Headlines yesterday mentioned yet another new snowfall record: Moscow Covered by More Than Half Meter of Snow, Most Since 1966
Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Moscow’s streets were covered by 53 centimeters (20.9 inches) of snow this morning after 15 centimeters fell in 24 hours, putting Russia’s capital on course for its snowiest February since at least 1966.
Workers cleared a record 392,000 cubic meters (13.8 million cubic feet) of snow over the 24-hour period that ended this morning as precipitation exceeded the average February amount by 50 percent, according to state television station Rossiya 24. The city had 64 centimeters of snow cover on Feb. 23, 1966, the previous record, Rossiya 24 said.
In a story from Russia’s news agency, TASS, they mention that:
This year’s February is quite unique from the meteorological point of view. Not a single thaw has been registered so far and the temperature remains way below the average throughout the month.
I guess the Mayor of Moscow’s “Canute like” promise back in October didn’t work out so well. From Time magazine:
Moscow Mayor Promises a Winter Without Snow
Pigs still can’t fly, but this winter, the mayor of Moscow promises to keep it from snowing. For just a few million dollars, the mayor’s office will hire the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds before they reach the capital, forcing them to dump their snow outside the city. Authorities say this will be a boon for Moscow, which is typically covered with a blanket of snow from November to March. Road crews won’t need to constantly clear the streets, and traffic — and quality of life — will undoubtedly improve.
Before they were saying that increased winter snow is due to global warming, climate scientists were saying that decreased winter snow was due to global warming. As discussed already on WUWT, climate models predict declining winter snow cover. And a senior climate scientist predicted ten years ago :
According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
There is no shortage of similar claims:
Decline in Snowpack Is Blamed On Warming Using data collected over the past 50 years, the scientists confirmed that the mountains are getting more rain and less snow http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/31/AR2008013101868.html
Many Ski Resorts Heading Downhill as a Result of Global Warming http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=363&ArticleID=4313&l=en
The prediction below was particularly entertaining, given that it was made during Aspen’s all time snowiest winter.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
DENVER — A study of two Rocky Mountain ski resorts says climate change will mean shorter seasons and less snow on lower slopes…. The study by two Colorado researchers says Aspen Mountain in Colorado and Park City in Utah will see dramatic changes even with a reduction in carbon emissions, which fuel climate change …. . Skiing at Aspen, with an average temperature 8.6 degrees higher than now, will be marginal. http://www.aspendailynews.com/section/home/131044
Global Warming Poses Threat to Ski Resorts in the Alps Climatologists say the warming trend will become dramatic by 2020
Global Warming Poses Threat to Ski Resorts in the Alps – New York Times
Himalayan snow melting in winter too, say scientists Himalayan snow melting in winter too, say scientists – SciDev.Net
Global warming ‘past the point of no return’ Friday, 16 September 2005 Global warming ‘past the point of no return’ – Science, News – The Independent
So what are they saying now?
Global Warming could equal massive snow storms Great Lakes and Global Warming could equal massive snow storms
Snow is consistent with global warming, say scientists Britain may be in the grip of the coldest winter for 30 years and grappling with up to a foot of snow in some places but the extreme weather is entirely consistent with global warming, claim scientists. Snow is consistent with global warming, say scientists – Telegraph
Climate Scientist: Record-Setting Mid-Atlantic Snowfall Linked to Global Warming
The Blizzard of 1996 does indeed qualify as one type of extreme weather to be expected in a warmer climate Blame Global Warming for the Blizzard – NYTimes.com
The great thing about global warming is that you can blame anything on it, and then deny it later.
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There is a short Sci-Fi story I read many years ago with a title something like ‘I have no mouth, but I must scream’. I know just what the author meant!
“The great thing about global warming is that you can blame anything on it, and then deny it later.”
Saves them having to take responsibility for their dumb policies. Or helps them evade it.
This from page 107 of the 2009 Climate Impacts report for the NorthEast
Note that it says LESS snow.
“The Northeast has significant geographic and climatic diversity
within its relatively small area. The character and economy of the
Northeast have been shaped by many aspects of its climate including
its snowy winters, colorful autumns, and variety of extreme events
such as nor’easters, ice storms, and heat waves. This familiar climate
has already begun changing in noticeable ways.
Since 1970, the annual average temperature in the Northeast has
increased by 2°F, with winter temperatures rising twice this much.150
Warming has resulted in many other climate-related changes,
including:
More frequent days with
• temperatures above 90°F
• A longer growing season
• Increased heavy precipitation
• Less winter precipitation falling as snow and more as rain
• Reduced snowpack
• Earlier breakup of winter ice on lakes and rivers
• Earlier spring snowmelt resulting in earlier peak river flows
• Rising sea surface temperatures and sea level
Where do these folks get the claim that we said more snow due to global warming. Are they Lying?
This whole thing has become such a joke ….. the whole AGW theory has become so toasted …… seeing eco-activsts trying to make anything out of nothing would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.
You can fool some of the people all of the time and all of the people some of the time …. but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. Relating to the kind of nonsense above … this should now read …. you can’t fool any of the people anymore.
Thomas Friedman suggests calling it global weirding. That’s a convenient way to cover the fact that alarmists have been talking about snowless winters for a few years now. Even here in the southern half of Norway, where we’re now experiencing the strongest winter in several decades, we were told that we could expect snow free winters in the lowlands in a few years…
Of course Global Warming causes every weather event we see, stupid! Rest assured, every time a notable weather event occurs, we will remind you of that in every public medium including comic books. In between, we’ll display artworks and posters to remind you of our eternal truth. We will sponsor schoolchildren’s movies as long as they raise “awareness” of the perils of Global Warming. We’ll hang effigies of penguins and polar bears. We will bear public witness to the goodness of the Churchh of Climate Change. We will rail against all unbelievers, heretics and blasphemers. Deniers all, who have sold their souls to the devil and his evil bqad-business henchmen.
