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
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nevket240:
Things will not improve in Northern China, Korea and Japan for probably another week, it may improve, however, for a few days after the end of the current round cold spell.
Yet, this is NO mean that this is the end, currently long range forecast indicates the cold air mass shifting westward after this round of cold spell. Without modification of the sea, Southern China would become significantly colder. It should be notice that if moisture and convergence conditions are also favourable, than 2008-type of South China snowness is not out of question.
Well, going back to the IPCC predictions. This is what is said about Northern America, for example (AR4, 11.5.3):
“The ensemble mean of MMD models projects an increase in annual mean precipitation in the north reaching +20%, which is twice the inter-model spread, so likely significant; the projected increase reaches as much as +30% in winter.”
“In western regions, modest changes in annual mean precipitation are projected, but the majority of AOGCMs indicate an increase in winter and a decrease in summer. Models show greater consensus on winter increases (ensemble mean maximum of 15%) to the north and on summer decreases
(ensemble mean maximum of –20%) to the south.”
“The ensemble mean of the MMD models projects a general decrease in snow depth as a result of delayed autumn snowfall and earlier spring snowmelt. In some regions where winter precipitation is projected to increase, the increased snowfall can more than make up for the shorter snow season
and yield increased snow accumulation. Snow depth increases
are projected by some GCMs over some land around the Arctic
Ocean and by some RCMs in the northernmost part of the Northwest Territories. In principle a similar situation could arise at lower latitudes at high elevations in the Rocky Mountains, although most models project a
widespread decrease of snow depth there”
What do you think of this?
” TFN Johnson (02:10:06) :
This shows that north of the current snow falls the arctic is much warmer than usual.
If that data is freely available then WUWT should show it.”
Go to the top of this page and click on the little picture on the right that looks like a bell curve.
The picture that looks like a sine-curve goes to JAXA (maybe the best site for arctic ice-extent).
Rob Vermeulen (02:48:26) :
And the IPCC makes it up as they go along. Nobody is fooled by these hindsighters, they can’t and haven’t been able to predict thier way out of a paper bag for the last 10 years. And when they aren’t backpeddling they are busy altering thier reports and past data with their handy reality-erasing models hidden in ivory towers.
Anybody with thier eye on the world outside could see what was coming long before the last days of the late Northern Summer had gone. Many of us here at WUWT made that plain in those days.
Where was the IPCC then? Fiddling with thier latest excuses for denying the obvious.
When will you Britts learn that 95% of politicians and 100% of businesses are looking out for Number 1, themselves. Your MET office and CRU centers may as well be called businesses. Scientific objectivity left the building long, long ago. These politicians & businesses will spit upon and use the pubic like a dishtowel, and then they sell you for all they can get when they’ve finished wiping the floor. Green my rosy & ample rear end. Green technology & carbon trading is a scam through which politicians & their friends convince you to willingly let them reach into your wallets. Some of the same scientist/advocats were bemoaning the coming ice age in the 70’s. Now, they and their buddies are cashing in on warming at your expense. In 30 years or so, as the multi-decadal oscillation cycle cools us down and you’ve forgotten this abuse, the sons and daughters of these same charlatans will likely try to cash in on cooling alarmism once again. Remember Chicken Little? Your Mom tried to warn you about scams like this!
JER0ME (02:00:29)
I want to sign up. Can I cover the ’special’ kind of snow that survives even in very warm temperatures in Colombia. A few hundred thousand should do it….
Would that be the warm snow called “Spring Skiing”? If so, well, yes… but I have to be second author, especially on the “sauna snow” tests 😉
Vuk etc. (02:39:56) :
You should also, for purposes of your study of course, visit England where often there is ‘a wrong kind of snow’, which is hardly surprising since occasionally there is even ‘ a wrong kind of rain’.
Oh Dear! Would that be why you don’t have any ice in your Whiskey? It’s the wrong kind too? Well. Certainly there would have to be an investigation of “wrong snow”, otherwise I’d risk the headline: “wrong on wrong snow snow study wrongly found studying right snow only!” and that would be wrong…
Vincent (03:17:19) : The warm snow hypothesis could catch on: Scientists discover that CO2 raises melting point of snow. Warmer world will lead to more snowy disasters
Oh My! I can clearly see the need for some laboratory time to study the effect of added CO2 on snow… “The Fizzy Gin and Tonic Icee” and the “Fizzy Margareta” along with the “Rum and Coke Slurpy” all come to mind, (but I will need to deligate the “rum and coke slurpy” due to an unfotunate incident in undergraduate school that has left me unable to face rum and coke on the same day…) Though the “Carbonated Long Island Shaved Iced Tea” could require a great deal of study… especially in the French Polynesian Islands and / or the Bahamas. Well, clearly it will take more than my original grant estimate 😉
Perry (03:04:01)
Do you think if you hadn’t bought a 230 horsepower front wheel drive automatic you could have managed without the winter tyres?
>>Looks like the UK has a lot of snow. What does that do
>>to wind turbines? Blade unbalance, anyone?
The worst problem is ice-shedding, which can be quite dangerous. If you get rime ice or snow build up on the blades, which can happen as they are rotating, it can and will get flung off in very large lumps onto the ground below – perhaps 100m or more away from the turbine.
On prop aircraft, there is a hardened plate on the fuselage to stop the ice going into the cabin, and you can hear great lumps hitting it sometimes. With giant windelecs, I suggest a crash-helmet and body armour while walking anywhere close to one of these things.
.
260 horsepower(!) front wheel drive automatic, sorry.
