UPDATE: The author’s (Lorne Gunter) claim of breaking the all time March record by -12 degrees is only partially correct. The phrase “smashing the previous March low” should have read “smashing the previous March 10th low”. Mr. Gunter erred in his statement.
The official all time March record Tmin occurred in 2003 and was -42.2°C details here from Environment Canada (Thanks to reader K Stricker for the link).
UPDATE#2: 3/18 I’ve sent off a note to Mr. Gunter on the error in the article, and I’m hoping that he will post a correction to the wording in his article below. I have not yet heard back from him and I’m trying an alternate contact route via another person known to have corresponded with him. Gunter’s mistake is that he claims a new low temperature record for the entire Month of March, when it is only for a single day, March 10th. While I can’t correct the text in Mr. Gunter’s article until he makes a correction himself (since I won’t modify another authors words) reader should take note that the claims made in the article are not supported by the actual data. While I agree that “global warming” has indeed stalled in the last few years, the claim of the all time March low for Edmonton is incorrect. – Anthony
Global warming’s no longer happening
So why are eco types moaning about record highs while ignoring record lows?
By Lorne Gunter, The Edmonton Journal
So far this month, at least 14 major weather stations in Alberta have recorded their lowest-ever March temperatures. I’m not talking about daily records; I mean they’ve recorded the lowest temperatures they’ve ever seen in the entire month of March since temperatures began being recorded in Alberta in the 1880s.
This past Tuesday, Edmonton International Airport reported an overnight low of -41.5 C, smashing the previous March low of -29.4 C set in 1975. Records just don’t fall by that much, but the airport’s did. Records are usually broken fractions of degrees. The International’s was exceeded by 12 degrees.
To give you an example of how huge is the difference between the old record and the new, if Edmonton were to exceed its highest-ever summer temperature by the same amount, the high here some July day would have to reach 50 C. That’s a Saudi Arabia-like temperature.
Also on the same day, Lloydminster hit -35.2 C, breaking its old March record of -29.2 C. Fort McMurray — where they know cold — broke a record set in 1950 with a reading of -39.9C. And Cold Lake, Slave Lake, Whitecourt, Peace River, High Level, Jasper and Banff, and a handful of other communities obliterated old cold values, most from the 1950s or 1970s, two of the coldest decades on record in the province.
This has been an especially cold winter across the country, with values returning to levels not often seen since the 1970s, which was an especially brutal decade of winters.
Temperatures began to plummet on the Prairies in December. The cold weather did not hit much of the rest of the country until January, but when it hit, it hit hard. Even against Canada’s normally frigid January standards, “this particular cold snap is noteworthy,” Environment Canada meteorologist Geoff Coulson said this past January. Many regions across the country had not been as cold for 30 years or more, he added.
Does this prove fear of global warming is misplaced? On its own, probably not. But if records were being broken the other way — if several Alberta centres had recorded their warmest-ever March values — you can bet there would be no end of hand-wringing, horror stories about how we were on the precipice of an ecological disaster of unprecedented proportions.
Environmentalists, scientists who advance the warming theory, politicians and reporters never shy away from hyping those weather stories that support their beliefs. But they tend to ignore or explain away stories that might cast doubt.
In 2005, the summer and fall of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, when several major ‘canes pummelled North and Central America, we were told again and again that this was proof warming was happening and it was going to be bad. Al Gore has emissions from industrial smokestacks swirling up into a satellite image of a hurricane on the DVD box for his propaganda film An Inconvenient Truth to underline the point that more and eviller hurricanes will be the result of CO2 output.
But since 2005, only one major hurricane — this year’s Ike — has struck North America. And now comes a study from Florida State University researcher Ryan Maue, that shows worldwide cyclonic activity — typhoons, as well as hurricanes — has reached a 30-year low (tinyurl.com/bunynz).
Indeed, the hiatus may go back more than 30 years because it is difficult to compare records before about 1970 with those since, since measurements four or more decades ago were not as precise or thorough. Current low activity may actually be the lowest in 50 years or more.
