New 2 day record December snowfall amount to the Minneapolis/St Paul area
While there have been a few high temperature records in the desert southwest and western Oregon, the majority of weather records in the USA this week have been for cold, snowfall, or rainfall. The biggest number of records have to do with the lowest maximum temperature.
Here’s a summary of the weather records:
| Record Events for Mon Dec 6, 2010 through Sun Dec 12, 2010 | |
| Total Records: | 2002 |
| Rainfall: | 319 |
| Snowfall: | 320 |
| High Temperatures: | 71 |
| Low Temperatures: | 426 |
| Lowest Max Temperatures: | 767 |
| Highest Min Temperatures: | 99 |
Uncharacteristically for the Associated Press, they give this latest snowstorm the title of “monster”:
Rutgers snow lab has the current snow cover for 2010:
Last year, we seemed to have a bit more snow cover in the USA (and globally) at this time:
I think Rutgers is having a little joke by making snow cover “yellowish”.
Here’s a Public Information Statement (PIS) from the NWS in Minneapolis
Dec 10-11 Snowfall…New December Record
The December 10-11 snowstorm brought a new 2 day record December snowfall amount to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, and perhaps to other areas as well. The new record is 17.1 inches. This storm was bit unusual in that it was a Pacific type storm system. The snowfall amounts were in the category of what would be more typical of a storm moving out of the southwest U.S. toward the Mississippi valley.
This storm also ranks in the top 5 of the largest snowfalls in the Twin Cities. See the Minnesota State Climatology site for further details.
Here is the broad picture of the storm total snow.
PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
800 PM CST SUN DEC 12 2010
...SNOWFALL TOTALS FROM THE WINTER STORM EVENT DEC 10-11...
THE TOTALS BELOW ARE SEPARATED INTO SNOW...AND ICE AND SLEET
CATEGORIES...THEN BY AMOUNT...AND ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE
FINAL AMOUNT FOR EACH LOCATION.
SNOW REPORTS LISTED BY AMOUNT
INCHES LOCATION ST COUNTY TIME
------ ----------------------- -- -------------- -------
23.00 5 SE OSCEOLA WI POLK 0900 AM
22.00 EAU CLAIRE WI EAU CLAIRE 0500 PM
TELEVISION STATION WQOW.
21.50 NEW MARKET MN SCOTT 0930 PM
21.50 SHAKOPEE MN SCOTT 0700 PM
21.00 OAKDALE MN WASHINGTON 0330 AM
20.00 RED WING MN GOODHUE 0800 AM
20.00 MAPLEWOOD MN RAMSEY 0330 AM
19.20 EAU CLAIRE WI EAU CLAIRE 0100 PM
18.50 4 NNE MENOMONIE WI DUNN 0945 PM
18.00 MENOMONIE WI DUNN 0800 AM
18.00 EAST FARMINGTON WI POLK 0630 PM
18.00 3 SSW BURNSVILLE MN DAKOTA 0615 PM
18.00 2 W PRIOR LAKE MN SCOTT 0900 PM
17.50 3 NW MINNEAPOLIS MN HENNEPIN 0100 PM
17.40 LAKEVILLE MN DAKOTA 0900 PM
17.20 WOODBURY MN WASHINGTON 0900 AM
17.20 1 W CARVER MN CARVER 1000 PM
17.10 MINNEAPOLIS MN HENNEPIN 0130 AM
MEASURED AT THE MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL AIRPORT
17.00 EAU CLAIRE WI EAU CLAIRE 1100 AM
17.00 2 N MENOMONIE WI DUNN 0630 PM
16.50 SAVAGE MN SCOTT 1130 PM
16.30 HASTINGS MN DAKOTA 0830 PM
16.10 BLOOMINGTON MN HENNEPIN 0600 PM
16.00 RIDGELAND WI DUNN 0100 PM
16.00 DURAND WI PEPIN 1030 PM
15.50 CHANHASSEN MN CARVER 0130 AM
MEASURED AT THE NWS OFFICE
15.20 ST LOUIS PARK MN HENNEPIN 1030 PM
15.00 1 SSW DELANO MN WRIGHT 0630 PM
14.70 WACONIA MN CARVER 0745 AM
14.50 3 SSW WHITE BEAR LAKE MN RAMSEY 1030 PM
14.20 STANLEY WI CHIPPEWA 0930 AM
13.70 LESTER PRAIRIE MN MCLEOD 0930 AM
13.50 1 ESE CHASKA MN CARVER 0700 PM
13.50 ELK MOUND WI DUNN 0700 PM
13.00 STILLWATER MN WASHINGTON 1200 PM
13.00 JIM FALLS WI CHIPPEWA 0930 AM
12.50 NORTH BRANCH MN CHISAGO 1100 AM
12.50 1 ENE CAMBRIDGE MN ISANTI 0630 PM
12.00 FARIBAULT MN RICE 0900 PM
11.50 ANDOVER MN ANOKA 0145 AM
11.00 HAUGEN WI BARRON 1130 AM
10.00 ST JAMES MN WATONWAN 1230 PM
10.00 CUMBERLAND WI BARRON 0730 AM
9.50 NORTH BRANCH MN CHISAGO 0430 PM
9.00 VESTA MN REDWOOD 1230 PM
8.00 MANKATO MN BLUE EARTH 0715 PM
7.00 4S ST CLOUD MN STEARNS 0630 PM
6.00 WINTHROP MN SIBLEY 0830 PM
Here is a Radar Replay during the time of some of the heavier snow (9 am to 3pm).
