More nasty weather in the northern hemisphere. It seems to be “piling up”. This event caught many off-guard and unprepared. (h/t to Philip_B)
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| Rescued tourists wait for government vehicles to take them back to Gangtok. Telegraph picture |
Thousands trapped in -15° snowstorm in Sikkim
27 Dec 2008, 0308 hrs IST, Amalendu Kundu, TNN
GANGTOK: A trip to the snow-laden Changu Lake turned into a nightmare for more than 3, 500 tourists including hundreds of children on Friday. They were trapped in snowstorm conditions with the temperature dipping to minus 15 degrees at a killing altitude of 13,300 feet before the army pulled them to safety.
The majority of those trapped were from Bengal. Hundreds fell ill, shivering in the icy cold as their vehicles remained stranded near Changu and Baba Mandir for hours. Clad in just jackets and scarves, the holidayers were hardly prepared, mentally or physically, to encounter a blizzard.
The army rescued them and took them to military camps, where warm soup and loads of blankets helped revive most of them. Many had to be admitted to the army medical units for treatment.
In the morning, there was little indication of what was to come. Tourists flocked to the Changu Lake by the hundreds as they do every day. With winter setting in, there was the added attraction of seeing the lake under glittering snow-covered peaks. The tourists got more than what they had asked for.
It started with a heavy shower. The temperature plummeted sharply. The skies seemed to turn clear for a moment but suddenly, heavy snowfall started near the India-China border, 35 km from Gangtok. Roads went under a couple of feet of snow in no time. Over 450 vehicles were immediately trapped.
Local guides assured them that the weather would clear up, but it only got worse. More snow fell. More vehicles got stranded in the higher reaches. What compounded the torture was wind chill. With the mercury dropping to minus 10 and continuing southward, the wind picked up, cutting into exposed skin, finding its way past windscreens, locked car doors and inside jackets.
The administration sent an SOS to the army that has several camps in the area. Unit 17 of the army’s elite mountain division swung into action. Aided by the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, Border Roads Organization and local police, they rescued around 1,500 tourists from 230 vehicles. Many had to be rushed for treatment while the rest were given shelter in the army camps.
The remaining tourists were rescued late in the afternoon even though their vehicles remained stranded. Although no casualty has been reported, many are said to be seriously ill. With the weather showing no signs of letting up, Changu Lake could remain out of bounds for tourists this week.
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Sorry David, you are a bit too late, snow in Europe is well over normal now:
http://climate.rutgers.edu/snowcover/chart_daily.php?ui_year=2008&ui_day=362&ui_set=2
By the way, the reason there is no snow in southern Scandinavia is that we have a whopping big high pressure area parked here, so it’s cold, but it isn’t snowing. Very good skating though.
Well the Telegraph may have printed Christopher Booker’s piece, but in yesterday’s printed paper there was this report from Friday’s online edition:-
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/3964688/Koalas-in-danger-of-extinction-as-rising-carbon-levels-poison-eucalyptus-trees.html
Polar bears are soooo yesterday….now we’re killing Koala Bears by poisoning their food. They do admit that bushfires, drought and land clearing are a major factor but now want to add the danger of cars or dogs killing them as they cross the roads….oh I’m sorry it says we won’t actually see them lying at the side of the road as their reproduction has slowed down ….so that’s no dead bodies for their next video to show our children then.
… and in Portugal (that’s europe DAvid) we’ve had the 3rd coldest november (beaten by 1931 and 1956) and I’m watching the news and the northern part is covered in snow, roads closed… Portugal is a summer holiday destination, not exactly what we would expect… And my gas bill is just skyrocketing!!
Weather I supose.
I’d class this as a feel-good extreme weather event. ‘Feel-good’ in that there were no fatalities and thousands were rescued. A rather nice counter-point to the AGW summertime panic mode when ice is melting and record high temps are set. Neither type event proves anything; they’re all just weather. Here in Western NY, most of December was unusually cold. Many times the daytime high temp was near the ‘normal’ low temp. Yesterday’s record high of 64°F was a welcome exception; a big plus is that all that recent snow (1 to 2 feet) has melted, including snow banks thrown up by the plows.