RealClimate seem to be RealSilent at the moment.
“Perry (03:04:01) :
SandyInDerby (01:03:37) :
Winter tyres are a bargain, if you consider the alternative. A lost no claims bonus is just the starter. The risks of death or injuries are much greater in snow.”
Only if you do not know how to drive. In about 1994, the UK, I recall a small snow furry on the M4 between Newbury and Swindon. I had to laugh as I drove past th enumber of people struggling in the inch or so of snow. What was even more hilarious was the number of tracks off the motorway. It seemed some people were trying to create their own exit ramps, in to farmers fields.
Snow is not a problem, and in fact can assist in stopping believe it or not. Ice is nore of a problem, in particular black ice.
@ur momisugly Kevin Kilty (19:17:03) :
Something I have noticed this winter season is the seesaw of statistics–Cold, snowy October followed by fair November, then a rough December. So on this basis, maybe January will moderate some, then look-out for spring.
=================================
If I remember right, the winter of 77/78 started out the same way: cold October, warm November, and then a brutal winter that didn’t end till May.
Bulldust (20:57:40) :
Bulldust, Douglas DC also noticed that that is a Citroen 2CV – Deux Chevaux. Once considered one of the ugliest mass produced cars every (the Pontiac Aztek owns that now). A Smart car will leave it in the dust. Lots of pictures of them on the web. I think they even had one in a Bond movie for a chase scene. It needs a downhill, in a hurricane, to keep up on the US Interstates.
It really looks like nature is trying her best to hide it in the initial pic.
TAMPA BAY WEATHER ALERT
I’ve subscribe to their weather alerts, and I’ve been getting from 1 to 4 of these a day for more than a week, each worse than the last:
_____________________________________________________________
Nigel S (04:09:33) :
You’re joking, Right?
Oh, I almost forgot, we had sleet early Sat., moring here near Tampa, Fl, which I saw with my own eyes. No accumulation, but it lasted for at least 1/2 an hour. (Some reported snow, but I’m skeptical) .
ShaneOfMelbourne (03:22:48)
Yeah, right, Shane. I was born and raised in Melbourne and have just returned to KL after 3 weeks down there.
One day 44 (actually 40), next day 20.
Long term Jan average is still 26. Same as it ever was, same as it ever was.
Layne Blanchard (22:38:23) :
The warmers seem to think we’ve had a couple sunspots, so now we’ll warm up.
The warmers say the sun doesn’t control climate. So now some say it does?
How do you deal with a problem like a warmer? I just let Mother Nature do it as they look out the window.
nevket240 (23:05:51) :
as Marie-Antoinette Gore would say, if they can’t have fish, let them eat cake…..
Or, if they can’t eat rice let them eat mud. Rice is for the biofuels.
Relief can’t come too soon for Florida and the Deep South:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582738,00.html?test=latestnews
Many are already getting wiped out of thier tropical businesses.
How quickly did the weather revert back to the 70’s mode with only 2 years of a quiet sun?
It’s not just businesses feeling the bite of the cold, AGW is also getting wiped out…albeit too late for the hapless. I feel for the people who are losing thier shirts. Not so for the Warmists.
In this age of advanced technology, this general unpreparedness did not have to happen. The long-range forecasts were gaffed by untested hypothesis stemming from hijacked science.
What an awful state of affairs.
Shouldn’t be any wonder.
The Arctic Oscillation is practically off the chart!
http://klimazwiebel.blogspot.com/2010/01/cold-snap.html
anthony your tips page is at 3,000 and I cannot add to it:-)
now relating to the above I am worried. I was trying to scan and send to anthony a page or two from an old book, Called
The SIXTH WINTER. Douglas Orgill & john Gribbin.
1979 bodley head is my copy
isbn0-370-30221-4
now what got me perturbed Before! I logged into this item is the mention that this book makes of Blocking cold etc exactly as is happening now.
they state that the science is as correct as 1972 could make it, and damn if a few hairs didn,t stand up on my neck!
It is almost telling the tale of whats now happening.
Pages 21 and 22 sum it up.
If the N.H. gets a mild summer and doesnt thaw much, well another colder winter will follow.
they surmise, that that happening for 6 years is enough to start a new minimum..and with the sun being sleepy ..well it’s a worry indeed I think.
we have had 2 now.
any volcanos going boom would hasten it too?
I scanned the pages but dont know how to get it to anyone to look at.it saved as a jpeg. I would love other more knowledgeable people to see and comment on it.
It will not break the january record because de forecast for britain and western europa are Rain on the coastal area’s. But The recent snowfall in spain could just break it before that happens. So in the europe point of view I will give it a 50% chance.
On front page at Drudge, middle column:
Global cooling may set in for 20-30 years!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html
This from IceAgeNow:
“México is a Gigantic Refrigerator”
photon without a Higgs (04:50:15) :
“. . . How do you deal with a problem like a warmer? I just let Mother Nature do it as they look out the window.”
It doesn’t do any good, hnu sans higgs:
http://blogs.ajc.com/cynthia-tucker/2010/01/08/despite-severe-cold-the-planet-is-still-warming/?cxntfid=blogs_cynthia_tucker
“….Good evening, and welcome, to another episode of ‘Twilight Zone’.
rbateman (04:55:05) :
How quickly did the weather revert back to the 70’s mode with only 2 years of a quiet sun?
No, no, the earth is warming. Look at GISS. And don’t dare say anything negative about James Hansen! He works at NASA. How could GISS be wrong!
😉