While the squabbling continues on MSNBC (see Bill Nye here and Morano with the American Progress guy here, and by all means don’t miss this Olberman rant ) over whether the big Washington DC snow means anything, the venue of the argument is about to shift west. The argument may stop in Dallas, TX along the way west.
The Times reports: Too much snow forces Scottish resort to close
One of the low elevation Vancouver skiing venues (Cypress Mountain) is short on snow this year due to El Nino, and the Global Warming machine is soon going to saturate the news with this story. It has already started and is ramping up.
VANCOUVER, B.C. — One morning last week, environmentalist David Suzuki looked across English Bay from his Vancouver home to Cypress Mountain, usually covered in snow this time of year but now left all but bare by a warm winter.
“I’ve watched in horror as the snow has just melted away from Cypress Mountain,” Suzuki said, referring to the 2010 Olympic Games snowboarding and freestyle skiing venue. The view from Vancouver, Suzuki and others say, provides a glimpse into the future for the Winter Olympics.
Cypress Mountain (yellow insert) from NASA’s Earth Observatory
UPDATE: Image above and NASA Earth Observatory writes:
In early February 2010, organizers were putting the finishing touches on venues for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, British Columbia. Two months earlier, on December 6, 2009, the Thematic Mapper Plus on NASA’s Landsat 7 satellite captured a detailed image of the area where the games will be held.
The image on the left provides a view of the area from Vancouver northward to the Whistler skiing village. Areas outlined in yellow delineate close-up views on the right. The top close-up shows venues near the village of Whistler, where Nordic and alpine skiing events will be held. The bottom close-up shows Cypress Mountain, the planned venue for freestyle skiing and snowboarding, among other events.
Throughout the scene, snow blankets the highest peaks, and low-angled sunlight illuminates south-facing slopes while leaving north-facing slopes in shadow. Valleys and lower slopes are lush green. The venues near Whistler appear as patchworks of green forest interrupted by long, thin trails of snowy white. Just north of the city of Vancouver, Cypress Mountain also holds snowy ski trails, but overall has far less snow.
After unusually warm conditions in January 2010, snow remained scarce on Cypress Mountain. The Los Angeles Times reported that snow was being trucked to Cypress Mountain from higher elevations, and Vancouver Now reported that organizers had placed tubes filled with dry ice on courses to keep surrounding snow from breaking down. A surprise snowstorm struck on February 10, just two days before the games opened, boosting the snowpack. The snowstorm did not, however, change the short-term forecast for rain.
Never mind that most of the ski areas in the world are having excellent seasons, including other Olympic venues like Whistler – which has already received over 1,000 cm of snow this winter. Arizona Snowbowl has received 238 inches of snow this winter! You read that correctly – Arizona.
Squaw Valley, California (site of the 1960 Winter Olympics) is reporting at least 10 feet of snow on the ground. Ski conditions around Salt Lake City (site of the 2002 Olympics) are excellent. Wolf Creek, Colorado is reporting close to ten feet on the ground. European ski areas are reporting excellent snow. Pajarito Mountain, New Mexico is reporting one of their best ski seasons ever. North Carolina ski areas are reporting some of their best conditions ever. Scotland is reporting the best ski conditions in 50 years. Washington DC is shut down due to snow.
Most of the ski areas in British Columbia have excellent snow, but be assured that the press will highlight the one area which doesn’t – and will not provide a sensible explanation for the cause. They will blame it on global warming, and will intentionally ignore ski conditions in most of the globe.
The glass is 10% empty, not 90% full.
Climate change blamed for Olympic snow shortage
Winter snow season has been slowly shrinking in past 50 years, says researcher
This graphic might help some people understand the winter weather patterns in an El Nino year. Same thing happened in 1998. Note where Vancouver is: in the warm pattern.
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maybe if Keith Olbermann wasn’t such a mindless ideologue of the left he would notice these stories…..and would get better ratings:
Snow in All 50 States?
Patrick Marsh said it’s likely by the end of the week snow will be on the ground in all 50 states…..is a meteorology student at OU who is trying to collect pictures of snow on the ground from all 50 states…..”Hopefully I’ll get photos from all 50 states, and if I do, I’ll put them into a Google Earth map and make a snow snapshot of America.”
http://www.newson6.com/Global/story.asp?S=11973034
Record 11 inches of Goreflakes in Dallas.
