From The Declining Spring Snowcover Department
Experts tell us that spring snowcover has seen rapid declines in the Northern Hemisphere over the last 20 years. As of today, western US snowpack averaged by state is 137 percent of normal.
According to USDA Snotel measurements, Arizona is 446% of normal. California is 131% of normal. New Mexico is 184% of normal. Nevada is 126% of normal. Montana is 104% of normal.
Lake Powell water levels have risen four feet in the last month and are 56 feet higher than they were on this date in 2005.
http://lakepowell.water-data.com/graphingengine.php?graphing=1+back_days=150
Salt Lake City just had its latest spring snow on record. Mammoth is expecting a big Memorial Day snow storm.
The Obama administration (42% approval) forecasts heat and drought for the western US. Let’s see how they are doing!
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/wrcc/WaterTDeptWRCC.png
http://www.hprcc.unl.edu/products/maps/acis/wrcc/WaterPNormWRCC.png
Apparently Arnie’s efforts to stop global warming have been successful.
Schwarzenegger has emerged as a national leader on global warming, the one whose name most frequently comes up in foreign capitals when international cooperation on reducing carbon emissions is discussed. Al Gore might have a Nobel Prize, but Schwarzenegger heads a state that, if it were a country, would rank among the 10 biggest economies in the world. Given the Bush administration’s unwillingness to seriously address the problem, Schwarzenegger’s initiatives to mandate hard emissions targets and set up carbon-trading schemes with other states and Canadian provinces make him this country’s most forward-thinking governor, and its greenest Republican.
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According to data here: http://lakepowell.water-data.com/
Lake Powell is still a long way from full. It’s 77 feet below conservation pool level, 58% full, and inflows so far this year are 25% below average. Snowpack above it is 23% below average. Storage has fallen by 1.4 million acre feet so far in 2010. Lake Powell is not in good shape and the outlook isn’t either. Of course that has nothing at all to do with climate change and everything to do with rising demand for the water due to population growth.
I live on the shore of a large man-made reservoir that’s an important source of water and electricity for a million people, agriculture, industry, and health of the downstream ecosystem. If we’re only at 58% capacity near the end of May that’s a big problem. We just came out of the worst drought since the 1950’s. Reservoir is at 97% capacity now (thank you El Nino) versus 55% last year at this time. Upstream slightly smaller reservoir is still down at some 78% full. Combined is 89% so we’re okay for the coming year but with La Nina making an appearance we’ll probably need a hurricane in the late summer to blow some good rain bands inland 150 miles from the Gulf to set us up for next year.
…What a coincidence that Storlien, Jämtland nowadays Sweden, 583 m ASL {above
myself…LOL…} , snowcover was first measured this season Sept 29…and still counting,
since rather low temperatures are expected the coming days, we may have a record of
10 consecutive months…If not, it’s still a new longevity record, old record being 227
days (CONSECUTIVE!…) SO today we have … 2+31+30+31+31+28+31+30+26=240
DAYS…All of them due to…have’nt a clue…??
From the article:
Schwarzenegger has emerged as a national leader on global warming…
Gov. Arnold explains global warming.
I’ll have to wait till friday to get the eaxct numbers, but from memory on Monday when we ran our data the New Zealand South Island snow pack was also around 135% of average for this time of year, and its not even winter yet.
Pretty interesting that AGW is only tied to temperatures with little regard for precipitation anomalies.
Arnold Governators’ hot seat in California has been Terminated.
He should go back to making movies that need no explanation.
>>Tonyb
>>Wait a minute then, just where has it been so warm elsewhere
>>that a record is being claimed?
Have you not noticed? It is always warmest in the most inaccessible parts of the globe, where nobody can verify their data. Places like the Yamal peninsula, and those warm spots that plagued northern Siberia and northern Canada.
.
Rhys Jaggar
Why would you assume that snowpack is smallest this time of year? My bike ride last Sunday along the Poudre River was diverted several times by floodwaters from melting snow covering the trail.
Lots of snow at Taos
http://skitaos.org/webcamimages/tsv7a.jpg
Yesterday the Dutch Weather report showed a picture of a potato field today and last year at the same date.
Last year the field was green with the potato plants 15 cm high.
Yesterday “there was nothing to see”.
The weatherman told his public this was due to a lack of rain.
The truth is it was because of the cold.
Now after a few warm days temperatures are dropping again.
Eastern Europe, Poland and Germany and France are coping with floods, severe damaging thunderstorms with big hail, even tornado’s.
The point is there is a lot of disinformation on any level.
