Guest post by John Goetz
I read Judah Cohen’s opinion piece in the New York Times yesterday and could not decide if he was being serious or not when he concluded “It’s all a snow job by nature. The reality is, we’re freezing not in spite of climate change but because of it.”
He had to be joking, right? There is no way a “director of seasonal forecasting at an atmospheric and environmental research firm” could possibly believe the weather we are experiencing out here on the east coast is in any way different from the past. One need only look through past issues of the New York Times itself to debunk that idea.
I went to the archives section of the newspaper and did a simple headline search on the word “blizzard”, then scanned through the oldest articles first looking for references to blizzards in New York City. A blizzard in mid-March 1888 immediately jumped out as a particularly memorable storm. A headline from the newspaper read:
IN A BLIZZARD’S GRASP
THE WORST STORM THE CITY HAS EVER KNOWN
BUSINESS AND TRAVEL COMPLETELY SUSPENDED
New-York helpless in a tornado of wind and snow which paralyzed all industry, isolated the city from the rest of the country, caused many accidents and great discomfort, and exposed it to many dangers.
Two feet of snow fell in New York City during the storm, and the wind approached, but did not quite reach, 50 miles per hour. The blizzard was quite expansive, stretching from Ohio to Boston. A report from Cleveland read “Worst snowstorm in a long period of years” with high winds and heavily falling snow following a winter “unusually mild and free from snow, only an occasional cold wave indicating the season of the year“.
While that winter may have been mild in Cleveland, 1888 proved quite harsh in the prairie states. A massive blizzard that accompanied arctic cold of 20 to 40 degrees below zero stretched from Texas to the Dakotas on January 12. Two headlines from the New York Times that January summed up the massive storm. First from January 13:
THE NORTHWEST BLIZZARD; SEVERAL LIVES LOST AND MANY PERSONS MISSING.
THE RAILROADS BLOCKADED, TRAINS ABANDONED, AND GREAT DAMAGE CAUSED TO LIVE STOCK.
“Yesterday’s storm proved to be of much greater severity than was at first supposed. It was general throughout Minnesota, Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and railroad men say it has not been surpassed since 1872. The storm effects were most severe from the peculiar action of the winds and drifts.”
And another from January 21:
THE BLIZZARD’S VICTIMS
TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY SEVEN LIVES LOST
The New York City blizzard of March, 1888 certainly left a lasting impression, as it was used to measure several other bruising storms that occurred during the remaining years of that century. This includes the blizzard of March 13, 1891; the February 27, 1894 blizzard where “only about a foot and a half of snow fell in 24 hours” with gale winds up to 44 miles per hour. That storm was closely followed by the monster of April 12, 1894 described by the Times as “almost a repetition of the blizzard of 1888.”
Then came the blizzard of January 28, 1897 that slammed the eastern seaboard. An article reported from Baltimore said the city had 7 inches of snow, the “most severe storm of the present season. There have been few heavier snowfalls since the blizzard of 1888. Ice has fastened itself in the waters of the rivers and Chesapeake Bay“. Then just northeast of New York City came the word that “Rockville, Conn., reports a fall of 34 inches of snow, drifts 5 to 8 feet deep, and that the blizzard has been the most severe since 1888.”
The final blizzard of the 1800’s did not, apparently, rise to the level where it could be compared with that of 1888. This storm occurred on February 11, 1899, and was nothing more than heavy snow accompanied by 50+ mile per hour winds, and it followed a week of record cold where, as the storm began, “the mercury mounted to a comparatively dizzy height of 6 degrees above zero“.
That storm of 1888 sure must have been something. I can tell you this – I sure don’t long for those “good old days.”
1888 blizzard references (requires a NYT subscription to open PDFs):
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
[Bob growling]
The (self snipped) who plowed my driveway did it at 2:00AM, about halfway through the storm. When I tried to call him to complain during the day today, I got a busy signal or no answer, which meant to me that he’d received numerous complaints and wasn’t answering the phone. It took me almost two hours to dig out the 12-inch drifts from second half of the storm. I believe I’ll back charge him for the time spent, when and if he sends a bill.
Alan Caruba gives Judah Cohen a hard time over his piece. Its a fun read.
via Tom Nelson
Tucker Carlson talked about this article on Fox News – the two warmists were completely off their rocker. The one gal even said that the only thing that would disprove global warming was if the climate didn’t change at all – according to her the climate has never changed.
Ugh, such stupidity gives me a headache.
