From the Saudi Gazette
In one of the rare occasions, Saudis enjoy the snowfall in Al-Baha city south-west of Riyadh, Tuesday. Torrential rains pouring down on Al-Baha accompanied by gusty winds were accompanied by snow capping the mountains and covering the valley areas and the forests of Al-Zaraeb and Khayrah.
The last report we had like this in mid January said that the snow and cold was the “worst in 30 years“. In January, snow isn’t unexpected in Saudi Arabia, it has happened before. But in May?
While the report says “snow”, the possibility exists that it could also be small hail from thunderstorms.
Looks like it is warming up fast though. The forecast calls for 93 degrees. Just remember, weather is not climate.
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A look at COLA is showing pretty consistent global continental cooling everywhere (except INDIA)
http://wxmaps.org/pix/clim.html (see temperature for each continent) Note that South America and Africa have looked this way for nearly TWO years now every day (been following it every day). North America has been looking this way for at least two months now (if I recall correctly?). I have found that a good indication of what to expect from monthly reported temperatures bu UHA, RSS etc.. is AMSU + COLA +SST.
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/ (AMSU see 400 mb)
AMSU temps look to be about to dive into quite cold area for quite some time if we assume the current graph trend sticks (compared with 2008 data). This is getting really interesting and more concrete by the day (Cooling). I think that the silence from the other side (re actual data) is now deafening!
Yes, it can snow in Saudi Arabia in any month of the year! It’s not common, but it’s not exactly rare, either. Jabal Sawda (Sawda Mountain) is a little over 3700 meters in elevation, and is located in the mountainous Asir region. There is a well-traveled highway that ends at a park near the top of the mountain. A few years back (around 2000, as I recall), it snowed on Jabal Sawda in August, resulting in many wrecked cars of panicked tourists.
Didi you see or hear anything about the WWF’s statement today. Worth a laugh.
I’m sick of hearing WWFs radio ad with the level 5 hurricane…over and over it’s been shown hurricane activity hasn’t increased with warmer temperatures.
So when does weather become climate?
climate = record warm temperatures
weather = record cold temperatures
Thought we covered that already!
They are coming home today
http://www.catlinarcticsurvey.com/
It snowed in Ras Tanura in Saudi in 1967.Saw it for myself.It was snow not hail.
Hey Anthony!
Check out this graph and article about WUWT:
http://tomnelson.blogspot.com/2009/05/one-graph-to-illustrate-death-of-global.html
Actually, sorry, the graph doesn’t post well on that link. You have to click on the Google trends link and scroll the graph over to see the full graph. But it is still highly interesting.
Climate is directly related to your GPS address (longitude, latitude, altitude). You can find about yours in any Atlas and garden store. It’s the same climate you had 1000 years ago. Weather pattern variations are the extreme edges of your climate you can experience from time to time and figure into the climate zone your area has been assigned regarding vegetation choices. Typical weather patterns for your climate are the day to day “chances are” expected weather situations you find yourself in per season. Climate is stable. Weather pattern variations swing to the edges. Typical weather is somewhere in the middle.
Think Climate Zone, not Climate Change. Think Weather Pattern Variation, not Weather is not Climate.
Alg;-)
From my humble researches, the UN officially defines Climate Change as manmade, yet the IPCC officially defines it as a combination anthopogenic & natural causes, whether it actually looks at those is neither here nor there. So, one organisation, the UN, with a sub-group, the IPCC, both using differing definations of CC! There’s consistency for you.
And it certainly looks like snow to me, must be in the Arctic then!
It s obvious that skeptics and the fossil lobby have damaged the climate beyond repair.
/laughing off :o)
Pamela Gray (05:57:56) :That´s the secret of the OFA, they have actual records of many years back. Future generations will not have any real “official” temperature records due to political “massaging”.
Re: AlanD (04:01:10) :
Looks like spam to me. Got past Anthony’s filter.
/Mr Lynn
REPLY: Zapped, thanks, Anthony
chip (22:30:34) said :
Is this perhaps a recent pic from the Easter Egg hunt at Al Gore’s house?
