More anecdotal colder than normal weather keeps piling up. This time it’s in Southern Oregon and Northeastern California. Clearly we are having some far earlier than normal frosts and freezes in the USA, and the situation seems to be mirrored in colder than normal weather in parts of UK and Europe as well.
Note that this frost advisory has no connection to the weather pattern that caused frost and freeze in Minnesota and Wisconsin last night, it is a different frontal system.
NORTHEAST SISKIYOU AND NORTHWEST MODOC COUNTIES-KLAMATH BASIN-
NORTHERN AND EASTERN KLAMATH COUNTY AND WESTERN LAKE COUNTY-
CENTRAL AND EASTERN LAKE COUNTY-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…TULELAKE…DORRIS…ALTAMONT…
KLAMATH FALLS…BEATTY…BLY…CHEMULT…CRESCENT…GILCHRIST…
SPRAGUE RIVER…LAKEVIEW
238 PM PDT MON AUG 25 2008
…FROST ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 2 AM TO 9 AM PDT
TUESDAY…
CLEARING SKIES BEHIND A COLD FRONT WILL ALLOW TEMPERATURES TO
DROP INTO THE 30S IN MANY AREAS EAST OF THE CASCADES TONIGHT. SOME
ISOLATED LOCATIONS WILL DROP BELOW FREEZING.
A FROST ADVISORY MEANS THAT FROST IS POSSIBLE. SENSITIVE OUTDOOR
PLANTS MAY BE KILLED IF LEFT UNCOVERED.
Map from National Weather Service, Medford Oregon
h/t to Pamela Gray
Wife puts green tomatoes in a box lined with newspaper, and covers them with the same. Puts them in the basement(somewhere cool and dry). They’ll ripen in a few days. She then cans them. She makes good salsa with them, too.
She cans all kinds of fruit, veggies, and meat throughout the year. Last longer and better for you.
Anthony & (most) Commenters:
Thanks for all the cold weather anecdotes. Down here in California’s Kern County deserts, we’re still getting baked. Thus far this summer we’ve gotten by with just 3 days with high temperature > 110 F (yearly average is 5), but it looks like we could hit 110 F or higher Thursday and Friday, with daytime temperatures forecast to be 10 – 15 F above normal. In this part of California, it’s definitely still summer, so all the posts about frost and freezing are very welcome. That’s as close to “cold” as most folks here are going to get for awhile.
Interesting, nsdic shows a downturn in ice _extent_ at
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/daily.html and CryoSphere
shows ice _area_ leveling off.
And the Washington Post has picked up the nsidc side of the story, with polar bears for good measure.
Thank goodness then that there’s more ice cover this year than last, a point the article doesn’t make clear.
Mary Hinge (15:51:42) :
There is anecdotal evidence that vaccinations may cause autism; however, it cannot be proven scientifically and the same holds for the ‘belief’ that CO2 is responsible for global warming based on measurements that cannot be proven scientifically to show a casual relationship between the two outside of a laboratory! Don’t spill the catsup when you review anecdotal!
Here’s a PDF that shows average first frost dates for the country.
http://www.botanicalinterests.com/pdf_downloads/First%20Fall%20Frost%20Map.pdf
Homegrown tomatoes homegrown tomatoes
What’d life be without homegrown tomatoes
Only two things that money can’t buy
That’s true love and homegrown tomatoes
Guy Clark, Homegrown Tomatoes Lyrics
http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/clark-guy/homegrown-tomatoes-12.html
edcon (20:33:49) :
Just proves you have no idea of the difference between scientific investigation and anecdotal evidence. Using anecdotal evidence as ‘scientific evidence’ can also be harmufuland misleading, the vaccination/autism is actually a very good example. There are now measle outbreaks because parents where worried about vaccinating their children because they were worried about this leading to autism. Now, after scientific investigation, their does not appear to be a link at all. The recent anecdotes in this blog, whilst representing what those in the cold anomoly areas feel are worthless to the study of climate change. This is evident as a cold front crosses (nothing abnormal there) and the noise from the wannabe intellectuals grow, suddenly silent when the temperatures return to normality (where have the weather stories from Denver gone to!) The frost warnings are being used in the context of the beginnings of a new ice age approaching by many posters. The mild freeze has more to do with clear dry air ( a good hint of this is “CLEARING SKIES BEHIND A COLD FRONT….” ). You look at the max day temperatures and they are certainly not Arctic by any means http://www.intellicast.com/National/Temperature/HighToday.aspx
Keep tucking into that fast food honey, or better still try and seek some nutritional mind food.