Check out the article and comments in Real Climate, “Cold winter in a world of warming?”
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2010/12/cold-winter-in-a-world-of-warming/
They don’t know WTF is going on either!! Hilarious! Gavin says:
“It’s difficult for me to understand how one can evaluate the consequences of the Earth’s passage around the sun, if the local changes are so much unknown. The global consequences are just the sum of local consequences – if they are so many unknown in the local responses of seasons, rains, etc.. how can one evaluate any sensible figure ? and more generally, if the LOCAL variance is higher than the seasonal cycle (which can be true even if the GLOBAL one is not), how can it affect significantly the all day life of people living in some place? Indeed, it is truly a mystery. – gavin”
What’s a mystery, Gavin, is how you mopes think you can keep this scientific con-job going for another day!! Good luck with that!
The Blizzard of ’88 was the catalyst for the construction of the NY Subway System after the Big Apple was paralyzed and people died. In it’s day it was the largest construction project ever undertaken and an engineering triumph.
Washington may not have much snow, but Mount Washington has.
The mountain near Comox had 2.5 metres of snow over a 48-hour period, now bringing the base on the slopes to a whopping 510 cm.
http://www.theprovince.com/Huge+snowfall+means+bliss+Island+Mount+Washington+resort/4025443/story.html
thegoodlocust says:
December 27, 2010 at 7:36 pm
Tucker Carlson talked about this article on Fox News – the two warmists were completely off their rocker. The one gal even said that the only thing that would disprove global warming was if the climate didn’t change at all – according to her the climate has never changed.
Ugh, such stupidity gives me a headache.
It gives anyone with half a brain a headache. I was talking to an aquaintance yesterday for about 45 minutes. In those 45 minutes, I convinced him that AGW is not a strongly supported theory and that I am an intelligent person. Both his statements. He claimed that the snow storm was caused by AGW, and I laughed and proceeded to explain why it was highly unlikely to be related to AGW, and that the “scientists” claiming that it was were usually full of [self-snip]. I explained both the grave uncertainties of AGW and the weakness of the scientific research that supposedly supports it. Models “proving” positive feedback when they’re programmed to do so, the paltry records of actual temperatures, the misrepresentation of UHI and land use changes, the poor situation of monitoring stations, and the blatant hypocrisy of claiming this storm was caused by AGW when the prior claims of AGW supporters was that there would be less of this… as I cleaned the better than a foot of Global Warming off my car tonight for work, it was at least a small consolation that I realized that at least it gave me an opportunity to teach one of the unlearned masses that swallowing that crock of [snip again] whole will lead to nothing but heartache.
War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
Cold is Warm
Robert of Ottawa says:
December 27, 2010 at 2:07 pm
But unlike previous blizzards – these are WARM blizzards.
with rotten snow
NovaReason says:
December 27, 2010 at 11:40 pm
What’s more, he will now tell at least another 8 people according to market research I saw some tears ago.
There you are, you enlightened 9 people in the space of 45 mins, genius
stephen richards says:
December 28, 2010 at 1:35 am
Score! I feel 9x more effective now. And all thanks to in depth research, literally *days* solid spent reading WUWT, linked references, ClimateDepot, climateprogress, realclimate (yeah… I read the other side, mostly to try and sniff out the really good bull[snip])… so when I calculate *that* in… I need to talk to more idiots to make my time more worthwhile.
Quick, queue me up some more misguided sheeple for face time! 😀
In fairness to the New York Times and in the interests of balanced reporting we should offer an open invitation to Judah Cohen to blog on this site in defence of his position.
The Triumph of Doublespeak – How UNIPCC Fools Most of the People All of the Time.
IMHO, this 26th June 2009 NZCLIMATE Truth Newsletter No.212 by Dr.Vincent Gray, expert reviewer of all four Assessment Reports by the UNIPCC, is one of the best detailing the deliberate brainwashing tactics used by the warmists.
Perhaps the CAGW lobby should visit Ireland to find out how it has apparently avoided the deadly warming effects of CO2 over the last 3 to 4 years, as all surface stations there currently used by NASA and James Hansen (even at the Airports) have recorded falls between 1.4 and 1.6C. Several of these stations have continuous records for over 130 years. In case I’m accused of cherry-picking, many other “greenfield” sites around the world are showing the same trend. As long departed Professor Julius Sumner Miller would say:- “Why is it so” ??
