According to wire reports, temperatures reached their lowest point in 30 years, reaching to -2°C in the capital, Riyadh, and to -6°C in mountainous regions blanketed by snow. At least 10 people have died in the country as a weather system driven South from Siberia sent temperatures plummeting. Below are some pictures of snow from that region.
click for larger images
Apparently its gotten so bad (or they just aren’t prepared to deal with it) that King Saud ordered that government assistance should be given in the affected areas, which witnessed sub-zero temperatures this week.
I had to laugh at the photo above and the caption: “Saudi Arabians are used to getting stuck in the sand, but snow is a new challenge for many.” It almosts seems Pythonesque.
Meanwhile, many roads were flooded by heavy rains in the nearby country of Dubai, which attracts sun-hungry tourists with its year-round blue skies. Roofs in some luxury hotels and office blocks were leaking water and several schools asked parents to keep their children home on Wednesday. It’s hard to imagine getting a “rain day” in the middle east.
While I’m enjoying pointing out these uncommon phenomena, I’d also point out that even though both the northern and southern hemispheres have both seen some record cold events in the past 6 months, that doesn’t necessarily equate to “climate change”. Still, something seems afoot as we are seeing more and more events like this. Maybe the massive La Niña now stretching across the Pacific ocean has something to do with this.
Oh but wait…there’s more!
Snow was seen yesterday atop Maui’s Mount Haleakala – see story
Yeah, somethings up.
Great post, but lest we get too excited … ‘Weather does not equal Climate’
OK. So far this month we’ve had snow in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabi, Hawaii, and parts of China where plam trees grow and air temps in Siberia nearly -80F. According to GISS, that should make it only the 4th warmest January ever. Right?
Oh, forgot about the snow in South America in the middle of summer too….
“Great post, but lest we get too excited … ‘Weather does not equal Climate’”
All kidding aside, I think the weather the last 6 month prove beyond doubt how influential the oceans are on the climate system. It is not a coincidence that these events are occuring during a decent La Nina eposide. The oceans are likely the most influential variable in the climate system, followed closely by the sun, with CO2 a very, very distant 3rd.
OK. So far this month we’ve had snow in Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabi, Hawaii, and parts of China where plam trees grow and air temps in Siberia nearly -80F. According to GISS, that should make it only the 4th warmest January ever. Right?
Fergedaboudit, man.
They don’t GOT no weather stations in THEM places! Ain’t you never heard of “gridding”? They can FIX that easy.
Now jus’ don’t you worry none. Doc Jim an’ the boyz’ll have the ol’ GW up and running again in no time!
Well, I thought the definition of climate as used by NASA and the IPCC was weather over time. So if that’s correct, weather does equal climate.
Hi,
Don’t forget about Israel and Arab men in their robes having snowball fights. LOL I nearly fell over when I read that.
Re: Gary Gulrud (08:54:21) : Great post, but lest we get too excited … ‘Weather does not equal Climate’
Nonsense, get your facts straight.
Whenever weather trends support global warming they are used to as examples of a how the warming climate is (or “may be”) affecting weather patterns. Granted, such statements are often couched using safe, deniable escape wording like “may be”, but the thrust is quite clear and repeated ad nauseum.
Conversely, whenever weather patterns do not support global warming then they are said to have no significance and such statements are always couched uses weasel worded language and caveats similar to “weather does not equal climate”.
REPLY: Nice to have you back David.
[…] Snow, cold, in Saudi Arabia: “worst in 30 years” [image] I would have to imagine some of the residents near Riyadh are commenting like our lion friend from Oz above. […] […]
To David’s point. The British Columbia premier the other day pointed to the frozen Nechako River near Prince George as evidence of AGW. I’m open to explanations as to how.
Audit this jan. Check the station records against the local meterology
and the other climate systems ( like agriculture )
For example, check chico NOAA records againt every other piece of chico data
you can get.
“Great post, but lest we get too excited”
No reason to get excited, this is clearly a Global Warming phenomena.
If Liberal (UK defination) now means Socialist, then warm can mean cold. Therefor snow in the middle east is clearly Global (localised) Warming (Cooling) event.
Q.E.D.
The news today was about a big snowfall in southern China. The report said it destroyed crops in an area of 3000 square miles. More global warming?
Certainly.
Everything = Global Warming
In the history biz we call that one “Hypostatized Proof”.
It is very strange that ‘scientists’ writing about GW never mention the most common greenhouse gas. Water vapor is about 95% of greenhouse gases. CO2 is less than 4%.
I think your comments on scientists are GREAT!!
Didn’t any of you see “the day after tomorrow” and the effects of reduced flow in the North Atlantic Current? Since the movie the NAC has reduced by 13% ( If I remember correctly). This means reduced warm water reaching the northern hemisphere and therefore colder conditions – hence global warming = colder northern regions. Research in New Guinea on isotopic ratios of Oxygen in Giant clam shells shows that the NAC had shut down during the Younger dryas (11000 years ago) and stayed that way for over 1000 yrs. The time frame for the shut down to occur was only a couple of decades. My house is only a couple of metres above sealevel. Am I worried?…No. Moving? …No! But then again I’m in Southern Oz so the NAC is an awful long way away.
Correction: The flow has reduced by 30% since 1992.
Its freezing record in China, USA, Canada, Alaska, Europe, Saudi Arabia and who knows in how many other places on this planet not mentioned by the international ‘news’ media. Or should i say false news media?
Is this anthropogenic global warming? my logic and my thermometer tell me its global cooling.