Snow Depth as of December 12
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Here’s the forecast. Brrrrrr!
Bitterly Cold Lows in Florida to End Midweek
Intense Lake-Effect Snow
National Weather Service Current Weather Warnings
AND
Arctic Cold Returning to the United Kingdom
Maybe “the team” will have to get a bit more radical to crawl out from under all of this “warming”.
I think their easiest route is – dust off all the records, zero all the “adjustments”, “rationalisations” and “homogenisations” and then call a megaconference (somewhere with a beach of course) with a working title;-
“Back to the Seventies”
subtitled:-
“It’s MUCH Worse Than We Thought – We’re Going to Freeze to Death After All!”
Here are some wonderful pictures of Globull Warming falling on DAMASCUS SYRIA of all places.
I especially like this one if the kind mods would allow it.
There’s more on the way and we are not even at mid-December yet. I think January is usually the coldest month in the UK. ;O)
Oh really!
UK winter snow since 2007
With more to come. 10 years ago the same prediction which nature has shown to be false. 4 years of widespread UK snow in a row is not a rare or exciting event. Well, not for pensioners at least. :o(
I would also suggest that some people really look at the data related to actual temperature of the N. Hemisphere during the past month:
http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/.Global/.Atm_Temp/Anomaly.html
More heat=greater evaporation=larger snowfall in winter & greater rainfall in summer.
Hmmmm. Be interesting to see what the UAH temperature anomaly is for December. Maybe it will be low enough to temper talk of 2010 being the third warmest year on record? That would be just dandy!
It is getting so cold here in the UK that we need to know how we can ramp up our CO2 output fast to try to alleviate the risks to the elderly and the frail. Suggestions to Chris Huhne (rhymes with loon) at chris@chrishuhne.org.uk whilst he recovers from his huge but largely unreported success in Cancun.
There is apparently a very large High pressure system sitting over the SW US, pushing the arctic type weather to the east…where it can stay…heheh
R Gates, “As an acceleration of the hydrological cycle has long been predicted by GCM’s when looking at rising CO2 levels (as that is what the earth has done for millions of years when CO2 levels rise) and heavy record snowfalls are exactly that, I would suggest that some skeptics really take a look at all that is implied in that accleration.”
I took you up on that offer and looked into snowfall records for Minneapolis/St Paul: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/twin_cities/alltimep.htm. I don’t see any records being broken lately. The theory I would offer for all of this snow: it’s Minnesota in December, it snows.
Pardon me, to ammend to the above, the record december snowfall we just saw in Mn/St Paul is not greater than the record for amount of snowfall in two days, albeit still a record.
R. Gates says:
“The coolest place on earth is also the driest and gets very little actual snowfall…”
What drier than the Sahara?
Currently in the UK our wind generation capacity is about 5,000 MW, and the wind turbines are generating 189 MW, about 0.3% of our total demand, about 0.04% of their capability. How on earth can we continue to invest in such a useless and expensive technology.?
I’m really surprise a 17″ snowfall is a record in Minneapolis. 17″ wouldn’t even a record for most parts of North Carolina…
R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 8:58 am
Great. So, tell us where all that cold comes from.
Maybe the warmest ever Arctic where the heat pumps out to space?
