All of Britain covered by snow

Would Al Gore and the MET Office be willing to take questions now?
Oliver K. Manuel

On one hand I love how wrong the Met office was, on the other hand I feel so bad for the people in England. That must suck.

… muor’ please!

Quite a change in albedo. Now what did those warmers say about feedback??

“cough” —- Scotsman here,
I can assure you we have some snow here to and minus 22 Celcius last night, It’s just we deal with it better than them “doon south”. And sure the Welsh have a dusting as well. As for Northern Ireland?
Perhaps UK covered or Britain covered?
Excellent site btw keep up the good work

Actually it is not merely ‘England’ which is buried in snow and ice; it is England, Scotland and Wales – separate kingdoms -each with its own devolved parliament – but collectively known as the ‘United Kingdom’ – or UK. Not being pedantic but the Scots and the Welsh get very pissed off when Americans refer to the UK as ‘England’.

Despite this – and we are now in our 25th day of sub zero temperatures – the MET Office put up a spokesman on Newsnight last evening claiming that their forecast for a ‘very mild winter’ had ‘only been a probability!!

I guess that there is only a probability that the Met Office is worth all that money that the UK spends on them, then.

I think that the MET office are probably warmist propagandists. But then I don’t have a billion pound computer/ budget running duff models to do my thinking for me so I could probably be much more accurate about them than they are about the weather/climate. The sad thing is they are paid out of my taxes.

“Despite this – and we are now in our 25th day of sub zero temperatures – the MET Office put up a spokesman on Newsnight last evening claiming that their forecast for a ‘very mild winter’ had ‘only been a probability!!”
Damned ^&*%$ and F£!$%*%$ every last one of them, & those are just the polite words you can use in front of your Great Aunt! At least Andrew Neil of the Politics Show is starting to do his homework with his figures & roasting the Head of the Met Office, who kept droning on & on about how recognised the Met Office is around the world for its leading ability to make accurate short-term weather forecasts, but of course sidesteps the issue about Climate Change forecasting by claiming it is a different area (& an infant one at that) of science. I for one would like to know just who are the independent sources who have verified this amazing claim! The IPCC & the WMO I suspect.

Amy chance you could change your headline to reflect both the photograph and the article? It’s not just England.

O s..t, the next ice age has started without us noticing it. Today must be the day after tomorrow.

Thanks for changing the headline.

There is a good article with this photo describing the appalling state of the weather in the UK – here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241060/Severe-weather-warning-Snowstorms-cost-economy-14-5bn-millions-stay-home-did-make-work-face-nightmare-journey.html
Here in the Scottish Borders we are suffering our 27th day when the temperature has rarely risen above zero and this is our 23rd day of continuous snow cover. Many main roads have been closed and side roads are only passable by 4WD or tractor. Cattle and sheep are in grave danger as it is now very difficult for farmers to reach hill flocks – and with 4 feet of snow on the hills they cannot feed themselves.
“Britain is facing the coldest night of the winter so far tonight as the death toll from the freezing weather continues to rise.
Temperatures are expected to drop to lower than -20C in the Scottish Highlands tonight, following lows of -17.7C in Benson, Oxfordshire and -15C in Manchester overnight – the same temperatures found in domestic freezers.
Meteogroup forecaster Andy Ratcliffe said the Scottish Highlands will be worst hit by tonight’s icy blast.
He said: ‘It Scotland it could be the coldest night of the winter for Britain, with temperatures as low as the minus 20s in the Highlands.
‘Snow showers will creep in to parts of East Anglia, Kent and Scotland again overnight and tomorrow.
‘There will also be a windchill factor going into the weekend making many areas, even in daytime, feel like minus 7C.’
Roads, trains and airports were also subjected to another day of havoc.
Huge queues formed at Eurostar terminals after a train broke down inside the Channel Tunnel for two hours earlier today. It comes just weeks after thousands of passengers were stranded after a number of trains broke down before Christmas.
Nearly all train companies reported disrupted services, with commuters suffering from both a reduction in frequency on routes and problems caused by broken-down trains. Southeastern trains cancelled several services in Kent, while snow chains were fitted to buses on major routes in Brighton.
By 12.30pm today, the Automobile Association had attended around 11,000 breakdowns since midnight. British Airways axed flights at Gatwick and Heathrow and EasyJet cancelled around 70 flights at Gatwick.”

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1241060/Severe-weather-warning-Snowstorms-cost-economy-14-5bn-millions-stay-home-did-make-work-face-nightmare-journey.html
At -21c UK is as cold as the South Pole: Biggest freeze for 30 years wreaks havoc (and there are 10 more days to come)
By Beth Hale
Last updated at 9:53 AM on 08th January 2010
* Comments (888)
* Add to My Stories
Deep freeze Britain was as cold as the South Pole as temperatures plummeted to a staggering minus 21c.
Amid increasing fears of an energy crisis, the country is locked in the biggest chill for nearly 30 years.
The mercury sank to minus 21.2C (minus 6.2F) in parts of the Scottish Highlands – considerably colder than some home freezers – with bitterly cold temperatures everywhere else on another day of widespread weather disruption

.001 chance is still just a “probability”

