snow is due to Climate Change?
If this really is the beginning of the Next Ice Age, it’s a Climate Change with a vengeance.
The polar regions have been getting colder for a while:
http://climaterealists.com/index.php?tid=37&linkbox=true
“More Visual Proof Of Global Cooling Since 2007 “
We are on the wrong tack here. The agw fanatics are killing people. They have enacted laws in the USA to force the production of bio fuels Human beings in poor countries are dying the slow death of starvation because of those laws. The USA is the breadbasket of the world.
Their enforced building of useless birdchoppers, AKA wind mills, has killed thousands in the UK from energy poverty
Their friends of Rachel Carson movement banned DDT and killed (pick your estimate) 20 to 200 MILLION children in Africa.
These people are not human. Humans care.
How you would feel in a cold room in England as you slowly froze to death. How would you feel in Kenya as you slowly starved to death, and your children joined you. How would you feel in the Congo as you or your children died of malaria, an exceedingly painful death. That is what the greenies do. The evidence is very, very clear.
We must attack the greenies. It is not enough we protest the agw scam. We MUST show what they do and have done.
Hmmm, weather is not climate so lets look to the historical record and to the models which predicted the cold winters for Europe and the United States over ten years ago. The IPCC predicted warmer winters while the those looking to correlative data on sunspots and the Dalton and Maunder Minimum as supported by decreasing sunspot intensity and the Livingston and Penn effect predicted colder winters.
I will stick with the models that have been right until now.
I find it disturbing that the CAGW crowd can always point to the exact cause of any weather event but never predict one.
Perhaps Dr Slingo should be made to prognosticate on next year’s weather and lose her job if (when?) she is wrong.
And who is/was on the side that colder winters had to do with solar forcing and not clinate change? The climate crazies themselves including Gavin Schmidt and Michael Mann. This may be Mann’s best paper:
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/294/5549/2149.short Solar Forcing of Regional Climate Change During the Maunder Minimum
Real scientists also agree:
http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-9326/5/2/024001 Are cold winters in Europe associated with low solar activity?
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A%3A1010667524422 The Late Maunder Minimum (1675–1715) – A Key Period forStudying Decadal Scale Climatic Change in Europe
“Springs were cold and characterized by a southward shift of the mid-latitude storm tracks. Summers in western, central Europe and northern Europe were wetter and slightly cooler than they are today due to a weakerAzores high and a more southerly position of the mean polar front axes. Autumns showed a significantly higher pressure over northern Europe and a lower pressure over continental Europe and the Mediterranean, an indication of an advanced change from summer to winter circulation. It is suggested that the pressure patterns during parts of the LMM might be attributed to the combination of external forcing factors (solar irradiance and volcanic activity) and internal oscillations and couplings in the North Atlantic.”
http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442%282004%29017%3C0906:TRIOSA%3E2.0.CO;2 The Relative Importance of Solar and Anthropogenic Forcing of Climate Change between the Maunder Minimum and the Present
“1) the Maunder Minimum cooling relative to today was primarily associated with reduced anthropogenic radiative forcing, although the solar reduction added 40% to the overall cooling. There is no obvious distinguishing surface climate pattern between the two forcings”
Anthony is not as opposed to my anger at the Greenies as Ithought. Good for him.
REPLY: Be as upset as you wish, that’s your private matter. Just don’t make extreme comments here – Anthony
The Independent (UK), March 20, 2000:
Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
Now lets go back further to the really old guys who predicted cooling in the 70;s. The coming ice age guys:
http://se-server.ethz.ch/staff/af/fi159/S/Stu021.pdf Solar variability and climate change during the current millenia
Some climate records “demonstrate on the basis of statistical analysis a climate-solar relationship (albeit thirty years put of phase)”
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/203068?uid=3739640&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101984121713 Climate and the role of the Sun
This is if particular significance as it is a 1980 book chapter by Eddy – the same Eddy some have proposed naming the coming current coming minima after.
“How constant is the sun and how dependent are we on that constancy?”
Finally, the really old guys
“It is true that from the highest point of view the Sun is only one of a multitude – a single star among millions – thousands of which, most likely, exceed him in brightness, magnitude and power. He is only a private in the host of heaven. But he alone, among the countless of myriads, is near enough to affect terrestrial affairs in any sensible degree ; and his influence upon them is such that it is hard to find the word to name it. It is more than mere control and dominance”
– Charles A. Young,1896
It’dsthe sun stupid. Again, 99.97% of energy reaching the planet is from the sun.
In my researching of the 1930’s, in some years there were farmers having to replant some cornfields because cold snowmelt means trouble. 1945 was another snowmelt year in the plains. 40° moisture or above is what is needed for seed corn to germinate. Some areas that received snowfall this week were 25-40% planted. So a lot of farmers will be checking to see if germination is taking place. Just like the farmers of the dust bowl did. But now the equipment is so good they can plant the entire crop in two weeks. Looks like some rain next week but better temperatures.???? Hope
John Trigge (in Oz) says:
May 5, 2013 at 12:20 am
I find it disturbing that the CAGW crowd can always point to the exact cause of any weather event but never predict one.
Like not being able to predict the snow at Copenhagen and record cold at Cancun – and wasn’t it Slingo who had her flight to Cancun cancelled because of global warming piling up at UK’s airports? I can’t find that particular story again for a link.