This is something you don’t see every day. We recently heard that Canada had a white Christmas EVERYWHERE, the first time in four decades. Here we see that the USA has an increased albedo (surface reflectivity) for about 1/2 of it’s land area. The increased albedo combined with low sun angle this time of year conspires to keep ice and snow unmelted.
Look for a long and extended winter weather pattern as we head towards the spring equinox, which can’t get here fast enough.
Here is a more colorful view of snow depth on Dec 25th from the National Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center:
Click for larger image
Jim G reports in comments:
On Dec 18th, the coverage was 59.4%
h/t to Ron de Haan and Fresh Bilge
Its all because of proposition 8. God is angry with us.
Ron de Haan and Roger Carr:
That link doesn’t work. But you can read a very interesting response from the same Dr. Latour here. [It’s the second letter down, under the heading “Author’s Reply”.] Well worth reading, IMHO.
Ron de Haan, Roger Carr, yes, that link seems broken. Smokey has a better link to it, see his post of 20:56:32. And, thanks again, Smokey.
The link Smokey provided is to the same article I referred to.
Smokey (20:56:32).
Thanks, Smokey. Very, very interesting material in your link. The “Author;s Reply” is compelling reading. Delighted in these two clips from it:
” I have learned to read the fine print to confirm whether the scientific methods of Galileo Galilei, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, competent physicians, car mechanics and refinery engineers have been violated. Analysis before synthesis, always.”
“This was when President John F. Kennedy charged competent control engineers rather than lawyers to design national control systems.”
link works if you cut and paste whole address;
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/index.html?Page=14&PUB =22&SID=715446&ISS=25220&GUID=D5E78EC9-18EA-4C76-9A48-D4D92 79140FB”
and follow the link to letters or else go here;
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/index.html?Page=14&PUB=22&SID=715446&ISS=25220&GUID=D5E78EC9-18EA-4C76-9A48-D4D9279140FB
I just hope everyone in the AGW camp is happy to be paying additional taxes (there coming…) to switch on the heating….
No, you got it all wrong, global warming is here, right Al?
Patrick Henry (12:20:05) :
Europe is just starting into one of thire coldest weather patterns in decades right now as well, after near record snow this autumn in the Alps, Pyrenees and North Africa.
I’m not sure which bit of Europe you are referring to, but I think your comments are a bit wide of the mark right now. I was ski-ing in Europe XMas/New Year of 1984/5 in France and we had minus thirty Centigrade for a fortnight or so – the fuel in the bus taking us home solidified so the driver had to inject antifreeze after hacking open the fuel tank! We got back home to snow in London. It’s green here right now.
There is no analagous freeze right now in Western Europe. Temperatures in Scandinavia are around freezing. Temperatures in the Alps are around freezing. Temperatures in the UK are about normal.
Please would you clarify your comments and provide a data source. Including a source for a future ‘big freeze up’. I’d appreciate it for future planning.
From the BBC “Erratic weather ‘harms wildlife'”
quotes
insects have all suffered from a cold, late spring
Bees were hit hard in April by frost and snow
The cold and wet October
wet and cold June
Not one metion of warm conditions but dont worry its not global warming its climate change so its still all our fault.
“Climate change is not some future prediction of what might happen, it’s happening now and having a serious impact on our countryside every year.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7800869.stm
Looking forward to some of this winter weather. Hope it gets here.
I know that this group is big on anecdotal observations so here are some anecdotals from someone who has lived here in Northern Vermont USA for 55 years.
Today I hear my neighbor’s maple sugar line pumps working as we head into the second thaw this week. Used to be sugaring happened in March, now the trees are tapped and sugar houses steaming December -March.
Lake Champlain has not frozen across in a decade at least and will not again this year. Last year the larger bays barley froze. Ice fishing was a limited event.
While last February was the snowiest on record for Burlington , the end of February saw about and inch of snow on the ground. That because of the prodigious rainfall that accompanied each snowfall.