Dr Bob,
don’t feel sorry for us. Anyone with any sense has made sure they are prepared for this and to be honest those who weren’t only have themselves to blame.
Actually it is no where near as bad as the media like to make out. Remember for them everything has to be a disaster. Yes it is inconveniencing people and shutting a lot of schools etc, but people are generally just giving themselves more time to get about, helping each other and being a bit more resourceful than usual.
And of course it make sthe Met Office look very very stupid which is always a bonus.
It is likely to last at least another 10 days and I for one am loving it. Mind you I work much of my time in Norway so perhaps I am not the best person to reflect on this 🙂

Borderer
I know you Borderer’s don’t think your Scots or English, but Scotland and Wales might have their own devolved parliament, but us English don’t. Only being picky mate, and a little tetchy perhaps!!.
For non-Brits on here.
Great Britain is Scotland, Wales and England
United Kingdom is the same, but adds in Northern Ireland as well.
Which is why a UK passport says Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the front.
On topic – What a fantastic image!!!!! You can still see why Ireland is called the Emerald Isle though, or perhaps they are still getting Global Warming??

More of the Gore , Obama puppet show.
I think it may be Al’s hand effecting the flapping of Obama’s mouth and ear’s.
http://news.yahoo.com/video/politics-15749652/17501378

I think part of the reason we are not prepared for this, with adequate numbers of snow ploughs and supplies of grit and salt, is that local councils like everyone else, have been fooled into thinking there would be no more snow in British winters. Certainly in the south of England. I’m now on my third day of working from home this year, have cancelled flights to Dublin for next week, and have sent husband down to the supermarket to do battle for a loaf of bread (I’ve been on conference calls all afternoon). I am sort of worried that this might be the reversal-in-direction-of-the-gulf-stream thing that warmists have warmed us about, as northern Canada seems to be getting our milder weather. Should I be worried?

I live in England and I am now quite fed up and tired of all this compulsary sledging (its usually a given that you have to sledge for the few hours of yearly snow) but its been three days now and as I’m unemployed, I’m legally bound to continue sledging for as long as it remains… this is truly unheard of conditions.

Yesterday it was -31 C here in Norway.
Brrrr!
Thats the point where we from the northern part put on the T-shirt.
Not sure whether this has been mentioned before here at WUWT, but the NYT has been busy declaring a melting Arctic;
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/12/new_york_times_128_years_of_lo.html

Freezing is the NEW warm.
The Met office relationship with the BBC can be summed up in the slogan, ” We decide, you report.”

I see “Puff the Magic Dragon” talking to “Winnie the Poo” with a bow tie on his head. All imaginary… just like AGW.

Re JohnH & BBC
Actually much of the Canadian prairies have been well below seasonal for quite a while. Here in Edmonton we’ve had well below average temps for 19 of the last 20 days according to the weatherman on last nights CTV news. Good news is that we’re reverting from “weather” back to “climate change” with a warming trend in the forecast 🙂

So that’s 840 miles of continuous snow driving from John o’Groats to Land’s End or close on 95,000 square miles of ice and snow.
Here in Edinburgh, we had snow again last night and I’m keeping a close eye on one of the Met’s official weather stations at the Royal Botanic Gardens. In their “Curiosities” section (http://www.rbge.org.uk/assets/files/science/Weather/Inverleith%20curiosities.pdf) they state that the longest snow cover is 21 days in January 1984. Living about half a mile from the place, we’ve had snow on the ground since December 17th – that’s day 23 now. I wonder if they’ll update it? Also – deepest snow cover 5cm? I’ve got about 5 inches still in my garden.
Fortunately, the Met office are giving us a good explanation of what’s going on:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/pr20100106b.html
Note the inclusion of the areas that are warmer than normal for the time of year:
“……However, it is not cold everywhere in the world. North-east America, Canada, North Africa, the Mediterranean, and south-west Asia have all seen temperatures above normal – in many places by more than 5 °C, and in parts of northern Canada, by more than 10 °C.”
Then note how cold weather “doesn’t tell us anything about climate change”. Er, an observation that surely applies to warm weather too then:
“…..Climate change is taking place as the earth continues to warm up. In the UK, 2009 as a whole was the 14th-warmest on record (since 1914). This above-average temperature trend was reflected globally, with 2009 being the fifth-warmest year on the global record (since 1850). The current cold weather in the UK is part of the normal regional variations that take place in the winter season. It doesn’t tell us anything about climate change, which has to be looked at in a global context and over longer periods of time.”

niphredilflower (08:34:20) : Just pray to Al Gore, and put in your prayers all the strength of hidden emotions toward him, tell HIM next time you will behave in a better and good way, not commiting carbon dark sins anymore against Mother Gaia.
What you see surrounding you it is not snow but an induced mirage caused by you evil denial thoughts. That is the consequence of reading such forbidden blogs as WUWT. Repent now! and you will see the open fields free rom ice and Saint Gore, your saviour, descending from unclouded and sunny skies.

In England, we now find the councils running out of salt to clear the roads, they didn’t have very high stocks. Why not? Well, for the 2nd year in a row, the wonderful Met Office told them to expect a mild winter. Expect a vicious backlash to the warmistas in public opinion, once people can get out and about again.
If this carries on, we’ll all have to gear up for winter with chains, snow tyres, generators etc, like last time we had winter like this. 1963 I recall. Thank heavens for the “warming” since!
Now off to play in some 6″ of AGW and build me an igloo.

