England Buried In Snow – image from The Times
According to the Rutgers University Global Snow Lab, last month had the second greatest December Northern Hemisphere snow cover since records were started in 1966. Snow extent was measured at 45.86 million sq. km, topped only by 1985 at 45.99 million sq. km. North America set a record December extent at 15.98 million sq. km, and the US also set a December record at 4.16 million sq. km.
Source: December Snow Cover from Rutgers University
Source: December Snow Anomalies from Rutgers University
This is not an isolated event for 2009, as can be seen in the graph below. Seventeen of the last twenty-one Decembers have had above normal snow cover.
Source: December Snow Cover Anomalies from Rutgers University
Nor is it an isolated trend for the month of December. January, 2008 was the second snowiest January on record, and six out of the last eight Januaries have had above normal snow.
Source: January Snow Cover Anomalies from Rutgers University
October, 2009 was the snowiest October on record in the US, and sixth snowiest in the Northern Hemisphere. Twelve of the last fifteen Octobers have had above normal snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere, similar to the pattern of the 1970s.
Source: October Snow Cover Anomalies from Rutgers University
A favorite mantra of the global warming community is that reduced snow cover will reduce the albedo of the earth and provide positive feedback to global warming – causing additional warming. Clearly that is not happening, at least not during the October through January time period.
2010 is also getting off to a fast start. Most of Europe and North America is covered with snow, as is much of Asia.
Daily Snow Cover from Rutgers University
Reader Poll :
Sponsored IT training links:
Guaranteed CISA exam preparation with 642-262 online training! Also get free download link for next 650-393 exam.
FoxNews has a nice headline at the top of their website right now:
”What Global Warming ?”
Direct link to the article:
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/11/years-global-cooling-coming-say-leading-scientists/
Lead snippet:
”From Miami to Maine, Savannah to Seattle, America is caught in an icy grip that one of the U.N.’s top global warming proponents says could mark the beginning of a mini ice age.”
If nothing else by enough repetition, this message will penetrate the conciousness of more and more average citizens. One step at a time. . . .
JP (05:19:00) :
“What you deniers don’t seem to realize is this is all new snow and not old snow. You should also realize is much of the NH snow is the result of increased evaporation or something. Laugh now, but wait and see; January 2010 will be the 2nd hottest January since King Wenseclas chugged dark ale. And 2010 will be the hottest year since Alexander the Great invaded Costa Rica. Look it up. I’m sure it’s posted on RC somewhere. Idiots!”
Of course it will if it isn’t I am sure Hansen cam make it appear to be for the USA.
http://i31.tinypic.com/2149sg0.gif
We all know how the “climate scientists” (and I use that term very loosely) “Homogenize” the data to get the readings they want. Here is an example for Australia http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/20/darwin-zero-before-and-after/
I grew up on the Canadian prairies so I’ve experienced some pretty chilly winters and one sticks out – it was around -35C to -40C for a good month and when it finally warmed to -20C I recall having to unzip my winter coat just to cool off a bit.
May the northern hemisphere get to enjoy those good old days.
It doesn’t matter one bit to the Arctic if it’s -30 instead of -50. There’s no sun up there for the next 3 months to do any melting about it. It may lead to increased snowfall up there, but not melting.
It does matter to the latitudes below the Arctic, however, as there certainly is increase snowfall and snowcover to reflect incoming back into space.
If the late spring doesn’t get going on melting up there, and the late summer melt likewise fails, as it did last year, the switch is on for global cooling.
The IPCC, Warmists and even NOAA aren’t getting it. Doesn’t really matter, though, as it’s what the Natural Cycles are up to.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/11/years-global-cooling-coming-say-leading-scientists/
@ShaneofMelbourne
My brother lives in Melbourne. He tells me that the weather there is fickle (“four sasons in one day”). Looking at http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather and doing a search on “Melbourne”, while it may be 40-odd today, the forecasts for the following days (daytime) are: 19°C, 19°C, 24°C. We can even achieve those last three in England during some summers.
tarpon (10:45:32) :
Instead of putting Gore and the Warmist propaganda out to pasture by showing what was happening in the real world, they blew their loudspeaker, distracting many from making preparations for what was coming.
Damage has been done.
Pay attention! This is really a heat wave. Heat waves make things colder during a period of global warming. Climate and weather are two different things.
“PhilW (10:04:31) :
Unbelievable………….
Direct link
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/01/pachauri-money-laundering.html
”
Wouldn’t be surprise to find that there are many graduates from the ‘Bernie Madoff School of Financial Probity’.
Martin Lewitt (07:46:25) :
Perhaps the model CO2 doubling sensitivities are a bit exaggerated?
That is the 64,000 dollar question.