Personally, I wouldn’t put it past Al Gore to make the children in his “Vernal Egg Hunt” (don’t want to offend anybody) to (a) become Muslims (b) grow facial hair, and (c) wear the dishdash.
Slightly OT (but only slightly, as we ARE talking The Kingdom of Saud here);
new reports are saying that LNG (the stuff shuttled around on giant Thermos-bottle tankers) from Qatar (thank you ExxonMobil) may be practically FREE because Qatar produces ~48 barrels of “natural gas liquids” along with each 1000 cubic feet of gas. (this is a ridiculous ratio; I personally need confirmation).
Natural gas liquids are highly prized as they are “light fractions” which are easy to refine and have no BS&W (“bottoms, solids and water). To give you an idea about hte properties of this stuff, in LDC’s (formerly Underdeveloped Countries) I have seen NGLs burned DIRECTLY in diesel engines; they tend to knock a little, especially if the NGLs aren’t allowed to degas for a while, but it works and burns cleanly.
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=76043
This will likely mean that the budding tight shale production in the USA (which has lately kept NG prices WAY down) will be under SEVERE pricing pressure.
If the current administration wants REALLY wants to reduce carbon quickly AND lower our current account deficits, they should concentrate on Natural Gas initiatives (although I suggest putting T. Boone at the back of the queue, please). For the foreseeable future, Qatar looks willing to sell us LNG at or around $3/mcf (equivalent to $18/bbl oil). I say buy buy buy.
Instead, we are going to get windmills. Oh, my aching sliderule.
How much sea level rise will the melting of the snow on the mountain tops in Saudi Arabia cause?
OT,
Barack Obama’s key climate bill hit by $45m PR campaign,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/may/12/us-climate-bill-oil-gas
Just to fire up the discussion what is “weather” and what is “climate”, let’s drop a shoe on this:
It took one year for the “Weather” to bring our planet from a warm period like today, into the last Ice Age.
Was this a case of “Instant Climate”?
So, wattsupwiththat?
Oh, so that’s where the missing Artctic ice is going.
I’ll say it once again as I believe it has been missed (due to age of thread posted in). Weather is a function of climate.
That photo looks like pea size hail to me.
Maybe the snow was just in the adjacent mtns they refer to in the article, not in the photo. Not uncommon to see that combination of wx in So Cal in the winter (hail down low, snow in the mtns).
Not sure how uncommon that would be for Saudi in May. Sounds like it is, but it would be better to put it in some sort of historical context.
England. Leicestershire. 13th May. 10c cloudy with showers. Global warming?
Without comment:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/05/the_coming_ice_age.html
You know how the Eskimos supposedly have 100 different words for “snow” in their vocabulary? Well, in Arabic, there really is only one popular word. ثلغ Which is pronounced “thalge” where I was (and please forgive me if I spelled it incorrectly, I’m pretty sure it’s close) refers to any icy participate from the sky. I was told many times in Yemen that it was “snowing” by my English speaking friends when it was actually hailing. They didn’t know that there was a different word for the different types of participation.
Ron de Haan (06:41:55) : what is “weather” and what is “climate”
It is just a language issue. In spanish we have just one word for both: CLIMA=CLIMATE,WEATHER, the other word which it is used (rarely): TIEMPO, means weather but at the same time it means TIME.
So with due “time”, weather turns into “climate”…
Now, trouble begins when CLIMATE CHANGE appears . It seems to mean anything, any means to reach a political goal.
This is why from laymen to astrophysicists we are entangled in this CLIMATE issue, as believers or as non-believers alike, both feeling or guts’ guessing that something will affect our well being in the near future and that there is something out there threatening us from a hidden, dark and pernicious dimension.
…and suddenly appears a big mouth with a glossy, rossy and bottoxed face, surrounded with a lot of grease to scare us to death..
This is way OT but I have to comment. I heard a radio report yesterday detailing a polar bear study in the Chukchi sea. the reporter was 100 miles from land on the ice pack with scientists that were tranquilizing bears. They mentioned that one of the bears was a spring record at 1266 pounds and in profile his belly was dragging on the ice. The report went on to discuss the imminent demise of the polar bears due to shrinking habitat. It sounds like the biggest threat is obesity.
“I reject your reality and substitute my own.”