What’s nice about the picture is that you can see the large cities (Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff) clearly as urban heat islands. London too, though it’s partially obscured by cloud.

As a New Zealander living in London, I am constantly amazed at the Brits inability or unwillingness to plan for the eventuality of snow and ice on the roads, ie dual purpose tyres, tyre chains, a tow-rope, jumper leads, basic tools and some warm clothing and perhaps a sleeping bag kept in the car. In the bits of NZ where the weather can turn very hot or very cold quite quickly and fewer people around to help if one gets into trouble, one learns to prepare.
I was interested to read this morning that the Ministry of Defence has just cancelled 25% of the Met Office’s budget without comment. The country is in deep financial mire and the Met.s incorrect guesses are incredibly expensive and way less accurate than non-government forecasters.
Currently, the BBC frontpersons prattle on with each news bulletin about the UK now being ‘cooler than the South Pole’ – none of the numpties has acknowledged that its midsummer in Antarctica and midwinter here – talk about comparing apples with oranges!
\and the drivel about ‘this is only weather, not climate’ is also fairly constant – they will have to cease treating the general public as simpletons soon, I hope!

Veronica (08:31:33) : You wrote: “…the reversal-in-direction-of-the-gulf-stream thing … Should I be worried? … ”
I’ve not actually seen this ‘warmist’ comment before and would like to know how this is supposed to work. I am not worried about it – just curious.

That is a genuinely superb interview in which Andrew Neill gives the Head of the UK MET Office a severe ‘handbagging’ (battered around the head with a large handbag).
However, the guy sits there like a STASI Apparatchik, smiling through it all because – although they have got 6 long term forecasts out of 6 WRONG – he STILL gets paid more than the Prime Minister – and even after forecasting a ‘very mild winter’ when in fact we have 25 days of freezing hell – he gets a ‘performance bonus’.
The message is: “if you are not one of us – you are always wrong’ But if you are one of us, you are RIGHT – even when you are WRONG”

I posted this elsewhere, but want to again here. The biggest standout point in the interview for me, I’m paraphrasing:
“We don’t just get performance bonuses for our forecasting, etc., but also for our business plans and models.” AKA, the more that the met office takes tax payer funds, private funds, etc. the bigger his bonus. Forget about forecasts, it’s about bringing in the dough!

As cold as it is, I am perplexed by the AMSU daily readings. So far in January, they are at record high levels. If it’s this cold here in the NH, it must be really hot in the SH…..
http://discover.itsc.uah.edu/amsutemps/

Good link to the DailyMail article by Borderer @ 08:23; great photos.
My sympathies to the good citizens of the UK, who are currently struggling with a pretty fair approximation of Maunder Minimum weather (at least in the short run), even if the Thames hasn’t frozen over (yet).
. . . Although have to admit when I see ”At -21c UK is as cold as the South Pole: Biggest freeze for 30 years”, I have to indulge in a bit of a wry smile:
Still-air temp here in northern ND this morning was 33 degrees below zero F = minus 36 C; a little chilly even for here, but not at all out of the ordinary for January weather: Pretty much the only thing between us and the North Pole is a barbed-wire fence. . . .

Unfortunately, it will take more than one unseasonably cold winter in the UK to derail the massive policy changes taking effect there. I feel for the average person over there who is just trying to stay warm.

“Interesting also that on that picture you can see grey splodges where the cities are. At least I’ve told myself I can see Manchester, Stoke, Birmingham, Liverpool / Wirral, Leeds / Bradford and Aberdeen picked out from the overall whiteness.”
Veronica, I have friends in the Wirral and they are having to slide to work as they are demanded in and it is lethal. One has fallen twice already and he is in his 20s! Meanwhile in Leeds the river and canal have both frozen for the first time in decades and we have had snowcover since mid-December – it usually lasts for two days at most.
This spell is exceptional – http://www.climate-uk.com to see just how exceptional. People are just about struggling through and getting enoug to eat.
I dread to think of the stories we will hear when this all thaws – probably scores died trapped in buried cars and houses due to the deadly amount of snowfall.
But global warming goes on of course!

Someone said that Canada was having a warmer winter so “everything balances out”. This is nonsense. We are having one of the coldest winters in 25 years.
In fact, where I live in Edmonton, Alberta, we were the second coldest inhabited place on Earth but a few weeks ago at -46.1 C! Of course, there were a lot of people with unofficial thermometers in their back yards well outside the city recording temperatures below -50 C.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmonton/2009/12/13/12141366.html
As for this morning, my thermometer read -20 C.

Do you see the head of the dog? It has floppy ears, below you can see short front legs, as it is pouncing on Scotland. Amazing!
How did Scotland get away with less snow? Did the Scots sell it to the Brits, telling them the cold would mitigate the global warming damage?

