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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Tony says: (December 13, 2010 at 5:13 pm)
Hi Tony, you would do well to read this explanation at the “Pro-AGW” site, Skeptical Science.
It is true that during previous interglacials (the warm periods between ice ages), CO2 increases lagged about 1000 years behind temperature increases. It is not true, however, that this is in any way unexpected or “unfortunate.”
The climate changes in response to external “forcings.” Without some sort of forcing, the climate would remain in equilibrium and would not change. When a forcing is applied, the climate is no longer in equilibrium, which causes it to change until a new equilibrium is reached.
In addition to primary forcings, there are also many different “feedbacks” — some positive, some negative — that magnify or diminish the effects of the forcing. Keep in mind that feedbacks do not cause changes to “spiral out of control” as is commonly misunderstood. Feedbacks simply modify where the final equilibrium will be. (They can also affect how long it takes to reach equilibrium.)
There are very many different kinds of forcings, including changes in solar output, volcanic explosions, plate tectonics, and variations in the Earth’s orbit. This last one is widely accepted as the cause of the intermittent ice ages over at least the past several hundred thousand years. There are also very many different feedbacks, and the total size of the sum of all feedbacks really is the main argument in the global warming debate today (in my view).
So, here is one important forcing: In the past two centuries or so, humans have converted about ½ trillion tons of carbon from a solid form into a gaseous form. (CO2 – the gaseous form of carbon – is a greenhouse gas.) This has never happened before at such a magnitude or rapidity.
According to the article I referred you to, CO2 is outgassed from warming oceans. This is a positive feedback and so amplifies the initial warming — that is, it causes the equilibrium temperature to be higher than it otherwise would. In past interglacials, the forcing caused by changes in the Earth’s orbit is not large enough to explain the temperature changes observed, but the same forcing along with the CO2 and other feedback effects is.
Given the above information, would you expect CO2 to lead or lag temperature changes in past interglacials? In fact, if CO2 led temperature changes in the past, that would be very difficult to explain! What would cause CO2 to be released in such large quantities?
Today, though, the situation is reversed. CO2 concentration is rising and the cause is not changes in the Earth’s orbit or outgassing from oceans. It’s us.
After all, that is what the “A” in “AGW” is all about!
R Gates Says:
” CO2=more heat=greater evaporation=great rainfall & snowfall in winter=greater weathering of rock to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.”
Perhaps I missed something in my 6 years of Geology, but how does weathering of rock, take CO2 out of the atmosphere??? Most weathering is physical in nature (especially in winter) but chemical weathering is primarily oxidation.
Anonymous Howard…very well said!
More records
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/winter/2010-12-13-snow-cold-winter-weather_N.htm
I look at it differently. The CO2 concentration is rising still. The temperature is not. That ought to end AGW.
Consult Richard Feynman’s “The Key to Science” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b240PGCMwV0
See Trenberth: “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can’t.“
R Gates’s posts….remind me of an obnoxious neighbor on my street who walks his dog(s) all the time and lets the dogs poop wherever they want, never bothering to pick up after them.
He comes in and drops a few bombs of posts, never owning up to the crap that they are, and then leaves everybody else having to clean up a bunch of unnecessary messes.
Truly a waste of time.
Back on TOPIC OF THIS THREAD:
Coldest top 5 Decembers in the past 50 years in the east?
http://www.accuweather.com/video/90462062001/bastardi-december-eastern-cold-top-5-in-past-50-years-close.asp?channel=can
Surely it is because of AGW.
Of course when the flip to the milder winter occurs at the end of this year for the eastern US, that will be AGW as well.
Hell…its ALL AGW.
The more he and his the ilk open their traps….the more shrill they become.
Keep “talking” R, keep talking.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
The saddest part is that he thinks he is getting all this attention because his points have merit.
They do not.
He gets the “attention” (if you want to call it that) in the manner of being prey “attention” to all of the sharks circling.
OK LOL back to topic again:
Another webcam from the hot Dirty South.
http://www.highcountrywebcams.com/webcameras_Beech_Charlies.htm
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
Although there are a lot more cold records than warm records on that map the warm part seems to be a part of the USA with less population so perhaps less measuring points?
If that is the case I don’t think the split between number of records for hot or cold tells you much.
Andy
John F. Hultquist says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:44 pm
I look at it differently. The CO2 concentration is rising still. The temperature is not. That ought to end AGW.
_______
???? 2010 will be one of the warmest years on instrument record and the last decade was the warmest decade on instrument record. How is it that temps are not still rising? You truly have been drinking from the skeptics cool-aid a bit too long…
R Gates claims that…
“???? 2010 will be one of the warmest years on instrument record and the last decade was the warmest decade on instrument record. How is it that temps are not still rising? You truly have been drinking from the skeptics cool-aid a bit too long…”
You know very well that global temperatures are more or less flat lining, you can spin the figures and cherry pick certain years. We do not know how 2010 will pan out because nov/dec figures are not yet out.