As for Arctic sea ice, it’s true that for this date the extent is at a low level compared to recent years. While NSIDC shows extent running even with last year’s levels, NANSEN is showing extent as being below last year’s levels while ice area continues to increase. This suggests that the Arctic sea ice is well compacted. In fact, NSIDC shows rather high levels of concentration of sea ice; see:
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/daily.html
It will be interesting to see how close this season’s extent approaches the recent high of 14.844 million km² set 21 Mar 03, as shown at IARC-JAXA. Even more interesting will be seeing how the 2009 melt season progresses with all the compacting that’s happened this winter.
Incidentally you can now go from Canada to Mexico without having to take your skis off:
http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims_gif/ARCHIVE/USA/2008/ims2008362_usa.gif
OT, but there’s no good recent thread for this. And this thread is full of OT stuff anyway!
We get a leap second this year, I must have heard that earlier but forgot it. Good links to get up to speed on the subject are:
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html
http://maia.usno.navy.mil/ser7/tai-utc.dat
We seemed to have one every years in the early 1990s (hey, we did!), the Earth has sped up since then and this will be only the second leap-second of the 2nd millennium.
Christopher Booker too, since he is a journalist of unimpeachable integrity
No, he is not.
John Philip, I read the the link you posted, but I think you failed to read the following commentary on the article. People aren’t buying what you guys are selling anymore. The shift has begun.
Ric Werme (06:00:14) : “the Earth has sped up”
I think it’s not slowing down as fast. USNO hasn’t taken away any seconds as far as I know. Not sure what you would call it if they did.
Of course, Monbiot is a towering intellectual. Here is the heading from a recent article:
“The stakes could not be higher.
Everything hinges on stopping coal. The climate camp must succeed. In the absence of political backbone, our only hope is an avalanche of public revulsion”
My prediction here is that this will go down as a ‘freak cold year’, no special significance attached to it. They won’t admit that being 2 + yrs late to SC24 has anything to do with it. The time intervening will be spent playing wishing SC24 will start soon games. The same “this is normal statement” will be put out in vain hopes of normaltiy. Then next winter will hit with a cruel vengeance.
Regis Philbin will host “Who wants to be an idiot?”
A McFarland Signature sets up in the 8-10 day of the latest MRF with the door opening all the way back to Siberia. 1000 mb temps well below freezing for all of the US from coast to coast around Jan 8th if this holds.
A good crisis is a good opporunity for change as Obama says…let there be change.
Global warming is a social issue that only Governments can solve.
Let there be one giant world government led by one leader and one religion. The guy from Iran stated that one.
Everything will be solved soon. Some will have light and heat, others will have to sacrifice to save the planet. Is it over CO2 or world domination?
Interesting comments in Today’s The Sunday Telegraph, comparing the December weather in the UK to that of the great winter of 1962-63.
Not the snowiest (The 1947-8 winter gets that crown) but bitter, lengthy cold.
For the benefit of John Phillip, Christopher Booker’s views on George Monbiot mirror those of George Monbiot on Christopher Booker.
I wonder what Mr Monbiot’s views are on the current extent of the Arctic Sea Ice?
Nope, sounds like typical weather in mountainous regions.
When I was stationed in Germany in the early 80s, one of the Training areas, Wildflecken, was in the hills. You could easily see all four seasons in one day. Once while sitting in my jeep outside an ammo storage area, the weather was a pleasant 40 degrees and sunny. 30 minutes later clouds moved in, the temp dropped by about 20 degrees, and the snow dumped. 6 hours later we had 4 feet of snow. I had to get out of my jeep periodically to clear the snow from my tailpipe and to shovel it away from the jeep so I could get out when I needed to.
Down in the valleys it was still 40 degrees and no snow.
Here the northern hemisphere time series of snow cover – http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/28/anom_nhland.png
It’s clearly obvious what’s going on. More details at http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/denialists_scraping_the_bottom.php#more .
Hi all,
First post, no Global warming = no Global warming?
