Updated with a photo, Daryl Ritchison writes:
If you want pictures of the Dickinson snow, here are a couple of pictures sent from a viewer of mine. They reported 1.5″ as these pictures were being taken. The one with the lilac blooming (at right in photo above) is interesting because most years the lilac have finished blooming three weeks ago, but the spring has been so cold in this area that most phenological events are running about 2-3 weeks behind schedule.
More here from the TV station web site: http://www.kxma.com/weather
From the “weather is not climate” department, this report from TV station KXMC in North Dakota:
KXNewsTeam
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) Snow has fallen in Dickinson in June, the first time in nearly 60 years the city has seen snow past May.
National Weather Service meteorologist Janine Vining in Bismarck says there were unofficial reports of a couple of inches of snow in Dickinson on Saturday.
Vining says snow in North Dakota in June is uncommon, though it’s not unheard of. She says other parts of the state have seen June snow within the past 10 years.
Williston and Bismarck had received only rain as of mid-Saturday, but Vining said snow was possible in those cities later in the day.
Twins Elizabeth (left) and Jeanette McGregor play in the snow in Aviemore
“or crystal vapor for short.”
The more technical name: “Crystalline greenhouse-gas precipitate”. Don’t get any of it on you!
Noelene “I like the idea of multi-storey greenhouses,I don’t know how practical they are,but it is an idea worth funneling some money into.Imagine a skyscraper filled with crops,it may happen one day.”
Not new concepts and researched back 30 years ago–and perhaps before.
There are major issues with engineering (weight) and light transmission. This is mainly a light-transmission and accessibility to light issue. Once you go up, you create shade and shade will not produce crops at an economic level. And in any case, greenhouses are restricted to economic production of only a handful of food crops..most of them high-valued “luxury” crops that we could all live without … GH peppers and tomatoes an expensive way to get Vitamin C. Crops like carrots and broccoli simply are uneconomical in GHs. Trucking from “down south” is less expensive.
GHs are indeed a great way to produce crops and offer fresh food in winter. But alas, greenhouses are not the answer to “feeding the masses” .. and besides they are terribly expensive to heat in winter…no matter whether the go up or out. Here in western Canada (and most places in the Northern Hemisphere) a GH uses as much energy from Nov thru Feb (4 months) as it does the other 8 months and yet productivity is relatively low.
http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=148_14
Compared to GHs, it would be more economical to grow (say) crops like carrots and cabbage in summer and store them…we can do that for up to ten months. Yet storages are expensive and anyway who wants to eat cabbage all winter? Not I. So we build greenhouses for some crops and and import fruits and veggies much of the year.
The “100-mile-diet” is a wonderful “green” concept … it just cannot not provide food for the masses in winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
Cheers!
Clive
One of the new bio-fuel propositions is vertical algae farms. Not all that different than multiple story greenhouses.
BTW, the last two days here in Southern MN have had highs 20F below normal. Looks like today will be the same. It’s not unusual to have cool, rainy weather like this in April/May but we didn’t get much this year. We have had some very low humidities this spring which also seems unusual. Most of the rain has stayed in the mid part of the country. It does seem like an unusual pattern overall in the US. Where is the Bermuda high?
Clive (06:58:39) One of the key factors is the prevention of ice crystal formation in individual cells
Glycerol prevents icy crystal formation, it’s a simple secret but how to put it within the cells? I don’t know that.
In any case, you know potato and tomato, both, along with thousands of other crops were developed by the Inca culture, here in Peru, where you could get the original wild varieties. We currently eat a variety unknown for you: The yellow potato, which is delicious to taste. You can also get here a PURPLE CORN, which we use it for drink and porridges.
Check:
http://www.cipotato.org/
Well, we didn’t get snow, but it’s been really cold in Wisconsin for this time of the year. http://digitaldiatribes.wordpress.com/2009/06/08/qick-follow-up-to-the-june-6-weather/
We have broken records for the “lowest high temperature” over the last couple days throughout the state. It’s been fairly miserable, with constant rain on top of the cool weather.
From the Office of the New Jersey State Climatologist.
“Near average temperatures and precipitation in May made for rapidly growing lawns and blossoming plants. Statewide, the preliminary monthly temperature was 61.3°. This was the 42nd warmest May of the past 115 years (tied with 1969), coming in 0.8° above average. Monthly precipitation across the state averaged 4.38″. This was 0.08″ above average, but due to the skewness of monthly rainfall to the low side it was the 36th wettest, not as close to the center point (57th or 58th place) as one might expect”
I’ll vouch for that ‘rapidly growing lawn’ statement, since I’ve had to mow ~500 square feet six times so far.
But May 2008 was significantly cooler.
The English teacher in me wonders if the noun ‘skewness’ has ever been used before; indeed that entire sentence is not at all clear to me.
Guys, guys (and a few gals)…you are responding to only one aspect of the impact of carbon. It’s not just global warming, but climate change. Carbon’s impact is two sides of the same coin. all this unpredictability is only manifested by the massive increase in man made Carbon. Weather events like this do not indicate that carbon is not effecting, massively, our climate.
blink blink blink..uh…Where am I? I think I was reviewing “An Inconvenient Truth” before my son is compelled to watch it as part of a section on Science Ethics…apparently I had a psychotic break.
‘ “All wealth comes from the earth”
Thomas Jefferson.’
Somebody tell George Soros.
We just finished to clean the roads from last winters snow and the Gotthard pass was opened 2 weeks later than usual. See–> http://www.nzz.ch/nachrichten/schweiz/schneeraeumung_am_st_gotthard_1.2549994.html?independent=true&imageNo=0
And last weekend it was snowing again and the pass had to be closed. Mr. Gore said, that would not happen??