And don’t blaspheme by judging our Holy Climate Change Church on the accuracy of our climate change forecasts. Climate works in mysterious ways! So keep on paying your offerings to the Church of Climate Change. It’s easy – we will simply include it in your taxes. It won’t hurt a bit…
http://www.herkinderkin.com/2010/01/anthropogenic-global-warming-as-organised-religion/
Much,much worse then we thought !!!
Global Warming makes it colder. These kind of stories make the average person start to question if the “overwhelming body of scientific evidence” that shows AGW really is that overwhelming.
While there are many people who will believe this I suspect there are many more who will not be fooled. Most people are apathetic, not stupid, and this sort of story makes them ask questions. And when they find the answers, they’ll see that the truth is not as they were led to believe.
So long may these ridiculous stories continue I say.
What is so confusing?
Weather is climate only if the Glorious Supreme Council of The People’s Climate Bureau decrees it so. Any suggestion otherwise is filthy propaganda.
Tomorrow will be both rain and not rain or both snowing and no snowing. Please try to prove that I am wrong that is the question about.
Don’t be surprised if Al Gore an IPCC do a complete flip and say…
“I told you so that global warming would create more precipitation because of more evaporation.”
What happened to the more evaporation in the past?
All of a sudden it starts?
Perhaps that “fine chemical mist” was derived from bovine excrement?
Are we having satellite problems again? The shadow has returned!
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/daily.html
Maybe IPCC could turn its hand to something useful and establish an worldwide repository to safely store falsified AGW climate models. That, I suppose, would be all of them.
Propaganda artists must be very busy trying to adjust their “predictions” to fit nature’s reality.
If we didn’t have “Global Warming”, this Third Rock from the Sun would be a complete ball of ice. But man, even though some individuals are pompous to the extreme, has had nothing to do with the current temperature, which has varied considerably before man’s arrival and will do so long after man is gone.
AGW is a lie; GW is confirmed.
Inspired by Steven Goddard’s recent analysis of winter snow cover for the Northern Hemisphere I thought I’d answer the question ‘so what?’ – and not just for isolated weather events witnessed on different continents, but for the whole northern hemisphere. So I popped the data from Rutgers into my spreadsheet – ran a filter to pick out January and February and put a trend line on my plot. Guess what. All things considered Jan – Feb snow cover is declining, despite recent cold snaps.
And then I had a look at one of your quotes. “Snow is consistent with global warming, say scientists.” Surely some mistake – that’s just saying anything right?
“The great thing about global warming is that you can blame anything on it, and then deny it later.” you conclude.
But Dr Myles Allen of Oxford University actually goes on to say (in the article you linked to)
“If it wasn’t for global warming this cold snap would happen much more regularly. What is interesting is that we are now surprised by this kind of weather. I doubt we would have been in the 1950s because it was much more common.”
Which is rather more sensible don’t you think.
So there’s you, confusing weather with climate and confusing quote mining with what scientists say. Good work Mr Watts!
OT, but has anyone else noticed that Mars’ south polar region is icing up big time, while the northern ice extent has reduced?
OK, it may just be NH summer on Mars at present, but isnt the same happening here on good old Earth?
Dont forget that this is water ice, not frozen CO2 as we used to be told.
There’s two reasons for no snow: too warm or too cold.
Too warm and it’s rain. So on the margins, global warming will reduce snow.
Too cold and it just doesn’t snow much, due to stable High Pressure. So warm it up a bit and you might be likely to get MORE snow. So where temperatures are well below zero, global warming will increase snow.
I guess the question is: is this merely a redistribution of snow profile from lower to higher places and what is the likely effect of that in terms of systemic response??
No-one seems to answer this question.
It’s not just the U.S – here, in Sweden, where we expect quite a bit of snow, we’ve had the hardest winter in about 40 years. We haven’t seen a single positive temperature since early December.
It was -22C, on Sunday night, according to the thermometer outside my kitchen window.
Even though, as we know, this has been “the warmest winter on record” etc.
Regarding Arctic ice, NSIDC and Nansen aren’t seeing eye to eye at present:
http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/observation_images/ssmi_ice_ext.png
Meanwhile, another snowy day in much of Texas …
Comments from scientists like those commenting in the Telegraph register strongly on the ordinary persons bullshit meter. In spite of the efforts of the our so called government here in the UK, squandering our tax money on this garbage with preposterous TV adverts and ‘initiatives’ many disgracefully aimed at young children, the whole thing has become a bad joke with the public. People now laughingly talk about shovelling away a foot of global warming from their driveways.
These scientists simply cannot try to rewrite what they have been spouting at us for years now that their predictions have been seen to be wrong. This whole MMGW theory has passed from the realm of science into that of a religion.
Yes, extra CO2 in the atmosphere will cause some warming, but where is the evidence that the CO2/water vapour positive feedback on which all of the catastrophic predictions rest actually exists in nature? Mainsteam scientists say the Sun has had virtually no effect on the warming seen between 1975 and 1998, so what then caused the Medieval warm period, the Roman warming, and all of the other warm and cool periods that the Earth has gone through since the Holocene Optimum?
If the Solar scientists are right then we could be in for two or three decades of a radical cooling which would be far more serious for humankind particularly in relation to food production, but our governments are fixated on averting warming and will have a lot to answer for by not planning for such an eventuality.
@Carbon Dioxide:
Is there a link to a Mars polar image anywhere? It would make an amusing ‘weather report’ article 😉
They’re at it again. Science Daily posting says the Antarctic ice sheets are melting and “could” raise the sea level. Alas. Run for the hills-rather, start “hillwalking”.