“Veronica (08:31:33) :
I am sort of worried that this might be the reversal-in-direction-of-the-gulf-stream thing that warmists have warmed us about, as northern Canada seems to be getting our milder weather. Should I be worried?”
I think this recent weather may have more to do with the current direction of the jet stream not the gulf stream. This link might help to explain.
http://www.metcheck.com/V40/UK/FREE/jetstream.asp

Douglas, I thought you would like this. The water equivalent measures for NE Oregon are great. And continue to trend greater every year. The ski basin snotel depth data at the end of the report for recreation purposes are different but who cares. In NE Oregon we could not give less attention to skiing than we do now. What we want to know is whether or not the snow we have has water in it. This kind of snow builds glaciers by the way. So much for being warmer with drought coming our way.
ftp://ftp.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/data/climate/basin_reports/oregon/wy2010/bapror12.txt

I was checking out John Daly’s reference to the Telegraph re sunspots in 2003 or so, linking sunspots to heat. But he’d forgotten to make the URL date-specific.
Instead of reaching a HEAT page, I reached this magnificent SNOW picture. Beautiful timing.

Enjoy it. Snowfall is a very rare and exciting event.

Ashford (09:24:53)
Brogdale was hotter than Gravesend.
101.3 F on 10 August 2003.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/news/20072006news.shtml

During the Newsnight interview when challenged about not predicting the lack of global warming over the past ten years Mr Hirst stated:
“We did…”
“If you go back we predicted a leveling off of global temperatures”
Can anyone verify this prediction because I don’t remember it?

I just received a message from East Anglia’s CRU. The picture you used is incorrect. The correct picture, after Michael’s trick (smart method) to hide the decline has been applied, looks like this:
http://www.mapsorama.com/maps/europe/uk/Satellite_Great_Britain-tm.jpg
Could you please, Anthony, publish errata? Thanks, Phil Jones et al. 😉

Grand Match off over safety fears …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/8448669.stm
“An outdoor curling tournament has been called off because the emergency services said they could not guarantee players’ safety.
The Grand Match, planned for the Lake of Menteith near Aberfoyle next week, would have been the first event of its kind for more than 30 years.
…
The last Grand Match also took place on the Lake of Menteith in 1979. The one before that was in 1963. “

Barry Foster (08:08:26) :
We’ve got more snow coming Sunday, and guess where is going to be hit hardest?
Wait for it…
East Anglia…right where the CRU is! There IS a god
But it will also fall, again, on those of us who do not work for CRU, have nothing to do with Uni of East Anglia, who are in no way related to Phil Jones (so far as I am aware!) and who consider the UK Met Office a sick joke.
That makes it a pretty vengeful god!

http://wap.myfoxtampabay.com/w/main/story/8721610/
The waters in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coast have gotten so cold, sea turtles are washing ashore, paralyzed by cold they are not used to.
Veterinarians say they know the cold is to blame because the turtles don’t have any exterior injuries or wounds that would typically cause them to wash ashore.
They are not the only Florida wildlife dazed by the dropping temperatures.
Manatees are huddling in huge numbers wherever they can find warm water, and there are reports of lizards freezing and dropping out of trees.

Cold is the new warm
Observed faulty models are the new truth
Denial is the the new consensus
Welcome to 2010.

“spot the cows”?
Livestock being frozen to death in their thousands
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Livestock-being-frozen-to-death.5961813.jp
“THOUSANDS of farm animals face being frozen to death as Scotland experiences its worst winter weather in almost 50 years, farmers have warned.
…
Some farmers have been unable, for up to eight days, to get vital supplies of supplementary feed to their livestock. They are also being hit by delays in suppliers reaching them along treacherous rural routes.”
There are also local radio reports of barn roofs collapsing under the weight of snow.

Borderer (08:23:17) :
At -21c UK is as cold as the South Pole:
This is another example of misleading (at best), cherry-picked statistics.
At -21C UK IN MID WINTER is as cold as the South Pole IN MID SUMMER!!

Dodgy Geezer is correct. In the summer we can get some scorching days which has buckled rail lines and melted tarmac. Being right off the Atlantic we can also get strong winds. To be able to cope with anything would require massive investment, and wouldn’t be economic when we get extremes just now and again. For the vast majority of the time we have mild weather.

I always reckoned the mention of Climate Change would sneek into the BBC reporting due to this cold spell. In the last few days they’ve certainly been injecting various reports from their Science correspondents explaining this is just “Weather”. Odd though that just a few months they were quick to blame the “Weather” we had of the Cockermouth flooding event on “This is what we expect from Climate Change” – most odd and damned two-faced.
I currently have a complaint lodged with the Met Office over their press release of the 5th Jan:
http://www.meto.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/pr20100106b.html
“What’s causes the cold weather” – they just had to stick in the Climate Change card at the end.
I’ve asked them to reconcile this with their presss release from February:
http://www.meto.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20090225.html
…when they stated:
“Peter Stott, Climate Scientist at the Met Office, said: “Despite the cold winter this year, the trend to milder and wetter winters is expected to continue, with snow and frost becoming less of a feature in the future. The famously cold winter of 1962/63 is now expected to occur about once every 1,000 years or more, compared with approximately every 100 to 200 years before 1850.””
I’ve asked them how can this 1000 year event come round less than a year after they declared it is more or less impossible. I’m waiting for their answer.
I do believe the British Public will not fall for their disinformation anymore. Especially after the Meto are also now claiming they DID infact forecast this cold spell and indeed they KNEW the AO / NAO was going negative BEFORE the end of December, but even the BBC pointed out to them their website still showed the UK as being “Orange” Warm anomaly Dec-Feb!
The Spin Doctors are certainly in full swing at the moment. Fortunately this little episode will only strenghen the UK’s sceptism, as when the Meto and BBC so obviously start telling little lies about what they think they said, it simply shows them as rather irrelevant and not to be trusted – in my opinion.
The British public are not stupid, and won’t be scammed again and again.

