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.
OOPS – Veronica beat me to the punch – but I am curious.
Veronica. No, it isn’t true, it was a warmist winding people up. He (a guy called Tony) doesn’t work for the Met Office. Please dismantle this myth whenever you see it posted. He must be really laughing as his tiny contribution on a newspaper thread has been all around the world in the past three weeks.
Larryoldtimer. Me too! My mum always used to say “Too cold to snow”. And she was always right.
LarryOldtimer (09:13:44) :
I noted that snow was falling at temps below 10F. Unusual to say the least in my 74 years
Read the post above: JonesII (07:45:39) (from an oldtimer too, but replace “autumn” by “springtime”…the german Dr. you know…)
The mini-ice age is started?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1242011/DAVID-ROSE-The-mini-ice-age-starts-here.html
Note: The Tips & Notes page is FULL… will need to be cleaned I think.
Unbelievable………….
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
The Met Office would like to point out that our postcasts are 100% on the money 100% of the time. That is an area where we shine and it should get more publicity.
PhilW (10:04:31) :
Unbelievable………….
Direct link
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/01/pachauri-money-laundering.html
Anyone else spot that there’s a ‘snow covered’ tile on that map… in AFRICA? Now that’s pretty damned freakish.
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?
Veronica (09:33:09) :
I used Met office numbers for December, and looked at November (it was warm in UK) they appear to be ok.
Here are numbers for CET 12 months :
2009 3.0 4.1 7.0 10.0 12.1 14.8 16.1 16.6 14.2 11.6 8.7 3.1
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/CET-Dec.gif
The article has some ‘ambiguous’ statements.
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
Sound and Fury (10:15:16) :
“Anyone else spot that there’s a ’snow covered’ tile on that map… in AFRICA? Now that’s pretty damned freakish.”
Snow is not that unusual in High Atlas mountain of Morocco.
All we want is for our normal 70 degree weather to come back in Florida.
I was shocked to see on the weather channel show the snow cover for the northern hemisphere, and talk about the cold weather and where it was lcoated — Then I realize all along if they wanted to they could have shown with a few mouse clicks what the arctic ocean ice cover was, and put the lies that Al Gore and others tell out to pasture.
But yes, I think January will set new snow and cover records. It’s snowing in Florida after-all.
JonesII (08:47:29). You’re right, but before we remove them Obama will, like Spain did — now with 20 % unemployment — build more turbines and spend 2.3 billion dollars on 17 000 green jobs; 135 000 dollars per job:
http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2010/01/08/135295-per-job-obama-announces-2-3-billion-to-create-17k-green-jobs
Britains successful windpower program for 100 billion pund described here, by leftist Guardian who now don’t believe in Gordon Brown :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/10/wind-energy-power-electricity
Britans energy during this cold weather: 45 % coal, 37 % gas, 15 % nuclear, and 0.2 % wind power. (Variability makes wind power a regolatory problem.)
Sure, weather is not climate, but climate is being upstaged by weather.
Computer models say future generations might suffer higher temperature. This pile of snow says I can’t get to work today.
That’s the funny little secret about weather; it’s real.
Was reading up on MJO effects on winter North American precipitation patterns and found this gem:
“There is strong evidence for a linkage between weather and climate […]” – Wikipedia
Didn’t someone suggest wiki has been hijacked by alarmists? Seems so.
As a dedicated X-C skier I am having a wonderful winter. Snow conditions are fabulous here in Michigan. And to think that several years ago, when I still believed in that global warming nonsense I was worried that my skiing days might come to an end!
Charlie K,
Daily Mail is a conservative newspaper that seems to have taken a sceptical position on AGW but is not quite as sceptical as the Daily Express. The article describes possible cooling due to natural cycles, but this idea was floated a while ago and is not opposed by the AGW crowd. Indeed, they warn of warming to return later with a vengence.
Walter Cronanty (09:49:49) :I’ve read the article you linked. How do you explain such a stubbornness in non accepting reality by AGW’ers? , Have they received a lot of money to act like that? How is it explainable?. You are suffering the consequences of an obvious punishable and prosecutable behaviour.
On a related subject…. Fox News just posted this story.
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/01/11/years-global-cooling-coming-say-leading-scientists/
“PhilW (10:04:31) :
Unbelievable………….
Direct link
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2010/01/pachauri-money-laundering.html
”
Stunning – this reminds of the good old days of jounalism. Old Washington Post/Sunday Times type stuff. What journalists should actually be doing. Credit to Richard North.
cheers David
I live in southern Sweden this winter is exceptional, usually you could count at most 2 or at most 3 weeks of some wet snow and cold but not this cold below zero C for any prolonged time.
This year they even clear of snow on ponds in the parks so people can skate. However not much snow, but freaking cold.
Must have been best ever sales of skates, ski, kids sledges and Canada Goose jackets in these parts. And spot prices on electricity are overheating.
Retired Engineer (18:58:53) :
Absurd. There is no snow. No ice. Everything is melting. Except where it isn’t.
Looks like the UK has a lot of snow. What does that do to wind turbines? Blade unbalance, anyone? Considering that they plan to run the entire country with them.
Unfortunately when we had our cold spell there wasn’t much wind so the environmentally friendly, low carbon generation system kept hardly anyone warm and the old fashioned coal and gas stations are on full blast, so much so, we are running out of gas and it has to be rationed. Our glorious leader says we will not run out of gas so I guess I had better make sure our old fashioned fire place is working.
Curiousgeorge (05:07:30) :
“Here comes the next guilt trip/fear mongering…..”
Yes and Obama, Hillary Clinton and her science advisor are already on board.
“There are already too many people living on Planet Earth, according to one of most influential science advisors in the US government.
Nina Fedoroff told the BBC One Planet programme that humans had exceeded the Earth’s “limits of sustainability”.
Dr Fedoroff has been the science and technology advisor to the US secretary of state since 2007, initially working with Condoleezza Rice.
Under the new Obama administration, she now advises Hillary Clinton.
Pressed on whether she thought the world population was simply too high, Dr Fedoroff replied: “There are probably already too many people on the planet.”
“…We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can’t support many more people,” Dr Fedoroff said, stressing the need for humans to become much better at managing “wild lands”, and in particular water supplies.”” This from March 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7974995.stm
This is not new and has been creeping forward for years.
“…. along with hundreds of other scenic and cultural treasures around the world, have come under the “protection” of UNESCO through the World Heritage Convention. Signed by former President Nixon in 1973, this treaty gives the United Nations authority to guide the safe-keeping of international sites and monuments “considered to be of such exceptional interest and such universal value that their protection is the responsibility of all humanity.”
What if some Heritage lands are privately owned?
It doesn’t matter. In the eyes of UNESCO, private owners can’t be trusted to guard “a World Heritage which belongs to all humanity”…” http://www.radioliberty.com/kjos4.htm
The whole thing got a major set back at the eleventh hour when the map you show was revealed to the US Congress just before they were going to ratify the UN Bio-Diversity Treaty. The treaty would have set aside 1/2 of all of the USA as “core wilderness” – no humans allowed, and much of the rest of the area as “buffer zones” – only highly regulated activity permitted. Looks like they are going to try it again now that we have a Democratic Congress more interested in being “progressive” than in the good of their citizens. They just keep coming with another way to make us slaves.
This is some information on the last go round. http://www.propertyrightsresearch.org/articles2/wildlands_project_and_un_convent.htm