A good indicator of cold here is lack of snowfall. When it’s struggling to get out of the single digits F during the day and -20 or -30F at night for a week or two each January and again in Feb, it doesn’t snow here. That hasn’t happened for a decade or more either.
The January thaw, which used to come in late January and stay for a few days, now occupies most of January and is bleeding into December and March.
Lilacs still are past bloom for Memorial day in Burlington (my mother used to cut them for the family graves on Memorial Day).
So all wintery hub bub that I read about in this blog would be attributed by us old timers to simple flatlander hype as we sit in our rockers about the Round Oak wood burners in the local general store. ‘Cuz if this is winter, you ain’t never seen winter.
Still hoping that you all are right about global warming, but just not seeing it here in Fletcher where all climate is local.
Just looked out the window-it’s raining.
Rhys,
Here are a few references for you. If you are in London now, I am sure that you are aware that it is quite cold outside.
http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/bastardi-europe-blog.asp
the most impressive two- to four-week cold period of any recent winter for the continent on the whole is on the way. Patience, grasshopper, patience.
http://wxmaps.org/pix/temp4.html
Roger Carr (22:00:08) :
Smokey (20:56:32).
Thanks, Smokey. Very, very interesting material in your link. The “Author’s Reply” is compelling reading.
Not to mention such nonsense as this!
“No planet has ever had its temperature intelligently controlled,”
Patrick Henry et al,
I see in my original post I was more general than I intended. Pueblo is in the southeastern part of the state at the very start of the “Great Plains”. Yes, I agree, the Colorado mountains are getting slapped hard with this series of storms. The ski areas are measuring feet of snow. It doesn’t take a lot of altitude to get into it either. We’re just over 5100 feet here, and at about 6K things start to change.
Eastern Colorado near the “Front Range” (of the Rocky Mountains) is full of areas where weather can vary widely in just a few miles. Pueblo is one of those areas that doesn’t get much precip usually. I’m told by long time residents we’re in a “rain shadow”.
According to today’s paper Pueblo has about ten and a half inches of precip for the year, with about 12 and a half being normal. Snow for this season is about four inches, with more than 14 being normal.
A few miles (literally) up the hill, small communities are digging out from a bunch of snow. We could see it yesterday on the Wet Mountains, but here it topped out at almost 50 F. Today, we’ll be around 32 F. Ain’t weather interesting?!
Mike
The snow is merely an illusion. I know this because I am ‘reliably’ informed here
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article5400827.ece
that it is, in fact, getting warmer and warmer, faster and faster.
Dan, if you really want to make sense of the fact that it is raining in some places, snowing in others, freezing and dry in still other places, and sunny somewhere else, check out jet stream patterns here:
http://squall.sfsu.edu/crws/jetstream.html
You can add to that a standard weather site that allows you to look at cold and warm fronts around the globe, precipitable water and water vapor on land and sea, cloud-top pressure, etc. I would add a global study of ocean currents and the cyclical nature of these currents. The more global your study, the better understanding you will have. The deeper you go in the study, the more overwhelming evidence you will discover about the strength of these various unstable and fairly stable weather drivers.
As for me, I don’t go along with the notion that weather is anecdotal. Weather is where it’s at. Weather is data. And as data, it is very informative. Climate can be learned in any grade school science text book, is very much tied to landforms in relation to sources of moisture, and is therefor relatively stable over 1000’s of years (temperate climates, desert climates, high mountain climates, etc are easily understood, very stable, and assigned on a long term basis to our landforms). Weather is far more difficult to wrap your brain around and is worth studying. It is also more important than climate studies. Weather is often an immediate danger and can kill within 24 hours of arrival. Weather driver change (such as a current flip) can also bring decades of cold or warmth, forcing rather quick adaptations and much suffering, or on the other hand, profit. Climate has no such data to focus on.