“It’s all a snow job by nature. The reality is, we’re freezing not in spite of climate change but because of it.“
I love the way global warming has mutated into climate change. Of course, climate change can lead to warming or cooling. These people simply don’t have the courage of their convictions.
Quite possibly that statement will turn out to be true, if the world is starting to move into an era of global cooling.
If he were honest, he would have said: “It’s all a snow job by nature. The reality is, we’re freezing not in spite of global warming but because of it.“
But he must have realised how ridiculous that would have sounded. This lack of honesty and courage is beneath contempt.
Chris
As non-scientific ‘outsider’, it seems to be a sad fact that none of the ‘scientific experts’ know enough about the earth’s climate to be able to give definitive answers to the mysteries of our planet’s long term changing climate cycles; little ego battles aside. However, some will have the temerity to try it, by inventing human-generated and biased computer codes that give them the ‘correct’ information. If the remuneration is appropriate, so follows the appropriate scientific findings. And by withholding information, they eliminate free-choice and fit everything into ‘the plan’.
It doesn’t seem give me a great deal of confidence in science, but it does highlight the trueism: ‘Everyone has their price.’
Taken from A Chronological Listing of Early
Weather Events James A. Marusek breadandbutterscience.com/
1697 A.D. In the United States, the winter was intensely cold in the American northeast. Boston harbor was frozen as far down as Nantucket. The Delaware River was closed with thick ice for more than three months so that sleights and sleds passed from Trenton to Philadelphia, and from Philadelphia to Chester on the ice.
Diary of Anna Green Winslow. These excerpts describe the winter of 1771-72 in Boston December 6th, 1771 – “Yesterday I was prevented dining at unkle Joshua’s by a snow storm which lasted till 12 o’clock today… The snow is up to the peoples wast in some places in the street.”
February 22nd – “Since about the middle of December, ult. we have had till this week, a series of cold and stormy weather – every snow storm (of which we have had abundance) except the first, ended with rain, by which means the snow was so hardened that the strong gales at N.W. soon turned it, & all above ground to ice, which this day seven-night was from one to three, four & they say, in some places, five feet (1.5 meters) thick, in the streets of this town.”
March 4th – “We had the greatest fall of snow yesterday we have had this winter.”
March 11th – “Uncle said yesterday that there had not been so much snow on the ground this winter as there was then – it has been vastly added to since then, & is now 7 feet deep
March 21st – “Yesterday, we had by far the gratest storm of wind & snow that there has been this winter. It began to fall yesterday morning & continued falling till after our family were in bed.”
The winter of 1779-80 was known as a “Hard Winter”. The Delaware River at Philadelphia, Pennslyvania in the United States froze around 1 December 1779, and remained a layer of ice two or three feet (0.6-0.9 meters) thick at times until 14 March 1780. Thomas Jefferson recalled “in 1780 the Chesapeake Bay was frozen solid from its head to the mouth of the Potomac.” Weather historian David
M. Ludlum wrote, “The Hard Winter of 1780 is the only winter in American history when the waters surrounding New York City have frozen over and closed to all navigation for five consecutive week.”
Three strong snowstorms struck the area. These occurred on 28 December, 2 & 3 January and 4 & 5 January. When the storms ended, snow was “over three feet (0.9 meters) deep” in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. George Washington noted in his journal that the depth of the snow in Morristown, New Jersey was 18 inches (0.5 meters) after this last storm. His colonial troops crossed from New Jersey to
Staten Island on foot over the frozen bay to do battle with the British. The extreme cold froze harbors and inland bays as far south as the Virginia-North Carolina border. In some places, snowdrifts from ten to twelve feet (3.0-3.7 meters) deep were reported.
In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the United States during the winter of 1805, snow drifts reached thirty inches (0.8 meters) high
The winter of 1834-35 was remarkable for the extreme cold in North America. A severe cold wave arrived on the Atlantic coast on 5 & 6 January. The ports of Boston, Portland, Newbury, New Haven, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C. were frozen completely. On 3 & 4 January, wagons drove across the ice on the Potomac River. In contrast, the winter in Europe was very mild.