Large parts of the north and south were cooler in 2010, the southern hemisphere was much cooler with many records for cold and snow with south America suffering a bitter winter and Australia/New Zealand cooler than for some time.
The last decade was the warmest on the instrumental record? You fail to mention that satellite records only go back 30yrs and the ground sensor record is so riddled with errors, uncertainties and poor coverage not to mention ‘adjustments’ downward for earlier decades and upwards for later decades.
Over the last ten years can you state how much the temperature has increased using satellite data and the margin of error? No of course you will not answer because it shows a very uncomfortable reality and one which you choose to ignore. Cherry picking and selective highlighting of manipulated data?
OK, using the satellite record.
How much have global temperatures risen in the last ten years?
How much have global temperatures risen in the last five years?
Add the margin of error and is the rate increasing or declining?
R….as always you are completely full of it.
Ummmm. Duh. There has not been any statistically significant “global warming” in 15 years.
Meanwhile, freeze warnings are hoisted…(crazy for early to mid December) all the way to Miami.
Even when this hard cold start to an eastern USA winter evaporates…there is no denying the ENSO-influenced global drop in temperature.
http://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
And before you get on the “warmest decade on record” bulls**t….can you please provide records back during the previous 4.5 Billion 99.9999 million years??
Right. I figured that. You can not.
You don’t know what the warmest “decade” (god how I hate these false construct goalposts) is anymore than NASA GIZZ does.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
I’m definitely a skeptic of AGW, but I do enjoy reading Judith Curry’s site and posts on WUWT by people like R Gates – I learn a lot. And I want to say thanks to Gates – he takes a hiding, comes back for more, and offers his views in a polite and reasonable manner. If there were no counter-arguments, this would be a far duller place to visit.
A pity he’s wrong… 🙂
What we are seeing is nearly déjà vu of year 2000, with less tropical systems formed in the eastern Pacific. At this same point in 2000 we were also coming out of solar minimum, there was a La Nina, and the ‘ramp up’ side volcanic activity.
But in all the volcanic activity during ramp down of solar cycle 22, the pause as it bottomed out, and the ramp up of cycle 23 there was only one VEI-4 eruption. We now may well have had 7 VEI-4 since May, ’08, if Redoubt hadn’t been lowered to 3 and Merapi & Eyjafjallajökull come in as 4’s as expected.
The weather is a bit more perturbed now than it was then, Gates, can you at least give me that?
Thanks for the memories E.M.Smith,
I can match them in disparate parts of the world, near 40 years in central England, long hot summers in the late 30,s sleeping in the garden in hammocks between the apple trees to escape the oppressive heat indoors, and using grandfathers key- on ice skates to skate on frozen floods that persisted for weeks in the late 40’s, ones he used in the 1880’s on the canal and floods then. Then in the central tablelands, NSW Australia for nearly another 40 yrs, cold wet 70’s that finished a tourist business for me, then heat and drought in the 80’s then pretty average rainfall and temperature since then.
Even the dramatic floods that closed the Sydney to Melbourne highway in 1956 for two weeks have been repeated now, but the bridges are better !
Perhaps we are in for a couple of decades of cooler weather, our rainfall this year exceeded the 30 yr record by the end of November and December has exceeded its average so far. Cool-ing does seem to push up the precipitation.
For the past 10 days, we have recieved 1/2 of our winter snow load in my area at 3 feet.
Snow early is a problem as the solar radiation that was being absorbed by the ground is now being reflected. The next problem WILL be an exceptionally longer winter due to the extra snow to melt. Again more reflected solar radiation.
Think next summer will be colder than normal?
I do!
It just doesn’t stop does it?
Here is the latest from Nature Climate
Industry: Hard hits to ski resorts
So Mr R Gates, the London ice fairs of the 16th and 17th century due to ‘acceleration in the hydrological cycle’?
Much colder then, lots more snow than now, so I guess by your reasoning they must have had even more dramatic global warming than we have to today…… yeah right.
Skeptic is to open minded as AGW believer is to ……………………..
The other big cycle that I’ve been referencing is the carbon-rock cycle on earth, and specfically the cycle of carbon dioxide moving from the atmosphere into the oceans which occurs as part of the hydrological cycle. Here’s how it works…when it rains, or snows the CO2 from the air interacts with water in the air to form a very weak form of carbonic acid. The formula is:
CO2 + H2O -> H2CO3
That weak carbonic acid weathers the rocks and interacts with precipitated water and the silcates of the rocks to form bicarbonates. The formula is:
H2CO3 + H2O + silicate minerals -> HCO3- + cations (Ca++, Fe++, Na+, etc.) + clays
These bicarbonates flow to the sea and are precipitated from the calcium in the sea water to eventually end of as limestone on the bottom of the ocean, through a chemical reaction similar to this:
=====================================================
Gates, if it really worked that way, carbon would be limited in the oceans.