NCDC’s numbers are in the database for December. 15th coldest ever in the continental US (CONUS).
Go here and select December in the “period” pull-down.
What is interesting is the continuing trend in CONUS temperatures. If your start year is 1999 and if you select “most recent 12-month period” (all the way at the bottom of the “period” list, might need to scroll it down) you see a cooling trend of -0.83 degF / decade. That is HUGE. That would translate to a trend of 8 degrees / century if it were to continue (which I hope it never does!).
It is going to take several more years for the warming bump of the last multi-decadal bump in temperatures to work through and for the trend lines to adjust. For example the trend of +0.11 degF / decade remains unchanged if you stop in 2009 or even 2006 even though temperatures for the past two years are below the trend line.

Fresh Globular Warming sounds more like something you might get on your foot from someone’s pet. Be careful out there in that “rotten” warming deposit, whatever it is ! (10 quid says it’s just normal snow.)
It seems to me that Global Warming is looking like a Psychiatric Syndrome… “Global Mass Mesmerization” (GMM Syndrome). Thank God in the USA we will soon have cheap Universal Health Care Coverage coming along to help these delusional souls…. aahhh… What do you mean by “Not Covered”?

Ireland did get some as well, and more is to come…

irishtimes.com – Last Updated: Friday, January 8, 2010, 17:37
Minister orders all State schools to close next week
IRISH TIMES REPORTERS
“The State’s 4,000 primary and secondary schools have been ordered to close for three days from next Monday because of the adverse weather.”

order your salt now

Great picture; but it still doesn’t stop the BBC (Barmey Broadcasting Clots), on every news broadcast, wheeling out some pilchard from the met office to tell us, not to worry because global warming is still on. They also said that 2010 is going to be the hottest year ever and the last decade was the warmest ever, despite the plateau and subsequent decline. Does Hirst know what his people are telling us?;he told Andrew Neill they predicted this.
There are names for these people, but the little ones may be watching.

Apparently it’s not cold everywhere:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/01/met-office-reminds-us-its-not-cold-everywhere.php

Maybe the Catlin crew could go Lands End to John o Groats on foot to convince
the Guardian and the BBC that global warming really exists!!

Canada’s temperatures are well within seasonal averages for this time of year, at least according to a casual flip through some old Farmer’s Almanac records. It’s -3 celsius where I am now in central British Columbia and that’s about average. It’s neither warmer nor colder than usual.
I’m not an expert. I’ve only been experiencing winters in Canada for 45 years, but really, things aren’t that different here now than when I was a kid. But I guess that kind of observation doesn’t count for much without a computer model or a degree in climatology. As they say, weather isn’t climate and local weather has no bearing on Global Trends.
Glad I have my gloves with me, though.

Just heard david cameron[a possible future prime minister] criticising the government about the dwindling supplies of road salt…,,’we can expect many such unusual events in the future’ ..obviously alluding to ‘climate change’..they just don’t get it do they?

MartinB (09:57:21) :
…wheeling out some pilchard from the met office to tell us, not to worry because global warming is still on.

made me giggle a bit. So once the cooling blip effect (which we do not need to worry about) has subsided, we can resume worrying about global scorching!? Great !

My understanding of this cold weather is that it is caused by the jet stream moving to lower latitudes and causing “blocking”. Warmer tropical air can’t get in and polar air can’t get out. This leads to an interesting dynamic.
The warmer air masses must continue to get warmer and the colder masses will continue to cool. This will lead to a greater and greater temperature gradient. At some point the blocking must end, and the extra energy will be unleashed. All this warmer moist air will break over the polar masses, spilling gargantuan amounts of snow.
Is this a real possiblility or am I misunderstanding weather? Any meterologists care to comment?

At what point does global “weather” anomalies become “climate”?
It would seem to me that consecutive cold/severe winters (2007, 2008, 2009 now) across the world is climate. No?

Last time we had snow like this was at the end of our last Labour government, but please remember correlation does not equal causation.
Local weather report from a bit to the left of London was an overnight low of -5C, so not that bad. Or wouldn’t have been if a 9″ water main hadn’t burst, denying me my nice hot shower and coffee. Fortunately, I’d planned ahead and had a case of beer global warming outside and had a pleasent day helping the neighbour’s kids build snowpeople.
Roads still not good, partly due to drivers not being used to them and councils not gritting them. Ploughing many UK side roads is probably somewhat hampered by council’s love of ‘traffic calming’ by sticking speed humps in roads, no doubt sponsored by suspension manufacturers. After the last lot of snow a couple of weeks back, also expecting lots of surface damage to the roads.
But all is not lost, we’ve also just announced a massive expansion in off-shore windfarms, which will cost more than nuclear plants and be a lot less reliable. Looking on the bright side, not long to go till the UK* is under new management.
*Yes, I know, Scotland and Wales have semi-independence, but if Scotland had only pushed harder, you could’ve had your MP’s back.