In the United States at the close of the winter in 1842, a New York newspaper said, “The past winter has been the coldest since the settlement of the country, and perhaps, more snow has fallen!” In the United States, on 7 January 1843, there was a great snowfall in Tennessee and intensely cold. The cold extended down into Louisiana and Mississippi. It was also intensely cold from Canada to Eastport,
Maine. The Montreal and Quebec newspapers said the temperature was -36° F (-38° C).1
The United States experienced severe cold and extensive snowstorm in the end of December 1863 and beginning of January 1864. The deepest snow was east of the Mississippi river and north of the Ohio, and the severest cold was in the same region and further west; but the depression of temperature and the atmospheric disturbance extended over the whole country. The following is a list of cold temperatures observed in U.S. cities: 66
Fort Laramie, Wyoming (colder than -38° F / -39° C) on 5, 6 & 7 January
Forest City, Minnesota ( -38° F, -39° C) on 1 January 1864
St. Paul, Minnesota ( -35° F, -37° C) on 1 January 1864
Tamarack, Minnesota ( -35° F, -37° C) on 1 January 1864
Canton, Missouri ( -33° F, -36° C) on 6 January 1864 (cont)
U.S. Colonel W. O. Collins at Fort Laramie, Wyoming in the United States reported on 15 January (1864) “The weather has been so intensely cold, and the snow so deep, that we have not been able to keep open our communication with the different detachments posted in the mountains.
What is unusual with the current weather patterns is that they are extremely early in arrival to the norm of winter patterns.
Earlier arrived snow patterns reflect the heat normally absorbed in the ground.
5 dollar gallon gas should make the talking heads happy and even more a jobless.
“What is unusual with the current weather patterns is that they are extremely early in arrival to the norm of winter patterns.
Earlier arrived snow patterns reflect the heat normally absorbed in the ground.”
Joe,
You must be joking, right? The heat normally absorbed in the ground causes artic air masses to form? Believe it or not the “early arrival of Winter” isn’t quite as unusual as you think. In 1776, thick ice floes gave Washington’s attackiing army fits as it traversed the Delaware. Early snows in Europe were a quite normal feature of the LIA (1350-1850). As late as the 1940s, it wasn’t unusual for snows to hit the Central Plains in November. And in 1991, early snows fell on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Going back to the Battle of Agincourt (October of 1415), rain and snow mixed fell in the early morning preceeding the battle. Rain and snow mixed also fell on the Wehrmacht in late October of 1941 , and by November snows were falling.
Steve Hill.
Wish our petrol (gas) was only $5 a gallon! ( actualy it would be good if it were only £5 a gallon) you dont know when you are well off!
i have a confession to make
up to this month i have been a vociferous MMGW agnostic.
then the North Pole decided to move down to Scotland.
we have experienced the coldest month since records began in about 1910.
our global warming cabal in the scottish parliament in Edinburgh have installed thousands of giant cooling fans all over the only natural (or economic resource) we have. this was to prevent runaway global warming. unfortunately no wind blew for the whole month so the cooling fans lay idle.
but not to worry – all our roofs were covered in white pigmentation to prove that the albedo effect (or was it our libido efffect) works.
so my problem is who am i to believe – it appears to me i have witnessed the proof that we can prevent the apoliticalpol scenario of galloping global warming by painting our roofs white.
it certainly worked here as the temp never went above zero for a whole month.
so should i change my allegiance from Benedict to His Unwholiness Al?
If Judah is right about open water in the Arctic causing tons of precipitation elsewhere, then he must admit that historical records of massive snowstorms and wet deluges in the very same areas must have also been caused thusly. IE, the Arctic has melted before the current rise in CO2.
Logic has teeth which are often used to bite you in your own ass.
Its a joke …. these plonkers have spent the last 10 years telling us that our milder winters and the earlier arrival of spring was a sign of global warming …. they can’t have it both ways …… luckily this dumb-ass stupidity is totally transparent to most people.
Pamela@0931AM:
What these esteemed over credentiled experts fail to realzie is simple meteorology. The fuel as well as precipitation for East Coast and North Atlantic storms is the Gulf Stream. That is, the genesis is in the sub-tropics and not the Artic. The NAO as a matter of fact, is determined in part by the SSTs in the Central Atlantic.
In the past I had no problem with the Alarmist’s assertion that AGW would lead to droughts, mild winters, and summer heat waves. This makes sense if the planet is warming naturally or otherwise. About 5 or 6 years ago many Alarmists at NOAA Hadley, and NASA warned that cold, snowy winters as we knew them would be a thing of the past.
What is ironic is that my children have never really went through the kind of long, frigid, soul crushing winters that we or our parents and grand parents went through on a yearly basis. I can still remember the Winter of 1976-77, which for us in the Western Great Lakes began in mid November. The snow didn’t melt away until early to mid April.