If Maue had proven hurricane activity were at a 30-year high, of course his findings would have been reported far and wide. But since he is challenging the dogma of the Holy Mother Church of Climate Change, his research is ignored.
For at least the past five or six years, global temperatures have been falling. Look at the black trend line on the chart at www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ put out by the man who runs NASA’s worldwide network of weather satellites.
Also, in the past few months, two studies — one by the Leibniz Institute of Marine Science and the Max Planck Institute of Meteorology in Germany and another by the University of Wisconsin — have shown a slowing, or even a reversal of warming for at least the next 10 to 20, and perhaps longer.
Even the Arctic sea ice, which has replaced hurricanes as the alarm of the moment ever since hurricanes ceased to threaten, has grown this winter to an extent not seen since around 1980.
Global warming is not only no longer happening, it is not likely to resume until 2025 or later, if then. So why are we continuing to hear so much doomsaying about climate change?
There are a lot of people in every age who think they know better than everyone else and, therefore, have a right to tell everyone how to live. In the 1950s, it was country-club and parish council busybodies with their strict moral codes. In the 1970s, it was social democrats with their fanciful economic theories. Today, it’s environmentalists.
Same instinct, different wrapper.
The Gunther article starts with
“So far this month, at least 14 major weather stations in Alberta have recorded their lowest-ever March temperatures. I’m not talking about daily records; I mean they’ve recorded the lowest temperatures they’ve ever seen in the entire month of March since temperatures began being recorded in Alberta in the 1880s.
This past Tuesday, Edmonton International Airport reported an overnight low of -41.5 C, smashing the previous March low of -29.4 C set in 1975. ”
So for those of you who think he was talking about march 10 records you are mistaken.
In a previous post I posted a link to Environment Canada which has records from 1971 – 2000. Follow the link below and you can plainly see March record of -42.2. The Gunther article is bogus.
http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climate_normals/results_e.html?Province=ALL&StationName=edmonton&SearchType=BeginsWith&LocateBy=Province&Proximity=25&ProximityFrom=City&StationNumber=&IDType=MSC&CityName=&ParkName=&LatitudeDegrees=&LatitudeMinutes=&LongitudeDegrees=&LongitudeMinutes=&NormalsClass=A&SelNormals=&StnId=1865&
Zen (No. 1):
Your’s too??
Beyond coincidence!!!
I’m not mistaken thinking he was talking about March 10 records. He was mistaken thinking he was talking about March records. I doubt Mr. Gunter would want to deliberately undermine his credibility by making a huge deal out of something which could be easily debunked. It was just the same overzealousness/carelessness we see in the AGW crowd. Mr. Gunter just happens to have the same zeal when it comes to reporting anti-AGW news. He often reports on things which would undermine AGW theory.
Wolfie (#3)
I live in Canada, but was born and raised in Melbourne. The 9 Feb max of 46.4° was 0.8° above the previous 1939 max.
We’re talking 12° C in Edmonton.
Read and absorb or go away.
Curse you, Anthony!!! Thanks to this blog I have to spend several hours a day adding all kinds of interesting information to what I have already learned about climate. [smile]
This is truly an international forum, with contributions from opposite sides of the world in addition to its home country.
Ian
Let us see how BIG the lie’s are from the warm mongers!!!!!
My turn my turn!!!!!!
……… Epaminondas (01:36:04) :………..
One of the problems in seeking a rational debate about complex matters that is these are trivialized by labels. The overall effect of ‘global cooling’, the reason for a simplistic name, is an observed overall decrease in the world’s average temperature. A simple hot snap in one area does not invalidate the argument that climates are changing, and generally becoming cooler.
The simple and undeniable fact that the world’s average temperature is decreasing does not rule out the possibility of a reverse in local situations.
For example, at any time now, a giant ocean current that starts in the north Atlantic might stop, because warming around the strait between Alaska and Siberia has reduced the amount of sea ice formed. The current is kicked off by cold brine, descending into the ocean at the top of the Pacific as freshwater ice forms on the surface.
