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.
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Funny that the Russians having a “Russian Winter” has become world news.
It’s fascinating.
More snow only proves global warming!
Anyway, this would be good if it goes ahead.
http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/climategate-and-the-law-senator-inhofe-to-ask-for-congressional-criminal-investigation-pajamas-mediapjtv-exclusive/
Pamela Gray
Try this for a happy alternative
http://arctic-roos.org/observations/satellite-data/sea-ice/ice-area-and-extent-in-arctic
We set such store by the products of our technology, only to find that from simple thermometer measurements to complex satellite overviews, our faith is abused by the manipulators of data.
I watch three sites that offer the February CET anomaly and they are -1.0; -1.4; and -1.85C. Needless to say the warmest offering is from the Met office.
Despite this enormous discrepancy between three separate agencies measuring the past 22 days temperatures in a small part of England we are asked to be very worried over 0.7C warming measured globally for the past century.
And heres a video link:
“…the Russian Air Force to spray a fine chemical mist over the clouds…”
I’m confused. I thought governments weren’t doing stuff like this? Ya know, like using planes/jets to lace the skies with chemical mists? I remember people in this very forum ridiculing folks who mumbled such nonsense. Which is it? Yea or nay? Spraying or no spraying?
Snip away, but I said my piece. At least one person read it.
REPLY: Weather modification via precipitation catalysts is a well known science and is something entirely different that the conspiracy and crazy laden “chemtrails”, which we don’t discuss here and any further mention of them will be snipped. -A
“The Social Simulation of the Public Perception of Weather Events and their Effect upon the Development of Belief in Anthropogenic Climate Change” September 2004.
“Global warming (or climate change) is, without elaboration, a much debated and contested issue. Not only is it contested among scientists, but also among all those with vested interests.
We suggest that, in the realm of the public, forces act to maintain or denounce a perceived reality which has already been constructed. That is, an issue introduced by science (or media for that matter) needs continual expression of confirmation if it is to be maintained as an issue.
In this paper, we explore under what conditions belief in global warming or climate change, as identified and defined by experience, science and the media, can be maintained in the public’s perception.
As the science itself is contested, needless to say, so are the potential policy changes. So how then do people make sense or construct a reality of something that they can never experience in its totality (climate) and a reality that has not yet manifest (i.e. climate change)?
To endorse policy change people must ‘believe’ that global warming will become a reality some time in the future.
Only the experience of positive temperature anomalies will be registered as indication of change if the issue is framed as global warming.
Both positive and negative temperature anomalies will be registered in experience as indication of change if the issue is framed as climate change.
We propose that in those countries where climate change has become the predominant popular term for the phenomenon, unseasonably cold temperatures, for example, are also interpreted to reflect climate change/global warming.”
From the comment here:
http://buythetruth.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/climate-change-and-the-death-of-science/
don shaw:
We aren’t getting very many days above 90 in the summer time either.
In Riga, snow cover reached 62 cm at one moment yesterday – to my knowledge, it was the deepest ever since 1908.
Our Met present news in weird formats though, and I’m too lazy to mail them for a confirmation. 🙂
Inhofe says “thanks” to bloggers and talk radio (and the British media).
Thanks to an earlier thread, it now seem to me that for GW to bring more snow, it would have to be the case that temperature differentials between warm air masses and cold air masses would have to increase, so as to realise the ” extra” moisture as precipitation which falls a snow.
If everything was just a bit warmer – differentials the same – why more precipitation? And for it to snow, the moist warm air would have to cool/be cool enough for vapour to freeze out as snow crystals – or else one gets frozen rain/ice storms?
If I’m at all right, the “warm = moister=snow” is rubbish??
Related, the current pattern surely means loosing a lot of heat, with warmer far North radiating to space, and snowy mid lattitudes reflecting solar energy? (i’m aware that snow albedo in IR is lower, but much energy is in visible spectrum)
If true, I’m puzzled why none of this is said in MSM etc : Washington Post had an editorial yesterday pressing the AGW case (“its obviuosly CO2, you expect one or two errors in a huge document like the AR4, and anyway we ought to be getting off foreign oil” Bit of panic?)
Actually, my “If true” above is funny really! (write 100 times “must not trust MSM, must not trust the BBC, must not…)
Jay,
You claim that Jan-Feb snow cover is declining. Here is the data for the last 20 years.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/oimg?key=0AnKz9p_7fMvBdHNSSnFsbUdZX1NmWDNmdExtNEdzWWc&oid=1&v=1266937450096
Are you hiding the incline?
“The great thing about global warming is that you can blame anything on it, and then deny it later.”