Brian D,
I would like to get a high resolution version of that map if possible. I looked on the NOAA site but only came up with an old black and white map. Do you have the map’s address, or could you email it to me please: david.archibald@westnet.com.au
I have been saying that a repeat of the Dalton Minimum would take 2 weeks of the growing season each end, and that climate zones would move 300 km towards the equator. This map shows the effect of that – it is beautiful. By the way, the length of Solar Cycle 23 relative to Solar Cycle 22 means that a climatic repeat of the Dalton Minimum is now inevitable.
We baby boomers have had the best of everything, including a run of short solar cycles that have kept the world warmer than it would have otherwise been. The correlation is 0.7 degrees C for every year of solar cycle length. Solar cycles in the 20th century averaged one year longer than those of the 19th century. The 20th century got to be 0.7 degrees warmer than the 19th century.
Jared:
For Antarctic temps you can start here:
http://www.aad.gov.au/weather/aws/dome-a/index.html
Currently -75C at Dome A.
Jared:
Australian Antarctic bases info here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDT65024.shtml
Jeff Alberts,
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
It’s wrong for the AGW people to do it, and so it is for us coolers.
Mike Bryant,
I see your point, but a church is also built by the sinners, and not the preacher.
I’m a big AGW skeptic. I’m so because of the bad, highly anecdotal “science” used to promote it. Now if anyone wishes to make me an Anthony Watts skeptic, then by all means encourage him to resort to the same brand of “science” as the AGW alarmists. In MHO, I think it’s a big mistake to mix weather reports in with climate science on one website, as clearly so many seem unable to distinguish between the two. “Yup! We got a frost last night – must be global cooling!”
Of course it’s Anthony’s site, and he’ll do as he darn well pleases. But hopefully he’ll simply consider my comments as “suggestions for improvement”.
Wondering Aloud
The map is a one-week OUTLOOK – and not of actual conditions.
So, don’t be surprised if you enjoy some warm days ahead.
Here’s a link to Antarctica:
http://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/antarctica%20environment/weather.htm
When I wrote this it was -116°F at Vostok!
Now how’s that for global cooling!
Anecdotes would be mere background noise if the public had faith in the data put out. In fact the data would have a leveling effect, canceling out the various heat waves and cold snaps going on in various places at any given time.
However when the public loses faith in the data put out; when the public starts to feel like it is being played for a sucker and a chump, it is only natural for people to begin to compare notes.
Discrepancies between the red dots on the GISS map and back-yard observations start to be noticed. California has a big red dot for July, but a fellow in San Diego notes his temperatures were two degrees below normal.
If these discrepancies were isolated, they could be dismissed as being merely local phenomenon, however when they become too numerous the public’s distrust of government data becomes a ground swell. Eventually government data is scorned as propaganda, and the people seek the truth in their own way.
I’m afraid this is exactly what we are seeing occur. When Abraham Lincoln stated “You can’t fool all the people all the time,” he was recognizing that the public is not something to be trifled with, especially in a democracy.
In a better world data could be trusted. It would serve its purpose, and not the purpose of a particular party.
As it is, the public seems to increasingly rely on anecdotes. Each bit of data is measured by the listener, who tries to figure out whether the reporter is an Alarmist or a Skeptic, and makes their own private “adjustment” accordingly, and then they scrawl a map in their minds, with their own red dots and blue dots. It’s a lot of mental work, and likely leads to a wide variety of mental maps.
How much easier it would be if the public could trust the people entrusted to do this work; the people in fact paid by the public with tax-dollars to do the job professionally and without bias. Unfortunately, the public currently can’t trust.
Therefore anecdotes have become important, for where there is propaganda there will also be an underground.
“Therefore anecdotes have become important, for where there is propaganda there will also be an underground.”
Anecdotes have their place in folk tales and bar talk. Sensationalists love them and also, so it seems, those more interested in conspiracy theories than intelligent discussion. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence for alien abduction, bigfoot and even the tooth fairy, hey, Elvis was seen in a chipshop last month!