This current, known as ‘The Conveyor’, runs down, around Cape Horn and up into the Pacific , and it drives the Gulf Stream. If the Gulf Stream stops, a large part of north-western Europe could be subject to sea ice and even be frozen in, each winter, because of global cooling. I say it again: global cooling can cause places to freeze over that have not frozen in recent times.
It hasn’t happened yet. At the same time, it looks as though southern Australia could become more drought-prone, even as northern parts get higher rainfall in the next half-century. There will be floods in the south, maybe even droughts in the north, but the overall effect will be soggy tropics and dry temperate regions.
**** sounds like weather to me!!!!! eah?
Weather patterns settle into sort-of stable forms, but if you kick the weather, jolt the weather from its track, don’t expect it to bounce back when you stop kicking. It will be on a new track.
The seas are getting cooler”la-nina” , they are getting less saturated in CO2 “and so more acidic”???? (SO2?)( less alkaline ) , we are approaching a situation where calcium carbonate exoskeletons (shells) are less and less able to stay solid(calcium carbonate has CO2 in it). That means we may see the breakdown and collapse of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. If that happens, much of Australia’s north-east coast will be battered by ocean waves generated by the cyclones (the equivalent of hurricanes) that are expected to increase in numbers and size. (((((sorry all speculation here)))))
There has been no sea ice between the island of Saarinen and the Estonian coast in 15 years, the most recent northern winter was the first time in 15 years that the canals of Amsterdam froze over. If ‘The Conveyor’ stops, because of global cooling, the moose of Saarinen will be able to spread all over Europe.
((“good for the moose’s”))
Predicting the actual results is close to impossible, so saying “oh this prediction didn’t happen in Double-Dubuque last Tuesday” is not an argument. It is cherry-picking the data to come up with a scenario that suits one’s share portfolio or political ‘word view’ . It is a facile and simplistic failed attempt at obfuscation by somebody who knows squat( ALGORE? ).
Weather patterns change and climate changes, all over the world. All we can really say in the way of prediction is that the vast majority of the foreseeable futures look very, very cold, and no amount of waffle will change that.
Face it: just because you watch the Weather Channel, that doesn’t mean you’re a meteorologist. I’m not an expert either, but I pay attention to what the research says, as opposed to what the self-seeking grand-standers warm mongers say.
Dose everyone understand the lies here? how it is so easy to see through it?
how this is. ” This argument IS ours too!!!
enjoy peps.
Jack Simmons – tell your grand daughter about DDT and about how eco-fascists condemned millions to death by having it effectively banned worldwide
K Stricker
Gunter said this “This past Tuesday, Edmonton International Airport reported an overnight low of -41.5 C, smashing the previous March low of -29.4 C set in 1975.”
You may well be correct in that he meant to say March 10 but the fact is that he did not.
I can see the City Centre Airport from my rooftop, have a weather station and it was 12 ° colder at my house on that day than any March temperature than I have recorded inside the UHI. But then I’ve only got 4 years of data. 🙂
Mr. Gunter also reports that Lloydminster had “hit -35.2 C, breaking its old March record of -29.2 C” but according to the same sites that K Stricker and Charlie98 were referencing, the low for lloydminster was -31.62, set in 1996. Those sites only go back to 1971, however and Gunter is referencing (but not citing!) records back in the 1950’s. I suspect his source for his figures is different from the one we have been looking at. I also wonder if the Canadian Weather Office has taken to “adjusting” past figures? Their web site does look pretty good, though, and you get lots of data right at your fingertips. Thanks to you both.
K Stricker (08:55:05) :
Ahhh… can you get that site to give you the figures for one day rather than a month or do I have to look elsewhere? I don’t have time to poke around in any depth right now, but I’d like to be able to do that.
CodeTech (07:51:43) said :
hareynolds, Calgary is pronounced “CAL gree” by natives, any other pronunciation immediately marks the speaker as non-native, therefore subject to all manner of outrageous pranks. While we’re at it, Edmonton is pronounced “E-MUN-en”, in those rare times Calgarians even think about it. For the most part, Edmonton is where we keep our mall. Well, no, Edmonton is where Edmontonians keep their mall. Edmonton used to be where we kept Wayne Gretzky, and many people won’t be surprised to know that one of the main roads there is named for him.
