October Through March Was the Snowiest On Record In The Northern Hemisphere

R Gates.
The warmist argument, IE heat trapping gasses trap more heat, does not include the information on how the atmosphere itself evaporates water. It would seem to me that other forces evaporate water.
However, the warmist argument DOES suggest that the atmosphere itself contains a higher budget of energy due to trapped heat… Which suggests to me that the atmospheric carrying capacity of moisture should go up if extra energy is trapped? Why would our high energy atmosphere lose more moisture (as crystalline condensate) than a cooler low energy atmosphere? You can’t say “because there is more moisture there” because there is more moisture there due to the ability of the atmosphere to suspend it if it contains more energy.

HaroldW
When you get hit by car riding a bicycle, the two possibilities are going over the car or under it. Better to go over it.

1DandyTroll May 13, 2010 at 12:03 pm says: So when everything was white, what then changed the “albedo” going from cold to warm, or vice versa. Because if everything comes down to albedo then it could have only been one albedo, the one that made everything too hot or too cold too boot. Imagine the snowball earth scenario, or the latest ice age, and if everything was up to albedo, how would it actually have become warmer?
Excellent question. Short answer from an albedo believer (without all the watts/meter nonlinear equations):
First, the principal albedo factor is clouds. More clouds, whiter albedo. During interglacials more evaporation leads to more clouds which leads to more reflected energy which leads to more snow which leads to whiter albedo, etc. The positive feedback effect terminates interglacials fairly rapidly (in geologic time).
Then during glacial periods the air dries out and clouds are fewer, but the snow continues to accumulate into continental ice sheets and perpetuates the whiter albedo which self-reinforces the cold. Glacial periods get colder and colder until after 100,000 years or so…
Milankovitch insolation approaches another peak and finally starts to melt the ice sheet surface which after 80 to 90,000 years has accumulated wind-borne soot from volcanic eruptions and fires in tropical and semi-tropical climes. As the ice sheet surfaces melt, the soot comes to dominate those surfaces, darkening the albedo and hastening the melt, similar to gravel on a roadside snowbank. Cloud cover is still much reduced and the dark albedo produces a positive feedback effect again, this time in the warming direction.
Then after the ice melts and the globe has warmed, the clouds come back and the whole cycle starts anew.
The rapidity (in geologic time) of the warming and the cooling phases indicates that positive feedback occurs during both, albeit in opposite modes.

Phillip c (43): and if any have an older Firefox browser, try “view”, “page style”, “no style”. Works great here to get a single, no horizontal scroll working screen (and this is the only site that I have to use it on). This may work for other non accommodating browsers also.

Living on Ynys Mon off the coast of North Wales we get pretty grim weather. What I have noticed this year is that the colder the weather in the North East Atlantic, the less ice appears to be in situ in the Arctic. When we get back to normal temps, the Arctic ice returns to normal for the time of year. Is there a genuine correlation?

Steve:
When I use the super secret spreadsheet formula I get 83.6%. You have to drop the last 6 because they are all in Wyoming. I used the last column for my figures.
Mike

@gareth Phillips
‘What I have noticed this year is that the colder the weather in the North East Atlantic, the less ice appears to be in situ in the Arctic. When we get back to normal temps, the Arctic ice returns to normal for the time of year. Is there a genuine correlation?’
First off you wouldn’t know what would come to be the norm for this year, and since by your writing the extreme pertains to this year, you have not experienced it previously, where upon you then know nothing.
So essentially you only know what you know and that pertains to only this year alone, and only that.
So what is normal in that, of your, regard?

@Mike D. says:
May 13, 2010 at 3:09 pm
1DandyTroll May 13, 2010 at 12:03 pm says: So when everything was white, what then changed the “albedo” going from cold to warm, or vice versa. Because if everything comes down to albedo then it could have only been one albedo, the one that made everything too hot or too cold too boot. Imagine the snowball earth scenario, or the latest ice age, and if everything was up to albedo, how would it actually have become warmer?
Excellent question. Short answer from an albedo believer (without all the watts/meter nonlinear equations):
First, the principal albedo factor is clouds. More clouds, whiter albedo.’
But clouds can act both ways.
‘Then during glacial periods the air dries out and clouds are fewer, but the snow continues to accumulate into continental ice sheets and perpetuates the whiter albedo which self-reinforces the cold.’
That doesn’t make sense since drier air, weather, climate means less snow to boot, so the drier the “climate” the less it snows, the less it snows, or rains, the whooping longer it would take to make a dent of a difference, i.e. it would frakking show up like orange in the climate blah blah.
” Glacial periods get colder and colder until after 100,000 years or so…”
Sry for cutting this short, but essentially it’s because of all that other crap.
But you didn’t really count all that crap until you were forced too did ya’? 😉
If you count all that shite into your little calculation of the whole, what does the answer come to?
However you did manage to not answer any questions. Is that a boon or lack there of?