You don’t even have to deny it!!! Remember : global warming causes everything. Less snow and more snow – all at the same time. It’s raining here in New Jersey at the moment – global warming. It was sunny at the weekend – global warming. We may get snow later in the week – global warming.
Predicador,
I have a friend from Riga who was a sailor from 1950-1990. He says he can’t ever remember the Bay of Riga being completely frozen over and impassable.
This is NOT a “political” statement, it is a cure: Anyone who wants to stop the insanity of politicians and movie stars making like “Chicken Little” and getting the barnyard in a tizzy need do only one simple thing –support someone else and vote for them.
PS: Stars (the human variety) need to be treated the way they have usually been treated throughout human history–as something only a little higher on the scale than dirt.
Amazing what a warming clmate will do…more heat in winter=greater snowfall.
Jay (06:11:42) :
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.
Which is cherry picking, don’t you think? Nobody doubts the late 50s and the 60s had harsh winters. But what about the 20s-40s?
It’s hard to find long-running stations in Great Britain in the GISS database, but at least I had a look at Valentia Observatory in Ireland, which has an impressing 1880-2010 record.
Here’s what I got when I downloaded the GISS data and ran a 11-year centered moving average on the Dec-Jan-Feb temperatures:
http://i45.tinypic.com/167l4hx.jpg
Here I have applied a 31-year moving average which really makes the long cycles stand out:
http://i48.tinypic.com/x3czdt.jpg
Interstingly, applying the same to summer (June-July-August) temperatures, gives a similar pattern, but it seems to be a few years delayed:
http://i46.tinypic.com/2112jck.jpg
If this pattern repeats itself, the current cold winter may just be the start, and in a few years the summers will turn colder too…
Here in Sweden sports centers are demolished by the weight of the snow, schools and day care centers and even companies are closing because of the risks associated with the enormous amounts of snow…
And all this in a country that really should be prepared for snow.
I suppose all the building contractors fell for the AGW scare and supposed that buildings don’t need to be able to withstand large amounts of snow anymore. 🙁
Putin thought he could reduce snow in Moscow. He was going to start doing it this year.
DOH!
“Moscow’s streets were covered by… snow this morning…, putting Russia’s capital on course for its snowiest February since at least 1966.”
______________________
I seem to remember some French Dude had a problem with Russian snow, and then this German Dude had a problem with it too. Now the French guy lived in the 18th-19th Century, and the German guy lived in the 19th-20th Century. And here we are talking about Russian snow in the 21st Century.
Hummmm… (probably shouldn’t say this.. go ahead.. no.. go ahead.. ok)… “NOTHING’S CHANGED!!!”
From Sweden at my location the average temperature so far is: -8,4C
Same period 2009: -2,8C
Same period 2008: +1,7C
That’s a nice trend, not…
Looks like Texas is facing a longer ski season.
Should have sold more full season lift tickets.
This is very apt because I’ve just been looking at our weather forecast to see when the snow is due to arrive tonight. This is certainly the worst winter we’ve had in Scotland for the decade, people who have lived here longer were saying it was the worst since the 1960s – that was before this latest freeze!
And in case any one doesn’t know, the UK Met Office were forecasting this as a mild winter, and like the wash out summer forecast they have got this and a succession of other forecasts wrong.
Fortunately the press seemed to have woken up to the fact that these climatologists have no more ability to forecast the climate than voodoo witchdoctors – and I fully expect the Met Office’s pronouncement on climate to be met with a howl of laughter from the press!
I have carried out the following ‘scientific’ experiment, based on warmists’ claims that one can have cooling during global warming: I switched on my oven, after a few minutes i put my hand inside to try to find some area within the oven that could be felt that it is cooling instead of warming.
I am now waiting at the general hospital, in the emergency room for burn treatment.
The warmists argument is heads-I-win-tails-you-lose type of argument.
Breaking, Fox News via http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2010/2/23/rip-it-up-and-start-again.html. UK Met Office to statt again with temperature data.
For anyone interested in Global Warming Pre-1900 it`s worth visiting this site, http://booty.org.uk/booty.weather/climate/wxevents.htm This is an extract from that site for 1868,—- (Persistently warm weather by CET series over period May to July. The summer of 1868 was very hot & dry, with some of the highest temperatures ever recorded for the second half of July occurring in this year. There was a remarkable spell of hot days, with temperatures over 30degC in England. For the south-east of England specifically, a maximum temperature above 32degC was recorded in each of the months from May to September, and in July specifically, the temperature exceeded 32degC on 9 days; the soil was very dry (lack of precipitation), which would of course mean that solar energy was most effective.)—- Please Note this site mainly covers British Weather and some parts of Europe (back to 4000B.C.)