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For example, in America’s heartland (thanks to Joe D’Aleo at ICECAP): Cedar Rapids and the surrounding Midwest has been consistently colder than normal since December. In Cedar Rapids, December averaged 3.0 F below normal, January 1.9 F below normal, February a whopping 8.3 F below normal, March 4.9 F below normal and so far in April 4.4 degrees below normal.
KCRG-TV also has a story about temperatures being unsuitable for gardening there in Cedar Rapids.
Julian from UK touched on something that I have not seen. Is there a average for UV energy from the sun that is responsible for at least half of the heating on earth?
Also, if the sun is not an important driver in climate, then why are there seasons? The earth is only tilted a tiny bit away during winter… (not counting orbit elongations). What is the delta in UV energy hitting the surface between summer and winter?
Phillip in England:
“The south-west of England (normally mild at this time of year) has been very cold in April. Unusual and damaging frosts and northerly winds.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/south_yorkshire/7352006.stm
[South Yorkshire is pretty well north, up by Manchester and Liverpool.]
At Ladybower, west of Sheffield, about 10cm (3.9in) of snow fell overnight resulting in a heavy covering on open land and untreated roads.
Further north on the edge of the Pennine hills at Penistone, near Barnsley, about 7cm (2.7in) fell.
“The temperatures aren’t too bad, its just that there is quite a lot of cold and snow and sleet on the roads and it is slippery.”
not too bad temps == lot of cold? Must be the stiff British upper lip. That or frostbite. 🙂
Randy:
“Julian from UK touched on something that I have not seen. Is there a average for UV energy from the sun that is responsible for at least half of the heating on earth?”
No, solar output tails off pretty quickly, and the shortwave UV gets absorbed high in the atmosphere so it’s hard to work that heat down.
“Also, if the sun is not an important driver in climate, then why are there seasons? The earth is only tilted a tiny bit away during winter… ”
The change in tilt is huge, and is most effective outside of the tropics. Here in New Hampshire, the sun’s noontime altitude is 23.3 degrees in the winter solstice and 70.1 at the summer solstice. Heating per unit area varies with the sine of that angle so we get 40% efficiency in winter, and 94% in summer. And that’s without taking the greater atmospheric distance the sunlight travels. Sunlit length goes from 9 hours to 15. I don’t have the total daily insolation handy, sorry.
http://wermenh.com/sun.html has some pretty raw data.
“What is the delta in UV energy hitting the surface between summer and winter?”
Very little, that’s why we don’t tan during the winter. Poke around the web and look for a graph showing UV atmospheric absorption, I remember seeing one in Sky & Telescope, skin care site or Wikipedia ought to be good sources. Report back.
http://www.accuweather.com/watches-warnings.asp?partner=forecastfox&zipcode=97301&county=ORc047&zone=ORz007&metric=0
I’m glad I haven’t planted any vegetables yet. I usually start mid-March.
Governor “Sleepy” Ted Kulongoski (D-Unions) is throwing huge subsidies and fuel mandates at ethanol and biodiesel. Nothing for biomass fuels, though; that would encourage forest thinning….
UNSEASONABLY COLD WEATHER WITH VERY LOW SNOW LEVELS AND NEAR
RECORD LOW TEMPERATURES IN STORE FOR SOUTHWEST WASHINGTON AND
NORTHWEST OREGON THIS WEEKEND…
SNOW LEVELS WILL APPROACH VALUES MORE IN KEEPING WITH
MID WINTER THAN EARLY SPRING.
Good heavens!!! I just read the warning for Northeast Oregon!!!! Holllllyyyy crap!!!! The coldest part of the weather system is right where I spend my weekends trying to pull blood out of a ranch turnip. And I JUST changed my studs out for my regular tires. Good thing I have a jeep. I’m gonna have to start burning the house board by board just to stay warm!
This might warm your night:
http://www.junkscience.com/Greenhouse/Cosmic_rays_and_climate.htm
Last sunday here in Arkansas Believe it was 4-12-08. I was doing my rounds working in the early afternoon, and it actually spit a few flakes of snow. Nothing major, but enough that you noticed it was snowing. I couldnt believe it. April, in arkansas, and it was spitting snow.
Loved this article. It talked about the possibility of pauses in ocean decadal oscillations along with solar activity. Best explanation yet about the ocean’s affect on temperature/CO2, and leaves open the possibility that changes in the sun or aspects of our orbit around it may cause ocean pauses that end up changing temperature up or down in sometimes abrupt ways.
Might the ocean be pausing in its function of heat conveyance? Leaving some of us in the bitter cold? Might the pause in the sun be just coincidence or tied to this possible ocean pause?
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=12457&tid=282&cid=18371
An interesting article about cosmic ray penetration through the atmosphere. There is a mention about solar cycle length being unusually short during the global warming period (along with a cheeky comment of “too bad for the environmentalists” who think we are causing global warming). Cosmic ray penetration is in reverse relationship with active periods and follows cycle length as well. The logical reverse of the short cycle speculation causing warming trends would be that longer cycles, ie longer maximums and longer minimums, and longer cyclic cosmic ray reflextion and penetration, may harald decreasing global temps.
http://www.research.ibm.com/journal/rd/421/ziegler.html
LOVED this article! Especially after some of the heavier reading I’ve been doing! Cheeky comments throughout! Yet filled with DATA!
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html