Gary Hladik says:
May 13, 2010 at 10:42 am
That’s OK, we’ll still have a “barbecue” summer. Heck, the warmmonger politicians are already feeling the heat!
______________________________________________________________________
Gary, isn’t applying tar and feathers first the best way to “barbecue” a Congress critter? Do we need to wrap them in tinfoil too? snicker

Phil. says:
May 13, 2010 at 1:01 pm
Jimbo says:
May 13, 2010 at 12:29 pm
R. Gates says:
May 13, 2010 at 11:02 am
But Mr. Viner from CRU said 10 years ago that snowfalls would become a thing of the past. All steve is doing is poking their faces in it as they always point to a lack of snow as a sign of global warming. AGWers can’t have their cake and eat it.
Neither can you Jimbo, try completing the quote!
—————————-
Hey Phil I’ll do more than that, here it is in its full glory and let me know if the past claims of snow being infrequent sounds any better for you:

“Britain’s winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.
Britain’s winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives.
Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.
The first two months of 2000 were virtually free of significant snowfall in much of lowland Britain, and December brought only moderate snowfall in the South-east. It is the continuation of a trend that has been increasingly visible in the past 15 years: in the south of England, for instance, from 1970 to 1995 snow and sleet fell for an average of 3.7 days, while from 1988 to 1995 the average was 0.7 days. London’s last substantial snowfall was in February 1991.
Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community. Average temperatures in Britain were nearly 0.6°C higher in the Nineties than in 1960-90, and it is estimated that they will increase by 0.2C every decade over the coming century. Eight of the 10 hottest years on record occurred in the Nineties.
However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. 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.
The effects of snow-free winter in Britain are already becoming apparent. This year, for the first time ever, Hamleys, Britain’s biggest toyshop, had no sledges on display in its Regent Street store. “It was a bit of a first,” a spokesperson said.
Fen skating, once a popular sport on the fields of East Anglia, now takes place on indoor artificial rinks. Malcolm Robinson, of the Fenland Indoor Speed Skating Club in Peterborough, says they have not skated outside since 1997. “As a boy, I can remember being on ice most winters. Now it’s few and far between,” he said.
Michael Jeacock, a Cambridgeshire local historian, added that a generation was growing up “without experiencing one of the greatest joys and privileges of living in this part of the world – open-air skating”.
Warmer winters have significant environmental and economic implications, and a wide range of research indicates that pests and plant diseases, usually killed back by sharp frosts, are likely to flourish. But very little research has been done on the cultural implications of climate change – into the possibility, for example, that our notion of Christmas might have to shift.
Professor Jarich Oosten, an anthropologist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, says that even if we no longer see snow, it will remain culturally important.
“We don’t really have wolves in Europe any more, but they are still an important part of our culture and everyone knows what they look like,” he said.
David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes – or eventually “feel” virtual cold.
Heavy snow will return occasionally, says Dr Viner, but when it does we will be unprepared. “We’re really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time,” he said.
The chances are certainly now stacked against the sortof heavy snowfall in cities that inspired Impressionist painters, such as Sisley, and the 19th century poet laureate Robert Bridges, who wrote in “London Snow” of it, “stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying”.
Not any more, it seems.
“

Source:
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html
And something else to mull over Phil.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/global-warming-past-the-point-of-no-return-507030.html

The BOM ENSO wrap-up looks interesting for the coming winter in the south..
“The El Niño event of 2009/10 has concluded, with all the major indicators now below El Niño thresholds. Latest observations show that sea surface temperatures, trade winds, the Southern Oscillation Index and cloudiness over the Pacific have all returned to levels considered typical of neutral (i.e. neither El Niño nor La Niña) conditions. The timing of the decline in the 2009/10 El Niño event has been fairly typical, with the event peaking over summer then decaying during autumn.
Historically, about 40% of El Niño events are immediately followed by a La Niña. Current conditions below the surface of the Pacific Ocean show large volumes of cooler than normal water, indicating that further cooling of the surface is likely.
The majority of climate model predictions suggest the tropical Pacific will cool further during the coming months, with the possible development of La Niña conditions by late winter or spring. No climate models suggest a return to El Niño conditions. As autumn is a typical transitional period for ENSO, model predictions through and beyond autumn are generally less reliable than at other times of the year. “