The socialists want Olympic failure.
They also hate competition and want all athletes to get a gold medal.
Just a quick correction about the ski conditions around salt lake city. The salt lake and park city areas are having a well below average year. Might want to leave that reference out.
It’s the thermofascists who demanded that patterns of weather last for 30 years instead of the former 10 before they could be classified as climate – why do they have such trouble following their own rules?
Please look at the current temperature anomalies along the equator line:
http://weather.unisys.com/surface/sst_anom.html
Not so much as for a real El Nino; just a little in El Nino 3+4 area.
What if this is instead related to the change in geomagnetic fields, as pointed out by our friend Vuk, which is changing the patterns of winds, currents, displacement of north magnetic pole to Siberia, etc.
It is not the usual El Nino. Is it the developing characteristics of a phenomenon not seen before in our generation but perhaps in the Maunder Minimum time?
Low Ap index, high neutron count numbers, increased clouds cover over certain areas, etc.
A more general view is needed, perhaps if we start with the Sun it will be possible, so as to get something structurated and stop groping in the dark. If this view is accomplished then there will be no place to non rational speculations as those from the global warming church and its japanese cleric.
Whstler had 18 feet of snow in November. The warmistas aren’t good with maps. Whistler is not adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. If we go North, Girdwood Alyeska ski resort is near the water and low elevation also. It is however around the corner from the open ocean.
Romm is spinning every thing he can grasp. Let him get a little more desparate on convicted felon George soros money. Climate progress is in meltdown.
Bill Nye and Keith Olbermann will blame this on global warming
snow in Rome
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100212/wl_nm/us_italy_snow_1
Suzuki, since he flipped, Hansen-like, into a climate crime accuser, is someone worth ignoring completely.
The first problem was hosting the Olympics in Vancouver. It is the warmest place in all of Canada… many Canadians migrate to Vancouver because of the nice weather and very small winter than they get. This is normal. If they wanted a winter wonderland they could have had them in any other part of the country except the southwest coast. Idiots.
Never mind that Suzuki doesn’t give a rat’s ass about what happens to the winter Olympics. Think of all the CO2 that the snow-making machinery, and snow-grooming equipment, and lift-tows, and transportation to the back-country ski resorts spew out. In a Suzuki world, we would all be out in the snow in wooden clogs gathering nuts and berries, and looking for firewood.
British Columbia has warm weather during the winter all the time. I live in Calgary, and when the cloud formations over the Rockies are just right, we get the benefit of warm air from the west that can turn -40C weather to +5C in a matter of hours.
This type of propaganda is meant for people who are completely unaware of how winters are like in Western Canada.
Canada must be quite hot as just about all the ice bridges / roads are open:
http://www.dot.gov.nt.ca/_live/pages/wpPages/roadConditions.aspx
OT I know, but we have this statement from our climate change minister in NZ that is on the front page of the NZ herald site ATM.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10625837
It follows a 5 minute speech from the leader of the Coalition ACT party last week, where over half the speech was devoted to NIWA and the IPCC’s errors
When CBC released this story last week, I sent a letter to the David Suzuki Foundation asking how they could determine that the cause of no snow on our local mountains, was due to Global Warming caused by Climate change ,(this was based on “only” 50 years of research data as reported in the article). Since this is a common even on the local mountains, I asked them for proof of what conditions were like prior to 1960, 75 years, 150, 500 and a 1000 years ago.
.
I also complained to the CBC for reporting unsubstantiated information and sensationalizing this event, along with a complaint about the CBC to the CRTC (Canadian Radio and Television Commission) for irresponsible reporting. So far I have not heard anything back from all three and no acknowledgment of receipt of the complaint.
Up here, we refer to david suzuki as Dr. Fruit Fly.
He’s made a pile of money off the greeny scare machine . . . he’s wound up tighter than stink on doggy-poo with that desmogblog greeny agit prop website and his foundation makes $millions off the scam.
BBC News had a major item about lack of snow at Cypress. If you didn’t know otherwise, you’d think the whole Winter Games was there – nothing about the fantastic snow at Whistler where most of the events are being held, and no update to say that it is now snowing. Doesn’t fit the narrative.