Facts so far : No sea rise since 2005
No glogal warming since 1998
Global cooling since 2002
Record Arctic ice recovery since 2006
Record low temperatures and record snow fall in 2008
Sandwich UK 28/12/08 -2oc
david (12:56:49) :
Here the northern hemisphere time series of snow cover – http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/28/anom_nhland.png
Maps quite well to the warm (+ve) phase of the PDO over the last 30 years or so.
Now that the PDO has swapped to cold (-ve) phase (in 2007) expect the trend to turn around – beginning with this year.
“david (12:56:49) :
Here the northern hemisphere time series of snow cover – http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/28/anom_nhland.png
It’s clearly obvious what’s going on.”
It sure is… You are getting weather and climate confused.
Please see this chart:
http://anhonestclimatedebate.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/understandingmanmadeclimatechangebyhonestclimate.jpg
David (20:12:57) :
Sound like the Day after tomorrow, anyone?
If I remember correctly, the technical premise for the sudden onset of cooling in the “Day after Tomorrow – the movie” was a massive drop in NH sea surface temperatures.
A massive exaggeration of the current (entirely normal and natural) PDO reversal.
The PDO reversal is sufficient to explain a return to colder weather in the NH.
David – meet William Ockham and his marvelous Razor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_Razor
It will help you to cut through the hype that haunts your mind.
Also you may like to consider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
G
david (12:56:49) :
Here the northern hemisphere time series of snow cover – http://scienceblogs.com/deltoid/2008/12/28/anom_nhland.png
That’s quite an uptick for snow cover around 2006, 2007 – looks like a reversal could be on it’s way.
For the benefit of John Phillip, Christopher Booker’s views on George Monbiot mirror those of George Monbiot on Christopher Booker.
No doubt, one key difference between the two being that, as Monbiot points out, Booker’s completely bogus claims about the safety of asbestos are dangerously irresponsible, and have had to be refuted by the Health and Safety Executive:
HSE1
HSE2
Not the most reliable source, then. Is there any reason to believe his opinion on Global Warming is any more rigourously researched? The most recent piece talks of falling global temperatures this year for example. Er, Nope.
I wonder what Mr Monbiot’s views are on the current extent of the Arctic Sea Ice?
In point of fact, it reached an record low for the time of year just before Christmas, though the difference is not that significant, climatically speaking.
John Philip (06:27:26) :
Christopher Booker too, since he is a journalist of unimpeachable integrity
No, he is not.
Last line from the article at the link you gave –
“You cannot trust the people who tell you whom to trust.”
Seems like the kettle calling the pot black!
——————
Richmond 29/10:05am 25.5C forecast even hotter later today. Just love summer down here 🙂
david (12:56:49) :
Nice graphic. Positive PDO – low winter snow cover, negative PDO – high winter snow cover.
Are summer snow cover anomalies useful?
Graeme Rodaughan (14:37:50) :
Not really, the movie was based on what became Whitley Streiber’s novelization. On the Art Bell show, he argued that there was a sudden cooling on Earth in the past because mastodons have been found with food in their mouths. Clearly they froze in mid-chew.
In my http://wermenh.com/2016.html page, I note:
Here’s a quote from what may be the original reference:
“Before I arrived at the site, Herz had partially dug away the hill of earth round the body, and so both the forefeet and the hind feet were exposed. These lay under the body so that it rested on them. When one looked at the body one had the impression that it must have suddenly fallen into an unexpected fissure in the ice, which it probably came across in its wanderings, and which may have been covered with a layer of plant-bearing mould. After its fall the unlucky animal must have tried to get out of its hopeless position, for the right forefoot was doubled up and the left stretched forward as if it had struggled to rise. But its strength had apparently not been up to it, for when we dug it out still farther we found that in its fall it had not only broken several bones, but had been almost completely buried by the falls of earth which tumbled in on it, so that it had suffocated.
“Its death must have occurred very quickly after its fall, for we found half-chewed food still in its mouth, between the back teeth and on its tongue, which was in good preservation. The food consisted of leaves and grasses, some of the later carrying seeds. We could tell from these that the mammoth must have come to its miserable end in the autumn.”
Nothing to do with the PDO, just a need to explain the frozen mastodons.