Don’t look now, but the barn door is open, and the next step in the sequence is a N. Hem. repeat of what happened last June/July in the S. Hem.
R Gates. Yes, it is possible to have extra heat evaporate more water and get more snow. However, for years and years, and even displayed in the comments on this page the “experts” have said over and over that winters snows will become a thing of the past.
The reason more people are becoming skeptical is because the “experts” this year are demanding that the snows are proof of global warming. I would bet eleventy billion dollars that if there was no snow or cold this year the “experts” and you included would be declaring that the lack of snow was proof of global warming. Just like the drought in Austrailia was proof of global warming, and now the lack of drought in Austrailia is also proof of global warming.
No matter what happens anywhere on earth it is always proof of global warming…even if that proof is exactly the opposite of what they claimed was proof just a few years before.
I will respect the opinion of global warming experts, if they can provide even one kind of weather anywhere on earth that could be used to disprove global warming.
Hoever, over the last 11 months, record high and record high lows have outnumbered record lows about 3:1. But I agree–right now much of the USA is having cold winter weather.
“R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 8:21 am
Greater snowfall is an indication of an accleration in the hydrological cycle…not a cooling of the earth. This finer point seems to be missed by some. The coolest place on earth is also the driest and gets very little actual snowfall…and that is Antarctica. When I see skeptics point to greater snowfall as any indication that AGW must not be happening it does make me chuckle a bit. It takes tremendous energy to move the mass of moisture in snow from the ocean to cover your driveway. As an acceleration of the hydrological cycle has long been predicted by GCM’s when looking at rising CO2 levels (as that is what the earth has done for millions of years when CO2 levels rise) and heavy record snowfalls are exactly that, I would suggest that some skeptics really take a look at all that is implied in that accleration.”
R Gates is an expert and I am not, but frankly my take on “Man Made Global Warming” is simple. The snow should fall as rain here in Scotland as a result of AGW. CO2 is approaching 400ppm. Mr Gates, when will Dr David Viner’s prediction “within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”….”Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” come true? I am fed up showelling snow and because of frost day/night I cannot shift the ice either. Used to have mild winters here when there was less CO2 in the air. I need relief from this particular version of “Climate Disruption”. Don’t mind more rain, but we are promised more snow and cold from Thursay. Brrr.
Elizabeth says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:15 am
R Gates, “As an acceleration of the hydrological cycle has long been predicted by GCM’s when looking at rising CO2 levels (as that is what the earth has done for millions of years when CO2 levels rise) and heavy record snowfalls are exactly that, I would suggest that some skeptics really take a look at all that is implied in that accleration.”
I took you up on that offer and looked into snowfall records for Minneapolis/St Paul: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/twin_cities/alltimep.htm. I don’t see any records being broken lately. The theory I would offer for all of this snow: it’s Minnesota in December, it snows
______
While it’s nice to track our local weather, if you’re serious about tracking the acceleration of the hydrological cycle on a global basis then you should keep a keen eye out for heavy precipitation events (record setting) across the globe…extreme downpours, rains, and snowfalls in the winter. Some of the latest research being done on this can be found in this story:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/10/global-warming-river-flows-oceans-climate-disruption.html
The acceleration of the hydrological cycle is the way the earth has provided a negative feedback to control the levels of CO2 for millions of years. CO2=more heat=greater evaporation=great rainfall & snowfall in winter=greater weathering of rock to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.
The only issue now is that normally CO2 hasn’t increased by 40% in just a few hundred years, so exactly how this will affect the natural negative feedback mechanism of rock weathering isn’t known.
R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 8:58 am
“I would also suggest that some people really look at the data related to actual temperature of the N. Hemisphere during the past month:
http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/.Global/.Atm_Temp/Anomaly.html
More heat=greater evaporation=larger snowfall in winter & greater rainfall in summer.”
The important facts about this great snowfall, in North America, are that the cold air mass 1) has arrived much earlier than usual, 2) is way colder than usual, and 3) is far more extensive than usual, extending all the way to Brownsville, Texas and Miami, Florida. In Florida, we are experiencing what amounts to a winter emergency. We do not possess the kind of heating equipment that is needed for tonight. I hope it is obvious to you why we do not possess the needed heating equipment.