(I saw that John Mitchell, an “AGW scientist” since the 80s, is chief scientist at Met Office and works with moddeling at Hadley.)

If you haven’t seen it already
“Global warming is happening, even if it doesn’t feel like it”
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/global-warming-is-happening-even-if-it-doesnt-feel-like-it-1858998.html

Oh My God!
It’s COLD in January inthe Northern hemisphere.
Shock- horror! Stop the presses!
Working on a contract in Winnipeg myself, I can report that Windchill driven -41C is a lot colder feeling than just -40C straight.
It’s nice to see the locals take in stride though. (“When you go outside to smoke your cigarette, make sure that your drink has enough alchohol, it’s embarassing when it freezes.”)
As to Brits and weather – we all realize that you can’t plan for EVERY extreme, but it’s amazing how the weeniest bit of prep, like a bag of sand in the trunk and shovel can make your life less miserable. Ditto things like buckling RR tracks in the heat – GUYS – this is 150 y.o. technology, pay attention already, that’s a solved problem that costs basically nothing to plan and account for at build time.

K. Bray (08:44:13) :
I see “Puff the Magic Dragon” talking to “Winnie the Poo” with a bow tie on his head.
Could be Deputy Dawg riding away from them cotton pickin’ bandits from Copenhagen on a squealing pig.

Weather: The results of abnormally cold local temperatures
Climate: The results of abnormally warm local temperatures
Once you accept these two definitions the Guardian climate reporting starts to make sense.

Oh, and one last definition:
Abnormal: any deviation from same time last year.

Regarding the debate over whether the Met Office predicted a flattening of temperatures. Another Gem of evidence from the BBC website itself, December 2003:
It’s our old friend Dr Jones! (but not the one with the whip….) speaking on behalf of the Meto / Hadley:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3325033.stm
“Heat high for 2003 but no record”
and I quote from the end:
“Professor Jones told BBC News Online: “October was about 2 C below normal in the UK, and although November was warmer than average it was not enough to compensate. The unusual aspect of this year for me was the summer heat in Europe, with nights in Italy which didn’t dip below 25 C. I won’t be going to Italy in August again. But we can expect nights like that here some time soon, though not as regular events. Globally, I expect the five years from 2006 to 2010 will be about a tenth of a degree warmer than 2001 to 2005.”
The prediction was that 2006-2010 would be 0.1C Warmer than 2001-2005. I’ve already done the calculation:
2001-2005 is 0.445C
2006-2009 is 0.394C
(All data from Hadley Series)
So, with ONE year to go we are currently -0.05C Cooler over the two periods. to get a FLAT temperature 2010 would need to be 0.65C – that indeed would be a new Hadley Yearly record temperature – and they have predicted this ;-|
Just to say for Dr Jones 0.1C prediction to come off, 2010 would need to be +1.15C………. LOL.
In reality they’ll be lucky to pull off a Flat Trend, most probably a Cooling over the decade.

Global Warming Perspective….
Imagine a 50 gallon sealed glass atmospheric container in your lab.
Inject it with a few more parts per million of co2, a miniscule amount.
It is physically impossible for those few molecules to catalytically influence a degree or two of temperature increase with sunlight.
The obvious source of any temperature change has to be the sun. We’d be a cold stone without it. Someday the sun will consume the earth. That will be a natural progression toward warming, so get used to it… not our fault…
Test the co2 theory with a vacuum chamber in the sun with variable co2 and see what you get… prove it….
This co2 idea is similar to those perpetual motion devices that claim to generate more power than is put into them. Bogus Alert !
If you buy the co2 trick, I also have a bridge to sell you….
Meanwhile, I’m going to take a nice hot bath, in my nice warm home, after my nice warm lunch… leaving my carbon footprints to settle in the snow….

Sammy Wilson recounts a conversation with a man from the MetOffice during a climate chnge conference in the Channel Islands.
http://www.kane-tv.com/wa/sammywilson.html
“Do you use the same model for those short term predictions as you do for the long term predictions?
Yes we do.
Well if you can’t get it right 5 months ahead how do you hpe to get it right 50 years ahead?”
Apparently it’s easier to predict 50 years ahead than it is to predict 5 months ahead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

RSS MSU 12-2009: +0.24 °C. Rank: 7/31
Warmest December in this series was in 2003.
Average last 12 months: 0.26 °C

I met with my local councillor today and he was bemoaning the Met Office October and November forecast of a mild winter. He said he wasn’t sure they would utilise the Mets foreasts anymore for planning their Salt/Grit supplies but wasn’t sure what else to do.

Mike D. (08:29:50) :
Nothing to see here, move along. Warmer is cooler, white is black, up is down.
Obviously, the current spell of extreme CAGW warm-cool is a denialist plot. I blame the Republicans. If only we had more windmills.
We have one windmill near our village (Kirklington, Nottinghamshire, UK), it has not moved for weeks.