I was waiting for an Albertan to jump on that; like I was trying to tie-up the puck in the offensive end, eh, fully expecting a stout defensemen to rearrange my kidneys with the butt end of his stick.
You are correct, of course, but I was told this by an extra-prissy Cal-GARY born Prairie Princess (married by VERY rich ex-boss), who says that the original settlers (Scottish?) pronounced it Cal-GARY, so that’s the CORRECT pronunciation, current custom be damned.
Oh, and I spend a week in Red Deer one night a few years back. Or was that Medecine Hat? Works either way.
Mr Lynn (05:26:17) :
Lovelock is what those on the professional engineering sideof the fence would call “f**kwit” or something similar.
Self-regulating entity??
Mr. Gunter was kind enough to respond to an e-mail asking for the source of his data and supplied this link:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=prairiecold_11_03_2009&warningtype=aw
When you click on the link it appears that it is indeed, as K Stricker suggested above, displaying extremes for the date and not for the whole month. From my unseasonably warm perch here in Southern New England, however, that’s still darn cold!
A lesson to all of us to double check the figures we ask others to consume.
What frightens me is that I completely understand how one could overlook the sarcasm of my intentionally absurd statement. To clarify, I was mocking those who go into hysterics over every heatwave or hurricane, but ignore cold snaps and calm storm seasons. I neglected to consider how many people actually say very similar things with utter sincerity.
The facts presented in this article are simply untrue. A simple view of data from Environment Canada’s website can confirm that the author is incorrect. This article claims numerous march temperature records were broken and they were not. This article should be clearly stated as FALSE! Articles like this make the [snip] look foolish!
rephelan: You can get hourly readings for a specific day from the Environment Canada site. It didn’t give me any linkable URLs while I was doing that (POST form) so I didn’t link any. The trick is to start at the ‘Climate Data Online’ link in the left menu.
From a friend up there: “Living so close to the Arctic anything can happen temperature wise in Canada. The 1950’s were the coldest (-50C) I remember, but this year we have had prolonged cold spells without the usual Chinook Winds.
Medicine Hat still has 1.2 meters of snow in places but it is now melting fast….”
Oh, and rephelan, thanks for getting his source. There’s a note floating above the “Alberta” section on the weather network page.
“*Monthly record: the lowest March temperature on record for that station.”
Looks like he probably made a mapping error and assumed that note applied to the entire section rather than to the single value from Clinton, BC.
For me Edmonton’s weather over the past 40 years has been the canary in the coalmine to convince me that there has a been a shift in the weather/climate to a warmer place in that time. And possibly something of a shift back. I lived there in the 60’s and early 70’s and was basically driven out by relentless long cold winters. In the 80’s and 90’s I was back there from time to time in the winter and surprised to find periods of mild weather. Melting snow for instance, where it used to just stay on the ground from November to March without a break. i now live 300 miles south of Edmonton and this past winter (I hope it’s past but there is still 2 feet of snow on my lawn) it seems that the old timey Edmonton winter has not only come back but has spread itself down south to where I am. We got that bitter cold -28C stuff on March 10 and thereabouts too. It wasn’t any error in the readings, I can testify to that. I had to walk to work one morning because my car wouldn’t start. In MARCH for crying out loud. It’s just weather, but it’s an observable pattern. It got warmer for a couple of decades and now it’s getting colder again. Maybe that’s our climate in Alberta, a cycling thing.
“Predicting the actual results is close to impossible, so saying “oh this prediction didn’t happen in Double-Dubuque last Tuesday” is not an argument. It is cherry-picking the data to come up with a scenario that suits one’s share portfolio or political weltanschauung (take that as ‘word view’ if you wish). It is a facile and simplistic failed attempt at obfuscation by somebody who knows squat.”