This is quite normal. I live in Alberta. It is well known that BC snow can be unreliable even in February – especially so as you get closer to the coast.
They actually make wine and grow fruit in the Okanagan valley in BC. The only issue here is holding the winter olympics in a place that is warmed by a maritime climate.
Just look where Cypress Mountain is
http://cypressmountain.com/
….right on the coast. What would you expect but mild maritime climate? Serious skiers in Vancouver do not ski at Cypress Mountain – they drive inland towards the Rockies for about 2 hours. Cypress is simply a family and kids small ski hill adjacent to the City.
Suzuki – the guy has a surprising amount of influence in Canada. He had a science show on the CBC for quite a while which was very good as long as he stuck to his area of expertise (GENETICS!). He soon learned that there was more money in making headlines than there was in just plain old science, so he switched to things like climate, for which a degree in genetics clearly prepared him.
But forget Susuki, I have a different question. If these gods of climate research or so certain that they know exactly what the future holds for us, one would think they might have warned us. Hey Olympic committee, CRU and IPCC on the line here, you may not want to award 2010 winter olympics to Vancouver, they won’t have any snow. But listen, global warming will cause major snow falls elsewhere here’s our list of recommended sites. But no, selfish SOB’s, they know exactly what the climate is doing but they won’t say anything except “its gonna be very bad”.
Perhaps the Olympic committee should put out a tender for a climate forecast contract (4 years out is climate, not weather, don’t let anyone tell you different) to help them pick the next site. Big bonus for getting it right, big penalty clause for getting it wrong. One of these models accurate to within one degree 19 times out of 20 to a confidence rate of 90% within range of tolerance ought to step up and go fo the money…. just one… no cahonies any of them….?
The Rachel Maddow Comedy Show: Record Snow Does Not Disprove Global Warming
If you don’t believe in climate change you are Unpatriotic.
http://www.infowars.com/the-rachel-maddow-comedy-show-record-snow-does-not-disprove-global-warming/
Veronica,
Interesting theory, but the Met Office made their “Barbecue Summer” prediction in April.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2009/pr20090430.html
“JonesII (05:13:12) :
[…]
It is not the usual El Nino.”
Maybe this is how El Nino typically looks like in the cool phase of the PDO. Somebody call Bob Tisdale for a more informed opinion.
Carbon Mullah Suzuki is starved for attention.
I am rooting for my speed skating relatives from Manitoba, Rempel and Klassen. Talk about fast ladies.
Most of the extreme left are only happy when others are miserable.
Just recently Edmonton had 46 degrees below zero. where was Imam Suzuki?
Keith Olberman is an idiot. He doesnt even know what he’s talking about, and people are also blaimng Vancouver for not having snow on AGW. Give me a break! The reason why my shirt is blue, is because of AGW. Those warmists like Kieth Olberman need to step outside and simmer down.
Assuming AGW is the predominant outlook on all things “Climate” (including that maleable thing called “Weather”), who are the “powers that be” that would schedule the Olympics here of all places, “knowing full well” that snow is a thing of the past?
Were they setting themselves up for failure? Or did they not believe the implications of their own mantra?
Who are the disbelievers? Off with their heads (or as a modicum, let them pay for this financial diasaster when snow fails to arrive).
Or do they simply say one thing and do another, not being able to connect their dots?
This time around, it isn’t just El Nino. It is working it’s magic in cahoots with a negative AO. The Earth’s oceanic, hydrogical, topographical, and atmospheric parameters, all completely natural, are capable of producing extreme weather events without considering the infinitesimal amount of CO2 that is less than 1% (0.03%) of the atmosphere. Wait. I am not done about that tiny %.
Just to be clear, the media is reporting on wide spread peer reviewed “climate change extremes” panic based on man-made CO2 emissions of 14% of 0.03%. If you truly believe that riding a bicycle will stop snow, floods, drought, and sea level change, then you, AGW’ers, not us heathen skeptics, are capable of believing the world is flat and God made this flat pancake in 6 days, then went to the Bahamas on the 7th day to get some Sun, admire the shapely handiwork he created, and drink pina coladas.