Most of Northern Ireland roads are just black ice. They were for the Christmas period, especially in estates and the country. I think they are expecting some snow though.
On a related note, my dad was on BBC NI the other day being asked his opinion about the lack of gritting streets. During the Christmas period I managed to put my point across about the whole AGW thing. It was basically this (apologies if you have read this point from me before)
“Okay, put all the natural variations, sun, El Niño and that aside, AGW is based on more CO2 means more forcing, as in a warmer surface. So you would think that someone has tested to see if re-emitted IR radiation by CO2 with realistic atmospheric components caused a surface to reach a certain temperature above the one without re-emission. And that adding more CO2 increases the temperature. They may even have modelled it. Now what if I told you nobody has reported that? All they have done is use basic physics of absorption-emission and assumed it would cause a surface to heat up. Yes, they haven’t EVEN TESTED IT. You can’t go and look up a data set to show you how it’s been characterised…”
We talked a bit more. He told me today that he can’t watch the BBC now when they talk about climate change. The first thing in his head is well how do you know that increasing CO2 caused an increase in the temperature of the Earth? He also suggested I get some money and test CO2 forcing myself with my colleagues (I’m a physicist but I build space engines for living). I am thinking about it. Use some NaCl glass for a start. Get a big solar sim for a heat source.
I’m also glad that my dad has a bit more understanding about how bloody hard science is to do

Link to today’s Edmonton Sun piece posted by Kevin @ 09:15:55 is well worth the trip.
Key snippet:
”Edmonton was the coldest place in North America yesterday morning and the second chilliest in the world.
The Edmonton International Airport saw a record low of -46.1 C and -58.4 C with the windchill, outfreezing even the Arctic.”
-46.1 C is -51 F !!
IIRC in the last 55 years here in northern ND we had -50 F or better only 2-3 times. People who live in warmer climates have NO IDEA how cold that feels when you are outside in it; and how most powered machinery (especially including cars) don’t function unless they are kept warm.

<Merrick (09:29:45) :
Can someone explain to me what sledging is? Or it it the same thing as sledding?

Merrick, yes it is but it is also intimidation of opponents in sport normally associated with cricket. Australian players are notorious sledgers especially against Englishmen but all nations seem to do it. Wikipedia gives the complete history.
I would imagine that there is a lot of both types of sledging going on in the UK, Britain, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales at the moment like:
“Hey Mr Hirst, don’t stick your finger out of the window, you will get frostbite”, “Interested in coming around to my place for a barbecue Mr Hirst?”, “I do wish we could chat longer Mr Hirst but I’m having an old friend for dinner,” “Tell us Mr Hirst, is this the first once in thousand year event?” etc etc.

NW Calif. is supposed to be in a horrible drought. We currently are 50% ahead of last year, and last year ended up as ‘normal’.

The “drought” is not due to lack of rainfall. It is due to judges sitting on benches ruling that water can not be stored or pumped from one location to another. So we will need to get much more rainfall than “normal” in order to get a “normal” amount that can be distributed to towns and farmers. Entire regions of farming have been shut down due to these rulings by people who are not elected and have “lifetime” terms.

The most amazing thing is to see the snow cover reaching the far SW. There are a few palm trees growing down there! Snow is almost unheard of in those parts.

Meanwhile, back at the fort:-
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/01/very-very-sick-joke.html
points out that (like last year) it may be bitterly cold but for the last three weeks there has been almost no wind. So the bird shredders have generated almost nothing. Typically less than 0.3% of our electricity needs.
But only today our beloved little Ed Milipede and his ridiculous Department of Energy and Climate Change issued a press release:-
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/news/pn10_004/pn10_004.aspx
The biggest expansion in wind generation in the world – at a knock down January Sale price of £75 Billion! That will make the electricity bills buttock- clenchingly exciting when you open them!
These lunatics MUST be held personally accountable for this gargantuan waste of money, which will also see the lights go out. Perhaps permanently.
Just remember, the UK public got rightly cross as the revelations about MPs fiddling their expenses came out. The amounts involved were chicken feed compared to the subsidy paid to each and every wind turbine.
OK, there is a General Election in a few weeks time.
There we have a good choice.
Vote Red (Labour) and get Green
Vote Yellow (Lib-Dem) and get Green
Vote Blue (Tory) and get Green.
They all vie with each other to prove that they are greener than the next party.
And just remember that, when the “Climate Change Bill” was approved on Tuesday 29 October 2008, making it UK law that “the net UK carbon account for the year 2050 is at least 80% lower than the 1990 baseline”, undoubtedly the most expensive legislation ever passed by the House of Commons, the bill passed with 463 votes for and 3 against. And it was snowing in London for the first time in October since 1934.
Interestingly, Greenpeace stole some of Milipede’s thunder by leaking today’s Press Release last night. You might wonder, how come Greenpeace had a copy to leak? But actually, this little detail says all you need to know about milipede, about DECC and about this whole bizarre scheme.

At the end of the interview with Hirst they should have played the famous clip of the comment by Dr.Andrew Watson (of UEA) at the end of his debate with Marc Morano.

Veronica (08:31:33) :
I am sort of worried that this might be the reversal-in-direction-of-the-gulf-stream thing that warmists have warmed us about, as northern Canada seems to be getting our milder weather. Should I be worried?
Current “northern” Canadian temperatures:
Inuvik – -26C
Old Crow – -23C
Iqualit – -32C
And, as Kevin mentioned, Edmonton suffered thru -40C and worse a few weeks ago. The same was true of Whitehorse and other places.
I think someone’s been feeding you a line about northern Canada being milder.