Do you think the average freezing American or European give a dog’s fart about the ‘actual’ temperatures in the N. Hemisphere? They are struggling with reality i.e. paying high energy bills this winter, old people dying of hypothermia, Norway record cold etc. Your appeals to their reason will fail. Seeing is believing not badly placed thermometors and extrapolations from Warmist scientists. Trust gone long ago my friend.
oldgifford says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:21 am
R. Gates says:
“The coolest place on earth is also the driest and gets very little actual snowfall…”
What drier than the Sahara?
Currently in the UK our wind generation capacity is about 5,000 MW, and the wind turbines are generating 189 MW, about 0.3% of our total demand, about 0.04% of their capability. How on earth can we continue to invest in such a useless and expensive technology.?
______
The issue of technology is somewhat off-topic from the general accerlation of the hydrological cycle caused by increased CO2, but I agree with you that expensive technology to reduce greenhouse emissions and expensive government programs is not the best route to take. I think small is better and more efficient and I think the idea of building smaller, greener homes and having small energy generation technology that takes people off the grid is much better than a bunch of large, expensive wind farms. The age of small scale green and personal (home) power generation is here and it doesn’t involve Big government with big programs to make it happen.
As I look at the record highs(Just a quick perusal,) I noticed that they aren’t smashed, but given the Urban heat Island effect, and thermometer locations , I noticed a lot were set in the late 40’s and 50’s -at the beginning of the Last PDO switch. I realize that we can control the weather, the tides and the sea levels. But is this a bit curious? hmmm?
Oh, and if the snow is the Warm-what about albedo? -reflect on that…
“R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 8:21 am
“reater snowfall is an indication of an accleration in the hydrological cycle…not a cooling of the earth. This finer point seems to be missed by some.”
Talk about someone who misses a point or two! The amount of snowfall is not the big deal. The big deal is the timing, extent, coldness of the air mass. In fact, the lack of significant snowfall south of St. Louis is proof positive that there was a tiny amount of moisture in the air. So, where is this extra moisture you are trumpeting?
Sam Parsons says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:45 am
R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 8:58 am
“I would also suggest that some people really look at the data related to actual temperature of the N. Hemisphere during the past month:
http://iridl.ldeo.columbia.edu/maproom/.Global/.Atm_Temp/Anomaly.html
More heat=greater evaporation=larger snowfall in winter & greater rainfall in summer.”
The important facts about this great snowfall, in North America, are that the cold air mass 1) has arrived much earlier than usual, 2) is way colder than usual, and 3) is far more extensive than usual, extending all the way to Brownsville, Texas and Miami, Florida. In Florida, we are experiencing what amounts to a winter emergency. We do not possess the kind of heating equipment that is needed for tonight. I hope it is obvious to you why we do not possess the needed heating equipment.
________
There is, in essence, a huge “freezer door” opened right from the Arctic to the E. United States. Normally the Arctic will have several closed low pressure systems that hold most of the cold up there with only an occasional outbreak and that outbreak will only usually affect the Northern U.S. The large strong high pressure system over Cananda combined with the low pressure over the eastern U.S. is that “opened freezer door” sucking that air right from the Arctic. Now, on the flip side, the temperatures in the Arctic are at normal to above normal across the whole of the Arctic, just as you’d expect to happen if you left your own freezer door open– it would be above average inside the freezer!
What does all this have to do with AGW? That’s the million dollar question, but there are those who are looking at it. You might want to read this article from this summer:
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=12160105&tqkw=&tqshow=&tqkw=&=tqshow
Odd things are happening with pressure gradient over the Arctic and it may be related to both the lower than average sea ice and the bottom line is that it may increase the chance of cold outbreaks to points south of the arctic in the future…as counter-intuitive as this seems.
I would like to see Al Gore sued for breach of promise. For the past 20 years I’ve been waiting for death of winter, preferably to coincide with my retirement. I’ve seen no evidence that things are getting any better.
R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:42 am
Elizabeth says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:15 am
While it’s nice to track our local weather, if you’re serious about tracking the acceleration of the hydrological cycle on a global basis then you should keep a keen eye out for heavy precipitation events (record setting) across the globe…extreme downpours, rains, and snowfalls in the winter. Some of the latest research being done on this can be found in this story:
So, now you are saying that these local phenomena that YOU HAVE BEEN CITING do not matter, only the global cycle matters? Then why were you citing local phenomena?
By the way, is there some reason to believe that there is a global hydrological cycle? To me, that sounds like a global cloud cycle or global humidity cycle, and I know that neither of those exist. I am asking for an answer in your very own words. Do not refer me to an article. I am not your student.