Oh, and so alarmist types like yourself, Epaminondas, don’t ever cherry-pick data. Like when the Senate turned off the room air conditioning and scheduled a hearing for one of the hottest days in Washington, D.C. to have James Hansen and others testify in favor of doing something about “global warming.” You have a lot of chutzpah, sir, a lot. Your premise about average temperatures still going up is also wrong. There is plenty of evidence to the contrary recently. The temperatures in Edmonton, Alberta are just one of many examples over the past couple of years.
I also note that none of the trends that appear over the past few years were predicted by the models. It is not cherry-picking to point that out. As always, the problem with computer models is garbage in, garbage out. They are not good at predicting long term weather, pure and simple. If I were a judge presiding over the case of what will happen and whether there is AGW that requires action, I would throw those models out as incompetent evidence.
Don’t resort to ideology to attack others whom you accuse of “cherry picking.”
The Guardian reported a few weeks ago that temperatures in the Arctic are minus 90C, which is below the freezing point of dry ice and colder than the coldest temperature ever recorded on earth.
The purpose of the expedition is to prove that the Arctic is melting at -90C.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/feb/26/arctic-pen-hadow-climate
Wolfie (#3), The Australian bush fire deaths were mainly caused by green stupidity.
DOING FINE: A patriot’s vision saved his house despite persecution from enviro-bureaucrats
By VEXNEWS ⋅ February 12, 2009
patriotwithaxe Liam Sheahan is almost certainly a boofhead. But he’s a patriot too. A very large Aussie flag flies patriotically from his property in Reedy Creek. He cracks a smile when he sees a chainsaw.
Years ago, he decided to clear by subtle means of bulldozer a whole bunch of trees surrounding his home on top of a hill which is no doubt also his castle.
The local council – Mitchell Shire – cracked the sads at his unilateral approach to fire safety, persecuting and prosecuting him, securing a $50000 fine and costing the axe-wielding patriot another fifty thousand in legals. He was ably represented in the hearing by barrister and former Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Clem Newton-Browne.
As noted by a commenter below who helpfully put up this link, the bloke’s cause was probably not helped when the council pursued him over the removal of the trees, according to the Herald Sun he responded [pdf] patriotically but perhaps unwisely:
the Sheahans told the complaining residents and the council to ‘‘get stuffed’’ when asked to explain the clearing. ‘‘We could not care any less than we do now what any self-righteous self appointed ‘green police’ person thinks about what we are doing,’’ they wrote. ‘‘It is our place, not theirs. We have owned it since 1982. We paid for it, not them, and they can go and get stuffed.’
Ultimately his decision to remove 250 trees saved his family and his home during the weekend’s bushfires.
http://www.vexnews.com/news/2745/doing-fine-a-patriots-vision-saved-his-house-despite-persecution-from-enviro-bureaucrats/
OT – Edmonton’s -41’C is coincidentally the same temperature that the British Catlin Expedition are experiencing today at 81° 55’ 48” N, 129° 54’ 35” W. Things are not going too well so far – http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/Utterly_utterly_miserable – hopefully they haven’t bitten off more than they chew.
Steven Goddard
Stick to the science – leave the economics and social critiques to people who are have some background in those fields.
Like anyone who pays bills and has family or friends – i.e. has a stake in government decisions.
Okay, touche. DIdn’t make my point well. Nobody has a monopoly on insight, so I don’t think broad generalizations about social democrats and environmentalists are very useful. Especially not on a site that’s supposed to be about science.
>Wolfie (#3), The Australian bush fire deaths were mainly caused by green stupidity.
This is unmitigated nonsense. The day had the most extreme fire weather conditions ever experienced in southeast Australia. Conditions were so extreme the objective numbers used to define fire weather – the fire danger indices – reached values twice as high as those observed in the previous most extreme fire event – Black Friday 1939 on which the current scale of fire weather is defined and which lead to the scale have a top value of 100.
This day came on top of the driest start to a year on record which came on top of the driest 3 years on record on top of the driest 12 years on record on top of the hottest decade on record.
House and lives were lost in towns, farming land, near forests and in forests. Many of the fires burnt through areas very recently control burnt and much of the forest burnt was open to logging.