The carbonates are the buffer.
People can’t claim “ocean acidification” and then claim that the oceans are
saturated in bicarbonates at the same time.
Either you don’t have saturation and you have “ocean acidification”,
or you have saturation and the oceans are sequestering carbon.
For what you are saying, the oceans would have to be saturated in bicarbonates.
Anthony Watts says:
December 13, 2010 at 10:35 am
“Since “eadler” usually doesn’t notice or chooses not to notice corrections, I’m point it out that I’ve made a significant correction to his false comment above. He claims GISS has November Land Ocean Index at .96 which is totally bogus.”
I have indeed noticed the correction. The figure of 0.96C is not really bogus. It is a correct figure for a different index. It is the Meteorological Stations index that has a record high of 0.96C for November.
As you pointed out the value for the Nov 2010 Land Ocean Index is .74C which is also a record high for Nov.
REPLY: Sorry Eric, I had to get your attention, since you are so strong headed you usually don’t address your errors pointed out, you just keep posting. So the brakes were applied for you to get you to stop and notice. Your subsequent comments (which went to the bit bucket) skirted around the issue of your error. Even this one refuses to address it fully. You cited GISS land-ocean index as being .96, I said that’s “bogus, and it doesn’t appear in the record at all”, which is true. Now you are trying to argue that you were correct all along saying ” The figure of 0.96C is not really bogus.”. But if I had made the same error, you and half a dozen people would be all over me. I suppose this is as much as your ego will allow, so carry on.
– Anthony Watts
I grew up in the midwest where -30F winters and head-high snowdrifts were not uncommon. But I’m sitting here just north of West Palm Beach Florida where we normally only have a few chilly days in the last week of January and its 30degrees below normal for the second time in two weeks with nightly lows going into the 20s. The crops are freezing and farmers are turning them under. And it looks like we’ll have at least another month of cold spells.
Yeah Gore-ists, keep telling yourself that ‘local weather isn’t climate’…
R. Gates says:
December 13, 2010 at 9:42 am
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.
ROFLMAO. Keep it up Gates.
Right in the middle of Texas are a daily high and daily low record almost directly atop each other. What’re the odds?
Just sayin…
Howard, your argument amounts to “This time it’s different”
When I look at the ice core charts, I see cyclic warming and cooling trends. These repeat on what appears to be a fairly regular basis. Right now, we are in the middle of one of those warm spikes that show up in between the larger glacial periods. The spike we are on right now isn’t nearly as warm as previous spikes, and all the previous spikes were ended by a precipitous DROP in global temperatures.
This has happened before, more than once. I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen again. I have a LOT of confidence in the power of nature regarding such matters.
Frankly, given what I see, I HOPE AGW is true and that we CAN affect the climate in that manner, because if we can’t, we’re in for some SERIOUS cold weather in the future that’s going to make this winter look like an Indian Summer.
Tony says:
December 14, 2010 at 9:50 am
“Howard, your argument amounts to “This time it’s different”
When I look at the ice core charts, I see cyclic warming and cooling trends. These repeat on what appears to be a fairly regular basis. Right now, we are in the middle of one of those warm spikes that show up in between the larger glacial periods. The spike we are on right now isn’t nearly as warm as previous spikes, and all the previous spikes were ended by a precipitous DROP in global temperatures.”
Tony, you are ignoring the evidence that Howard pointed to, which explains the origins of the ice age cycles, and why this time is different. Human activity has produced CO2 levels higher than any in the past 400,000 years.
Your refusal to acknowledge the evidence discussed by Howard is disappointing.
This has happened before, more than once. I’m pretty sure it’s going to happen again. I have a LOT of confidence in the power of nature regarding such matters.
Frankly, given what I see, I HOPE AGW is true and that we CAN affect the climate in that manner, because if we can’t, we’re in for some SERIOUS cold weather in the future that’s going to make this winter look like an Indian Summer.”
To clarify one item for R. Gates, not everybody who disagrees with him believes that we are heading toward significant cooling. Why could the earth not warm back up to the MWP? Or why could we not return to the Roman Optimum?
Yes, I recognize that the Maunder Minimum / a period of few sun spots was associated with growth of global ice, and that the sun is currently going through a low sun spot activity. However, there could have been other features with the sun back then of which we had no concept, much less be able to measure. Maybe those features are present today, and maybe they are not. (And how about other possible explanations of the LIA such as a coincidental orbital disturbance?) It is premature to conclude that we are returning to a period of significant cooling.
While I believe some skeptics pay excessive attention to sunspots in forecasting cooling, there are also potential pitfalls for the other side. I believe that the scientific community will be ultimately embarrassed by the IPCC claim this decade that solar variations had less than a .1 degree impact on temperatures in the past 250 years. Perhaps the models conclude that given the TSI input, but it probably is a stretch of confidence to believe that we have all the right solar measures – much less their values – in the models.