The expected temperature increase due directly to CO2 is pretty clear and agreed by [almost] all on both sides to be minor.
The AGW proponents take a step further and assert that the slight increase in temperature due to increased CO2 will lead to a runaway increase in the evaporation of water. Atmospheric water vapor is the real greenhouse gas. The more water vapor, the greater the greenhouse effect.
I find the whole proposition silly. We have had both greater levels of CO2 and higher temperatures in the past so why aren’t we already fried? The answer is that the climate is dominated by negative feedbacks that make it insensitive to increased CO2.
Experts like Dr. Roy Spenser are working to understand these feedback mechanisms, the most prominent being clouds and the earth’s precipitation systems.
Mike Ramsey
POFarmer asked:-
And thanks to the EU Large Combustion Plant Directive, that means they will have to be decommissioned sooner than the nominal 2015 cut off date.
I think I would be investing in backup generation.
Seriously, what are they gonna do for power?
Ermm.. the Guvmint with that Poltroon Gordon Brown is investing One Hundred BILLION Pounds in building the Wind Turbine Arrays around the coast of Britain to be the back up to closing our Power Stations…..
Those which the Gods wish to destroy, they first make Mad…
Mariss Freimanis (22:00:13) :said:-
I am a EE and not a scientist but I have followed AWG from its inception with a great deal of interest. It is my right as an informed person just as it is anyone’s right to understand the world we all live in…….etc etc etc.
Brilliant Post…have copied it to forward it on…(hope that is OK?)
A clever way of implying that he’s nuts!
Which is the new tell tale they have concocted now to keep on selling us their green agenda -taxes included- and holy progressive global government?
Found it!…Trouble was that CO2 theory was wrongly understood: As CO2 increases, a negative feedback is what really happened!!…Recently computer models debugging found a wrong code line which provoked such a misinterpretation, IPCC affirms, so we have to necessarily apply anti-pollution policies in order to avoid a disastrous and globally extended ice-age.
All joking aside, here are a couple of facts we know to be true:
1. The last 400 years have been the coolest period in the last 12,000.
2. Previous glaciations came on relatively quickly, indicating that some tipping point was reached, after which positive cooling feedback dominated for 100,000 years or so.
We also know that Milankovitch Cycle insolation is generally responsible, but we don’t know the mechanisms of the cooling (or warming) tipping points. One theory holds that albedo (from snow -> cooling feedback) is a key factor.
My question: what is the estimated heat work decrease (W/m2/day) from the albedo effect of snow?
Gail Combs (11:27:49) :
You should see that graph now http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.D.lrg.gif
once I’ve figured out how to rescale it I’ll try adding it to that animation.
DaveE.
Jonesll
“How do you explain such a stubbornness in non accepting reality by AGW’ers?”
It is the result of an unshakeable belief. Interestingly, I see a parallel between the AGW’ers inability to adjust to the new reality, and Stalin’s inability to recognise the German invasion in 1941.
Stalin was both a scholar of history, and supremely arrogant in his supposed ability to predict all outcomes in the world. His reading of Bismarck told him that Hitler would never open a second front, an mistake which was based on applying military logic to the complex psychopath that was Hitler.
First came intelligence reports from his own agents in Germany that Hitler was planning an invasion in 1941. Stalin assured his underlings that there would be no war before 1943. Then came reports of German armies amassing on the border. He again rationalised this away as a deliberate attempt to goad the Russians. Reports of the build up continued to pour in, and his generals urged him to make defensive preparations. He refused on the perverse logic that that was what Hitler wanted him to do by goading him into making a provocative move. Finally the invasion happened.
As German bombers attacked Russian cities and millions of men poured across the border Stalin then tried to argue that these were renegade German generals acting without Hitler’s knowledge, and still he did nothing. “There will be no invasion before 1943,” he continued to say, in complete denial of reality.
Being wedded to a belief is one of many known cognitive biases. In AGW, this bias is most noticeable in the repeated mantra that warming is “climate” and cooling is “weather.” As perverse as it sounds to an objective mind, the statement is actually perfectly logical to those suffering from this bias. Because it is manifestly obvious that humans are heating the planet, then any cooling must by definition of their belief, be the result of some quirk of nature – freak weather patterns.
Like Stalin himself, the AGW’ers are only now getting reports of those forces massing on the border.
Charlie K (10:35:45) :
Interesting article in the Daily Mail recently. My apologies if someone else has already linked to this http://bit.ly/6U9bBV. I scanned it quite quickly, but it looked to be a pretty well written article and made a point to say that this research was done by well respected scientists. Not sure if they were taking a dig a the skeptics / deniers with that comment as I read through pretty quickly. Maybe someone from the UK can lend a better idea of the usual tone of the Mail for those of us in the US.