Trust me, farmers could not give a rat’s ass about climate change. They do study weather patterns and trends. Closely. If they don’t, you don’t eat. So the next person who says that weather is anecdotal, try not eating for a day and then come back and write about the importance of weather versus climate.
addendum:
The dust bowl era was a real thought changer for farmers and ranchers across the US. Instead of quickly adapting to the dryer weather trend, farmers kept trying to grow corn where corn would no longer flourish. And they kept at it year after year till they lost their farm. The devastating effects of not quickly recognizing and adapting to weather trends was branded deep into the psyche of farmers everywhere. Slowly but surely, more effort was given to studying weather trends and farming practices, such as the use of strip farming as a way to work around periods of low rain fall. University research centers began studying frost/freeze resistant crops when weather trends turned cold. Up until now, farmers did a good job being flexible with their growing practices. I’m not so sure now. My concern of late has been that some newer farmers, and large corporate farms with money to lose, have forgotten those lessons and have sunk all their eggs into produce that is either not able to withstand changing weather trends or are not geared up to readily replace a crop with something else when weather trends turn against their current crop. We could be returning to the pre-dust bowl era when farmers thought that their current weather trend was a long-term, decades long environment that would assure their crop’s success in perpetuity. God forbid that farmers are led to believe that the climate is getting warmer. Let us hope instead that farmers study weather.
Pamela, Thanks for the jetstream link, and your comments on weather, but mostly for the interesting perspective that weather is not only a single or multiple day event, but has multi-decadal trends. It is this latter that the catastrophic AGWers have mistaken for climate. People that have to be, or even want to be out in the weather take it much more seriously than the inconvenience of precipitation or cold/hot temperatures most look at weather as. Not dressing for the worst conditions can be fatal. Interestingly, These conditions always involve cold…
Yes especially in areas near Northern Atlantic, temperatures seems to change a lot:
In general, the AMO is still warm, bringing warm Atlantic waters north. At the same time we have Cold PDO in the Pacific and a sun slumbering perhaps like in the Dalton minimum.
But if you check out Africa, South America, Australia and more it has been slightly more steady cooling for months.
If you look at daytoday UAH temps, it appears the UAH for dec seems to be headed to for a dip down to the level of 2007 DEC, slightly higher.
The interesting part is, that in 2007 DEC we had a quite powerful La Nina, but this year we seem to make almost same level without a powerful La Nina.
Pamela,
Thanks for your take on the difference between climate and weather. It is very different than what has been thrown around lately, but it certainly has the ring of truth. Because of this insight of yours I have begun to think a little differently, which is almost always a good thing. For one thing, the Global Climate Models should obviously be called Global Weather Models. These models should, therefore be updated weekly, and should match the previous weeks weather perfectly. Also they should not be counted on for anything whatsoever beyond a week. Anything that we call a climate model, on the other hand should run for a hundred years. At the end of the hundred years we will take a look and see how it did… 🙂
I believe this letter from Pierre R. Latour referenced in several comments above can play a critical role in returning truth and balance to climate science.
It is comprehensive. Powerful. Exacting.
I urge all who read here to send the link to as wide a public as possible.
href=”http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/index.html?Page=14&PUB=22&SID=715446&ISS=25220&GUID=D5E78EC9-18EA-4C76-9A48-D4D9279140FB” target=”_blank”>HYDROCARBON PROCESSING
Due to it being published as a “letter of reply” it is useful to add the following information when sending this link out as it is not immediately apparent where the letter is:
Letters to the Editor: “Is the Earth’s thermostat surging forward or limping into retrograde?”
This is my reply to the comments of Jeff Temple.
Pierre R. Latour, PhD, PE. Houston, Texas
Another try at that link to the Pierre R. Latour letter:
href=”http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/index.html?Page=14&PUB=22&SID=715446&ISS=25220&GUID=D5E78EC9-18EA-4C76-9A48-D4D9279140FB” target=”_blank”>HYDROCARBON PROCESSING
Okay. Mebbe simply:
http://www.hydrocarbonprocessing.com/index.html?Page=14&PUB=22&SID=715446&ISS=25220&GUID=D5E78EC9-18EA-4C76-9A48-D4D9279140FB
Anthony or Moderator:
I finally figured the correct code for that link. Sorry:
HYDROCARBON PROCESSING