Pierre,
Only a few sites report on anecdotal cooling. I saw almost no coverage of the record snows in China last winter. Apparently China lost trees in an area about the size of Florida. Isn’t an environmental disaster like that worthy of some coverage? As I see it, blogs like this one are a balance to the AGW propaganda. I really enjoy your posts.
The MRF has a major cold front pushing to the Gulf Coast for Sep 3rd/4th timeframe with temps in the 30s for the upper plains and midwest.
David Archibald,
You might want to look at McFarland Signature events as well. These greatly determine the viability of certain types of crops grown in the US East of the Rocky Mountains. McFarland events drive very cold air from Siberia over the poles and down into North America for a prolonged period, sometimes as far as Costa Rica and into the Tropical Pacific ( via the Darien Gap ) and as far East as the Bahamas.
This cold air is so cold that it kills succulent plants such as citrus and others that cannot tolerate sub-freezing temps. These events should be very apparent in the fossil pollen record. They also do a number on winter wheat, alfalfa, and other crops that cannot stand prolonged cold temps – they effectively push the crop zones 500+ miles further south. They are also very hard on livestock.
McFarland events used to be common < 1900, mostly ceased from 1900-1950, then appear to have started up in the early 1980s again. The McFarland event of 1899 was so cold that Galveston Bay froze over.
They should be ( and are ) relatively apparent in pollen studies from plant community changes.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ssd/techmemo/tm88.htm
http://www.raingardens.com/psst/articles/artic03.htm
http://www.raingardens.com/psst/articles/artic02.htm
The argument about anecdotal evidence seems specious to me. If there’s one thing we all can talk about, it’s the weather. That weather is, for the most part, what humankind has considered important throughout history, the situation right around us. Someone else may be baking, but we are cold, so that’s what’s important to us.
The ability to see data gathered from far flung areas in real time is pretty recent. So gabbing about it is interesting and fun. Here in Colorado, we have “microclimes” (I think I spelled that right…) that is my “weather” and the “weather” just a mile or so away might be quite different. Think of a thunderstorm passing overhead. That can reduce the temperature 10-20 degrees in a very short time. So my reality in a storm will be quite different from a neighbor who sees the storm pass by with no more than cool wind gusts for a time.
To speak of someone as “psudointellectual” is a real put down. Most folks understand the difference between local, regional and world data, and also long term and short term. Stated another way, I think I’ve learned more from farmers, mechanics and cleaning people than folks with letters after their name.
nuff said.
Well, if you are going to give one side of the coin (in this case the high/low setup on the Pacific coast), you better cite the “anecdotal” evidence of warming.
URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
328 AM PDT WED AUG 27 2008
…NEAR RECORD HEAT EXPECTED THURSDAY ACROSS THE EAST AND SOUTH BAY..
STRONG HIGH PRESSURE AND LIGHT OFFSHORE WINDS WILL BRING
SIGNIFICANT WARMING TO THE GREATER SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGION TODAY
INTO THURSDAY. TEMPERATURES WILL WARM TO SEVERAL DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL
TODAY WITH 80S NEAR THE COAST AND READINGS WELL INTO THE 90S
INLAND. BY THURSDAY RECORD OR NEAR RECORD HEAT WILL BE POSSIBLE
ACROSS MOST OF THE REGION. IN PARTICULAR THE POPULATED AREAS OF
THE EAST AND SOUTH BAY WILL EXPERIENCE SOME OF THE HOTTEST
TEMPERATURES ON THURSDAY AFTERNOON.
Talk about warming… look at these temps.
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Continent.jpg
I wonder if anyone has a similar list of lows…
Cold weather, warm weather, all makes great conversation!
Northern California is experiencing typical late September or early October weather. In all respects.
This site has continental record high and low temperatures:
http://www.weatherexplained.com/Vol-1/Record-Setting-Weather.html
David
The file came from here.
http://cdo.ncdc.noaa.gov/cgi-bin/climaps/climaps.pl?directive=order_details&subrnum=®ion=Lower%2048%20States&filename=temp06b
You can try the their instructions for the ArcExplorer and see if those files satisfy your need, but other than that, that is it.
I’ve looked around for different sources, but no luck. Sorry.