Regards from Switzerland, Freddie
Richard M (08:13:33) : “One of the new bio-fuel propositions is vertical algae farms. Not all that different than multiple story greenhouses.”
I don’t know from algae farms and don’t know the light requirements of algae farms and the economics. But I know you can’t shade light intensive crops and expect economical production. (It can be done with lights…it can’t be done economically.) Artificial lighting is counter intuitive and has never been shown to be economically feasible for large-scale food production … just too expensive and CA growth chambers (that’s what you’d end up with) are rife with production problems … always will be.
The simple answer is greenhouse crops can’t be grown economically in multi-storied structures unless you want to pay $30 a pound for tomatoes … obviously just a guess. We are talking about feeding the world, not a few wealthy people. Even if we could do it, the other question is why would you want to? What benefit? Certainly not in structural costs or energy savings. (Sort of boils down to heating vs. lighting.)
GHs are for producing luxury foods, not feeding the masses in an economical manner. They are big business in the Western World because we like our tomatoes and peppers for more than 2 or 4 months each year.
The exposed surface area of a multi-story GH is indeed < than that of a single-story structure, but given the lighting costs and structural issues this won't ever fly economically compared to other methods including transporting food long distances (in winter) and storage of more mundane crops like cabbage and carrots (say).
Energy conservation in single-story GHs is well in hand and they are somewhat energy efficient given the limitations on structure re: light penetration. Cost/sq. m. of single-layer GHs are quite low and land is inexpensive.
As I said multi-story GHs will indeed work. They were not economically feasible 30 years ago when I was involved … and won't fly today.
Cheers!
Clive
Freddie Stoller (11:12:22) :..And last weekend it was snowing again and the pass had to be closed
In Svensmark’s “The chilling stars” you’ll find several references to Swiss Alp passes and solar minimums. That is a clear indication now that global warming has changed to “climate change”. HE is always right.
Many record low temps in NZ during May.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0906/S00003.htm
And two days ago 4 towns/cities recorded new record low temps. for June.
All you skiers out there come on over for the skiing this winter – its gonna be a cracker!
Two years ago we moved south to Kentucky to get warmer, but last week it got down to 55. I don’t know where else to go. The cold is bad for my health, but I can’t keep uprooting my family.
The answer to food shortages after climate change is….. Soylent Green
Linda K. (15:26:12) :
Is Phoenix too hot?
[snip]
Arthur Glass (09:20:26) :
The seasons aren’t changing much beyond the nearly 6 hour shift each year, the Gregorian calendar makes the year be 365.2425 days long, pretty close to the 365.2422 length it should be. (I think Russia has a calendar where they get closer, but the first deviation from the Gregorian calendar is a few centuries away.)
Precession is a 26,000 year cycle and affects the timing of Earth’s apohelion and perihelion. Those shift one day every 71 years, so it shouldn’t have much impact. over a few lifetimes.
We can actually see the change in that, though official dates are affected significantly by the position of the moon.
Chris Schoneveld (05:45:35) :
I’m 3/4 Swedish and have a lot of outdoors work to do this summer. I’d be happy if it stayed below 80F in central New Hampshire, though I do like tomatoes and corn. How about hot weeks and cool weekends?
Allan M R MacRae (19:43:02) :
Dang, is my critique of the silly “The Day after Tomorrow,” 2016: The [Next] Year without a Summer, a blown forecast?
Clive (04:55:15) :
Allan M R MacRae wrote, “”Should we also be doing more work on frost-resistent crops? Not a subject I know much about – would appreciate comments from knowledgeable people.”
Clive wrote:
“BTW … forty years ago this week (June 11, 12 and 13) it lightly froze at various sites across southern Alberta. It caused a lot of crop loss. But that was back when we were being warned of a new ice age. Do you think? ☺”
________________
Thank you Clive, a most helpful and informative post.
2009 minus 40 = 1969, towards the end of the cooling period from ~1945-1975, ~six years before the famous ~1975 cover articles on global cooling in Time and Newsweek.
This was the last major negative PDO cycle and it lasted ~30 years. The recent positive PDO cycle lasted ~27 years until ~2002.
Will we now get a 30-year negative PDO? Hard to tell for certain. My guess, for what it is worth, is we will, but the most serious cooling will happen later, by 2020-2030. Today’s chill is just a little taste of the future.
You cannot use the word “snow” on the internet after August 1, 2009. It is an “overland non-man made precipitation event.”
Well, it hasn’t been snowing down here in southern New Mexico, but it hasn’t been all that hot either, and around here that is something to write home about. Our local newspaper was proclaiming “Early Summer” back near the beginning of May when they cherry picked some downtown temperatures of 100 degrees taken next to a blacktop road. That day the temperature was only 93 F at the airport on the edge of town.
Since that single day the temperature has never returned to near 100. In fact, this is the coolest June I can remember since perhaps 1986-7. That year we got nearly 16 inches of rainfall, double our normal 8 inches. This year has been more unusual since it hasn’t featured that much precipitation, just cooler than normal temperatures.
Well well well. For the FOURTH night in a row we are covering the tomatoes here in southern Alberta. Froze the past three nights and warnings again for tonight! Absolutely crazy weather!!
We are ~ 25 days past the mean day for last frost…probably (just a guess) we are ten days past one standard deviation from the mean date.
Talked to a farmer today. Some of their canola has been frozen..not sure how widespread the damage has been. It ain’t good.
Al Gore can kiss my frozen ______. ☺ (snip?? ☺)