Heatwave in Toronto. It feels as if this part of the world is disconnected from larger global trends this year. Sigh… 🙁
As an observation…does it not seem like mountainous areas have all been effected with increased precipitation and cooler than normal temperatures?
With the oceans being cooler, these would be effected first.
R. de Haan says:
May 26, 2010 at 4:16 am
Food supply shortages and increased pricing will be what climate cooling will create. This in turn would lead to more starvation and death to a great many of the poorest.
“Schwarzenegger has emerged as a national leader on global warming”
He should be in line for an Oscar nomination then!
Off topic but not sure where else to ask. Anthony, how do I find the articles I’ve missed in chronological order? There used to be a button to click at the bottom of the homepage that sent you to prvious articles. I’ve been away from the PC for a while and want to see what I’ve missed
In my area of Florida, we have no snow pack, no mountains, not even hills (the highest points are I-75 overpasses) so I cannot comment on these things.
However, at the bottom of the reference material is this:
” Reference period for average conditions is 1971-2000.”
I will protest the use of the word “average” when dealing with a short, arbitrary base period.
California increased from 131% to 142% overnight, while Rasmussen lost their last ten days of polling data. I wonder if their web site was hacked?
TODAY “The Western Snowpack is 137% of normal” — aka Weather (to some) aka Global Warming (to some).
TOMORROW “The Western Snowpack is -137% of normal” — aka Weather (to some) aka Global Warming (to some).
___________________________
We’re not on the same page. We’re not using the same definitions. One side is using the rules of reason. The other side is making their own rules as they go along for their own reason. This is not about science or truth. This is about science VS a political agenda with the aim of a new world order. This is about apples and oranges.
This is Yankee VS Red Coat. This is Blue VS Grey. This is West VS East. This is A VS B.
It was warm in Puerto Vallarta last week and there is no snow in the coastal ranges of Mexico. But then, that is to be expected.
Anthony – As Ronald Reagan would say, “There you go again.”
For someone who regularly uses numbers you sure do cherry pick when it comes to approval of the Obama administration. Everyone who uses political numbers – Dem and GOP alike – knows that Rasmussen is highly partisan and often an outlier.
RealClearPolitics gives Obama an average approval of 47.0 to a disapproval of 46.6.
Pollster.com gives Obama an average approval of 48.9 to a disapproval of 47.2.
These are averages of multiple polls – some rather partisan like Rasmussen – others nonpartisan.
Furthermore, I fail to see how the reference to the “Obama administration” is especially germane since the agency to which you link was established under the Bush Sr. administration. Was there any particular announcement on climate from the Obama administration lately about summer temperatures and drought?
http://www.globalchange.gov/about/overview
Undue politicization of the website will likely only make it an echo chamber. (I realize that it is YOUR website and you are free to do anything you choose.) If your goal is to present multiple views with an emphasis on those which seek to refute some of the research and policy assumptions of climate change advocates, then a less partisan approach would serve you more effectively.
Al Gored says:
May 25, 2010 at 11:15 pm
“Yes. Fine. But how much of it is old snow?”
And more importantly, how much is “rotten” snow?
Instead of snow extent what counts now is global governance cover extent, you are now under a 90% cover; 100% planned to be reached next autumn, after Cancun.
Don’t forget our reservoirs are now 96.18% full and we haven’t had the snow melt yet. Not to mention it’s snowing in the Sierras. Lake Shasta is no 113% of normal and 99% full. Lake Oroville (the one they claim they use for water the most) is now 80% of normal and 69% full and no snow melt yet. But they keep telling us we have a drought in California. The greentards in Sacreamento just don’t want to give it up.
Fogot the link.
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/current/RES
R. de Haan, “The weatherman told his public this was due to a lack of rain.”
That surprised me too. Correct, it was because of the cold. We did some analysis within the met community here and also ruled out the possibility they were different potatoes.
It is the cold. May 2010 is in the 5-10 percentile coldest and after the fairly warm weekend today is very cold indeed again.
http://www.knmi.nl/klimatologie/grafieken/maand/txgn/txgn260_201005.png
Today’s max may hardly exceed 12° C.
RR Kampen says:
May 26, 2010 at 2:40 am
“This cool May is just weather.”
Which is to say, any atmospheric event (whether hot or cold) is “just weather”…
Please tell this to the our friends in the Global Warming Industry, Inc. (and their mainstream media comrades) when there is a heat wave somewhere this summer… Of course, heat waves are their equivalent to Public Television pledge drives – opportunities to distort science in order to collect their billions in climate ca$h…