Video couldn’t be reached here in belgium at 20:30 CET, so here’s the youtube link with the fabulous Mr Hirst : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8BCnX8LIIY

@Barry Foster, K. Bray, Kadaka, M. Simon, Ray, philincalifornia, Philip Franklin, Rorschach et al.
You’re imagining things. You must all be on drugs. But Trotsky is definitely there. His ‘tache is in Coventry, he’s wearing a white jacket and he might be playing the drums.

Met Office Chief : “Who reckons it’s going to be warm … I count seven hands … that makes it a 70% probability”
However I do wonder about those forecasts for rain when the probability of rain on a day a week out, gets higher each day but the forecast amount gets less. Eventually there’s a 90% chance of <1mm … and the day is fine. Magically, a forecast for rain becomes correct.

“Lie, Lie, Lie that something remains”, add to that those Hansen’s toy trains, a bit of german language and you get the whole recipe:
http://www.spunk.org/texts/places/germany/sp001630/peter.html

And, as Kevin mentioned, Edmonton suffered thru -40C and worse a few weeks ago. The same was true of Whitehorse and other places.
I think someone’s been feeding you a line about northern Canada being milder.
Yes the BBC fed by the MET

Barry Foster…
Yes, you can see Michael Jackson peering over his left shoulder. Squinting a little helps. Well spotted!

Another of my rules when reading/hearing the news is to monitor the number of adjectives used. The more adjectives, the less credible the story/journalist. Then I have to go about digging for real facts.
Seeing all the stories about this year’s winter weather in Great Britain and Western Europe, I half expect to hear a breathless announcement about advancing glaciers.
So, what’s happening?
Here in Buffalo it’s 17°F while in London, England it’s 28°F. Of course, it sounds better (for the hype) in Celsius:
Here in Buffalo it’s -8.33°C while in London, England it’s -2.22°C. And overnight, it is forecast that temps in Buffalo could get as low as -15°C.
I guess the Gulf Stream gives the UK and Western Europe its moderate climate — except when it doesn’t. Blame it on the loopy jet stream; it’s overwhelmed the Gulf Stream. But why’s the jet stream loopy? Shhh – don’t ask embarrassing questions.
Excuse me now while I head on out to use my shovel, Al Gore, to remove a few inches (only 2 or 3) of global warming.

Wow, this is on BBC? Surprising. I can’t believe they’re holding his feet to the fire.

Hot Air Windmill produces Electricity, Tanning, and “Carbon Chips”.
Patent Pending.
I’ve invented a “Hot Air Windmill” that politicians, bureaucrats, and warmists can wear like a hat. The propeller hangs in front of their face and is powered by that powerful air blast that comes out the mouth, as one sees in the Al Gore Ice Sculpture and persons like Mr. Hirst.
This seemingly “endless power source” generates electricity that is then microwaved to the power grid.
Sadly, it’s not a 100% “green” process due to a byproduct of “brown waste” that comes out the bottom end. After a solar dehydration process however, the hot air byproduct would be pressed into “Carbon Chips” and could be valuable in carbon trading. Brown paper certificates could be issued for transactions while the actual “Chips” could be warehoused similar to gold in Ft. Knox.
An additional bonus is the second hand exposure to microwaves can give a great tan, year round.
Overall, it’s “Brown Gold” into Green. I can hear Sting singing “Fields of Gold” right now… the image is breathtaking, all those chips drying, but it’s probably just the smell… Carbon Trading really Stinks… politically, figuratively, and literally… really, really bad.
I want to vote them all out… yesterday.

“…and, as Kevin mentioned, Edmonton suffered thru -40C”
Good thing it wasn’t -40F 😉

Here, I’m waiting for it to get warm enough for the salt to work. Presently 1 degree above the freezing point of alcohol.

Okay children, it is time for the question of the week. You want to know the weather and forecast and all you have is a 30 million dollar computer. Do you?
1) Program the computer with the latest AGW model?
2) Call Piers Corbyn and tell him you’ll give him a perfectly good computer if he’ll give you the forecast?
3) Throw the computer through the wall and have a look outside?
(Circle the best answer)

I want to play poker against Mr. Hirst.
Reply: Now that is funny. ~ ctm

From 1975 to 2000 the jet streams moved poleward.
From 2000 to date they have been moving equatorward.
They were both climate shifts and not mere weather.
The current whole hemisphere cold spell would have been highly unlikely under the previous regime. If it persists until the end of January, let alone into March then it would have been impossible under the previous regime.
Unless those jets go poleward again and persistently so then no warming trend will resume.
The fact is that the position of the jets is not and never has been controlled or even significantly influenced by CO2 concentrations. Unless there can be demonstrated a direct link between CO2 concentrations and jet stream positions there can be no diagnosis of AGW.

Alexej Buergin (10:03:03) :
It would be easier for the rest of us if the UK had a logical national flag, but Wales is not part of the Union Jack.
Quite logical! England and Scotland are countries; Wales is a principality.
The Prince of Wales, the Right Charlie, the one who has a servant to squeeze his toothpaste, is the culprit there.
—-
Jordan (09:38:33) :
The Grand Match, planned for the Lake of Menteith near Aberfoyle next week, would have been the first event of its kind for more than 30 years.
Incidentally, the only lake in Scotland.