Regards,
Charlie K
Charlie
The Mail is generally right wing by UK standards and targets lower middle-class aspirational citizens who may occasionally be a bit prejudiced/bigoted. In general the UK right wing Press has shifted to a noticeably more skeptical tone in the past 6 months, so this sort of story is not unusual since summer 2009 but would be radical in, say, 2006. The Telegraph is always schizophrenic with Booker a major skeptic and Lean an ardent warmist and Delingpole now allowed the occasional foray on the skeptic side of normality. The Express is quite skeptical. The Guardian is the warmers Bible, loyal bastion of Monbiot’s oracle, although I don’t know if it changed its tack at all recently. The Independent traditionally was extremely warmist, with Hari in particular being a zealot of almost inquisition-style intolerance. There is a rumour going around that Rod Liddle of the Times may be the new editor if Lebedew buys the organ – he is a noted skeptic, so editorial position may change slightly. The Sun is mostly interested in titillating its readers, so take its stories with a pinch of salt!! I do but jest, but ‘global warming means phwoar will come to Britain’s beaches’ might be one tack, whilst ‘global cooling means the lads need to fly to Ibiza to see some hot totty in bikinis’ would be the other editorial line…..
Hope this helps US readers understand the UK daily national Press……if the term ‘phwoar’ is not recognisable, it is the UK Tabloid Press’ way of indicating base male lust at the sight of nubile female forms not completely shrouded in textile protection……..
Snow is not that unusual in High Atlas mountain of Morocco
Well, taking it seriously, where are you planning to emigrate?. Do you think underdeveloped southerners will gladly welcome you?….You were supposed to believe in global warming, now enjoy it!, that’s fair!!☺
Here is a quote from said restaurant critic…
The two things are not related. Nobody who understands the science is claiming that global warming (if it happens) is going to make Britain hotter in the long run.
And then argues that GW is going to stop the Gulf Stream and freeze ’em all to death. I, frankly, have no idea what leads to this sort of thinking.
tallbloke (05:49:34) :
Patrick Davis (05:23:42) :
The original “Citroen 2CV” concept had very different design parameters to the Smart car. The Smart car would fail those parameters.
Eh alors! Il marche bien le deux chevaux. C’est le meilleur pour portez les peasants tous les temps! Construire avec les boites de sardine, avec un moteur gagne pendent le grand guerre deuxieme d’un motobicyclette Allemande.
Eh then! It goes the two horses well. It is the best for carry the peasants all times! To build with limp of sardine, with an engine gains hang large the war second of a motobicyclette German.
Shame on me. I have a house in France but at least I know the babelfish translation is worse than mine.
The Brittas Empire (14:53:48) :
tallbloke (05:49:34) :
Patrick Davis (05:23:42) :
The original “Citroen 2CV” concept had very different design parameters to the Smart car. The Smart car would fail those parameters.
Eh alors! Il marche bien le deux chevaux. C’est le meilleur pour portez les peasants tous les temps! Construire avec les boites de sardine, avec un moteur gagne pendent le grand guerre deuxieme d’un motobicyclette Allemande.
Eh then! It goes the two horses well. It is the best for carry the peasants all times! To build with limp of sardine, with an engine gains hang large the war second of a motobicyclette German.
Shame on me. I have a house in France but at least I know the babelfish translation is worse than mine.
C’est mon francais mauvais. Here’s babel fishes translation of what I was trying to say.
Les deux travaux de chevaux jaillissent. C’est le meilleur pour des paysans toujours. construit avec des bidons de sardine avec le moteur d’un vélomoteur d’Allemand de la deuxième guerre mondiale.
Nigel S (06:04:15) :
Mock not the 2CV. I owned one from new in 1974. It was a great car. I once retrieved it from a steep river bank in the Romney Marsh, (don’t ask) by removing the two spark plugs, putting it in reverse gear and winding it out using the starting handle to drive the front wheels.
As for my T5, “winter mode” locks out the two lower gears, so that traction is enhanced. However, summer tyres are useless for grip below zero centigrade, so winter tyres are my preferred option even in the south of the UK. Read, mark, study and inwardly digest, http://www.caranddriver.com/features/09q4/2009_winter_tire_test-comparison_tests
As previously mentioned, winter tyres cost less than the no clams discount, but then again, (engage sense of humour) I am probably the best driver in the world, with a Swedish car (as was).
yonason (06:13:36) :
Fortunately I keep my feathers numbered for just such an emergency.
WUWT (FWIW)
Ref – jack morrow (08:03:27) :
Jack’s websitelink is ???? “http://google/” ????
Ref – Ken Roberts (09:11:13) :
Ken’s websitelink is ???
“http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/25/another-small-milestone-for-wuwt/#more-11157” ????
______________
FWIW – For What It’s Worth