From the “weather is not climate” department. 815 new snowfall records, 304 low temperature, and 403 lowest max temperature records were set this week.
Here’s a summary:
| Record Events for Sun Dec 6, 2009 through Sat Dec 12, 2009 | |
| Total Records: | 2601 |
| Rainfall: | 992 |
| Snowfall: | 815 |
| High Temperatures: | 36 |
| Low Temperatures: | 304 |
| Lowest Max Temperatures: | 403 |
| Highest Min Temperatures: | 51 |
Data from NOAA via the HW map generator
UPDATE: Puzzled by the single odd record high temperature in West Texas of 80F in Sheffield, TX on Dec 9th, I called the NWS office in Midland/Odessa, TX to ask about it today (Monday). The meteorologist on duty was very helpful. While he first throught it may by a typo, perhaps a 3 that got turned into an 8 on a report, a review of the synoptic conditions that day revealed some very strong southerly winds ahead of the Arctic cold front that day. At a pass in the Pecos, winds were clocked at 112mph. Thus it appears that this station go a brief benefit of some very strong warming southerly wind.
I’ve seen this effect happen before. In fact it can result in a record or near record high temperature being achieved on the same day as a record or near record low temperature if the front is moving fast enough and has a strong temperature gradient.
The record high there does not appear to be in error. – Anthony
Icarus (10:11:51):
“…climate change is inevitably affecting many natural systems, so isn’t that just what you would expect?”
Icarus, the issue isn’t climate change. The climate is always naturally changing.
Please get up to speed on the debate, which is over AGW.
Please show, through real world measurements, that a specific, measurable quantity of human-emitted CO2 causes a specific, measurable increase in temperature. Otherwise AGW is only a conjecture.
Are you game? OK, ready… set… GO!
…What? Oh, you have no empirical evidence for AGW? Sorry about that.
We are currently in our long term climate cycle like in the fall season is in our typical yearly weather cycle. If the leaves are turning their color, if there is a nip in the air and birds are gathering in flocks you can bet that winter is not far off. Any one who cannot read the longer term planetary climate signs that a more extended period of somewhat cooler weather may lie ahead is blind to the natural climate cycles of this planet. Yes warming will resume again since the planet is in the Modern Warming Period phase of the typical 1500 year planetary climate cycle that bottomed in 1600, but the warming will not resume for 2-3 decades. A cooler phase is about to start in 2010. The December 2009 cold spell is just the start. A similar cold event happened in the 2008/2009 cold winter. Here are just some of the signs.
Ocean SST’s are declining
The ocean heat content rise has leveled off and is dropping
AMO has peaked and is likely to go again negative or cool by January 2010 for an extended cool period now [typically 20 -35 years but it can fluctuate considerably before it stays negative for a nonger period]
WINTER NAO is headed for more negative periods like the 1960’s to 1980’s where 17 out 30 winters had negative NAO. In the 1960’s, 8 out of 10 winters had a negative NAO [December 2009 cold spell has a negative NAO]
PDO is heading for 30 year cool cycle and will go negative by early 2010[went negative/cool again Nov 2009]
A La Nina is possible in 2010 /2011 and more frequently during the next few decades
Lunar- solar tidal forcing clustering is predicted to grow as in past cool periods [more mixing of ocean surface levels due to more significant tidal forcing]. This will peak in 2030/2040/2050
The current moderate El Nino will be less warming than predicted due to the cool PDO in the Pacific. This has happened before.
Solar minimum continues and next 2 cycles are likely to be low in terms of sunspots
Solar wind is at a 50 year low level
What the AGW/IPCC supporting scientists are telling us that there will only be constant summer after the fall season. The world is in for a big surprise if they buy into this distorted climate science. The AGW science will be shown to be flawed for the entire world not only to see but to feel as well. Europe and the UK are likely to be cooler than last year despite the officical forecasts which predict warmer than normal . This is the likely pattern for many decades to come as the natural cycles seem to indicate .
Crosspatch: “Has anyone heard anything lately about the glaciers in Glacier park?”
I had the pleasure of driving through the park last summer. I don’t know what they are saying to scientists, but here is what they are giving to the tourists (from the Glacier Guide brochure):
VANISHING GLACIERS
In 1850, there were an estimated 150 glaciers in the park. By 1968, the number was reduced to around 50. Today, only 26 glaciers remain in the park, many of which are mere remnants of what they once were. Scientists predict all glaciers in Glacier National Park will be gone by the year 2030.
Icarus wrote:
Which bit of that assessment do you dispute, and why? Can you be sure it’s not true?
The dispute comes as to what is happening recently as to sea level. One of the areas now showing a decline recently in sea level is the southern Sunderbans area of the bay of Bengal, from:
http://www.slideshare.net/Ecotretas/sealevel-1792065
The CERN video on cosmic rays shows at:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/175641-climategate-revolt-of-the-physicists
every time there have been no sunspots over the past century, the sea has stopped rising. Can such a correlation be solely due to chance?
“…
High Temperatures: 36
…
Highest Min Temperatures: 51
…”
Well sure it might seem cold, but just look at the 36 High Temperatures and the 51 Highest Min Temperatures.
[With a little cherry picking] It’s clear that we are experiencing RUNAWAY GLOBAL WARMING I tell you!
“Spain on alert as snow falls”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8411761.stm
“Authorities in Madrid are warning commuters not to use their cars as snow hits the Spanish capital.
Other parts of Spain are also on alert, including Asturias, the Basque country, Cantabria, Barcelona, Tarragona, north of Burgos and Palencia”
How cold is it here in Alberta?
We have a native working for us, originally from the North West Territories.
He is complaining bitterly about how cold it is.
Its just not right, when an Inuit complains of the cold, 2000 kilometers south of his home.
Well anyone can see that this cold weather is just masking the coming thermocalypse. It’s in the, um, models. Yeah, the secret ones that the true believers use, that’s the ticket.
Hey! What about The Great White North! Edmonton (my old home town) was the coldest place on Earth on the weekend! -50c (or lower) with wind chill in many places in the Canadian prairies.
Coffee tossed out the window froze in a fraction of a second!
http://pathstoknowledge.net/2009/12/13/the-day-after-tomorrow-in-edmonton
debreuil (23:25:28) :
“Heard a guy on the CBC saying the science of CO2 and climate change are long known (and settled), first in 1952 when President Johnston commissioned a large study on it.”
Sticking an extra ‘t’ in the name is forgiveable. But the CBC guy should by now have heard about “Eisenhower.”
Just take it easy, folks. Its not important whether the science is rotten. Its just important to ACT;
I had no clue Mr. Blair had such rotten ideas;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6803921/Copenhagen-climate-summit-Tony-Blair-calls-on-world-leaders-to-get-moving.html
Snow for Copenhagen on Wednesday.
http://www.accuweather.com/world-forecast-15day.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&locCode=EUR|DK|DA012|COPENHAGEN&metric=1
I’ll bet they’ll play this as a sign from above that a new agreement will work. 🙂
Crosspatch, re Galciers:
http://www.nichols.edu/departments/glacier/Bill.htm was the most up-to-date dataset I found, it compares 1850-1950, 1950-1979 and 1979-2006. Crudely, the answer is (loss, maybe 2km), growth ~10%, loss ~10%. The loss in the recent period is more than the gain. No sign of a comprehensive update in the last 3 years – but given the speed at which ice moves, I’d postulate quite a slow response to any changes even if it does get colder.
pwl,
“Hey! What about The Great White North! Edmonton (my old home town) was the coldest place on Earth on the weekend! -50c (or lower) with wind chill in many places in the Canadian prairies”
Don’t you know, the new game in town is to count the NUMBER of low records against the number of highs, irrespective of how ccccold it actually is – brrrr.
Long Range forecaster Mark Vogan predicts worst cold outbreak of the current decade for the northern plains down to Florida near when December ends.
http://markvoganweather.blogspot.com/2009/12/50-below-zero-air-too-close-for-comfort.html
He was predicting severe cold for Canada quite some time ago and got it right, but even he was amazed just how cold it got.
All of these records. Matter of perspective.
Are they coming from younger stations(half a century or younger)? Probably.
If they are also coming from older, established ones(close to century or more), then we are pushing extremes, at least in the current era of climate.
With all the moves, newer stations, and changes in general, are they truly records of extreme weather(weather not seen before)?
To all you guys in Edmonton, it’s sunny and warm down here in South Florida, not too late to make your hotel reservations for Jan/Feb.
If you actually believe AGW is not real, then why are you always trying to confuse the issue by publishing stories about WEATHER and not climate. Do you and your readers not yet know the difference?
REPLY: Despite your policy violation with an invalid email address (nospam@hotmail.com) from an IP in New York City, I’m leaving your post up as an example of cowardly ranting. We get one like this every time I post a cold weather story. I’ve come to enjoy it because the rant is so predictable.
Three things:
1) Note the post tags: weather, records. Climate was not tagged.
2) Note the masthead: “Commentary on puzzling things in life, nature, science, weather, climate change, technology, and recent news by Anthony Watts” Weather is included, always has been, always will be.
3) Note the first sentence “from the weather not climate department”. I include that just for people like yourself.
Thanks for once again demonstrating cowardly, boorish, and predictable behavior. – Anthony Watts
“Aerology” is almost as “good” as what passes for “Climate Science” in this sad age. Just sayin’ … LOL!
Icarus (09:05:56) :
No Icarus, I don’t have time for trolls.
You are able to look it up for yourself.
David Q. (09:24:30) :
It was only a joke.
Some of you are arguing with Icarus as if he cares about the data.
If you fall in line with his environmental program he’d be at peace with you.
I haven’t looked at these, so I can’t vouch for them, but someone else might be able to sort out what’s going on.
http://hallofrecord.blogspot.com/2009/02/how-are-we-to-measure-global-warming.html
Jerky (13:56:01) :
If you actually believe AGW is not real, then why are you always trying to confuse the issue by publishing stories about WEATHER and not climate. Do you and your readers not yet know the difference?
——————————————————-
This type of cold was not part of global warming predictions.
Also, where is the enormous amount of record heat that is appearing in greater amounts than cold records.
Also, did you know temperature data is showing a cooling in the earth?
E.M.Smith (01:25:31) :
You could have added that the Melbourne official measurement site at 2 LaTrobe St. used to be semi-rural in the ’30s & is now a busy intersection surrounded by high-rise buildings.
Classic UHI induced heating.
DaveE.