From the Weather is not climate unless we say it is department: Over at Climate Progress, paid propagandist Joe Romm wails about “journalistic malpractice” from Michael Mann’s words in a tweet:
The wailing (Jan 31st and again Feb 4th) was because the LA Times didn’t use the words “global warming” or “climate change” in a story about the mild winter in the USA. But Romm and Mann both ignore the much bigger story of a bitterly cold winter in Europe with snow reaching into northern Africa which has caused nearly three hundred deaths. Conversely, there doesn’t seem to be any deaths associated with the mild winter in the USA that Romm and Mann are wailing about. You can decide who’s committing “journalistic malpractice”.
Rutgers Snow Lab has the current NH snow extent:
Romm’s buddy, Dr. Jeff Masters puts the temperature departure in Europe and Alaska in perspective with the continental USA:
And here’s a CNN story from today about the severe winter weather in Europe:
Situation ‘tragic’ as winter weather blankets Europe (Snow Reported as far south as Algeria in Northern Africa)
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 12:23 PM EST, Sun February 5, 2012
London (CNN) — Heavy snow left several Italian villages paralyzed and without power as winter weather and cold temperatures spread across Europe, the mayor of one village said. Many of the 32 villages in the Aniene Valley, near Rome, lost electricity on Friday when an electric pylon fell because of the snow, said Piero Moscardini, mayor of Vallinfreda. The valley, home to about 50,000 people, has received some 100 cm (39 inches) of snow, Moscardini said. “It’s the worst snow since 1956,” he said. “The situation is tragic. We need the Army to save us.”
Ambulances cannot traverse the roads, he said, and some villagers cannot reach their stables to feed livestock. Meanwhile, deaths continued to increase from the cold. In Romania, four people died on Saturday and another six on Sunday, authorities said. A total of 34 people have died since the cold snap began in late January. Nineteen national roads and one highway remained closed on Sunday. More than 30 cities and villages are isolated, authorities said, and power outages were reported in 200 cities and villages. More than 3,000 employees belonging to the Interior Ministry were involved in rescue operations, as hundreds sought refuge in temporary shelters and hundreds more were hospitalized because of hypothermia.
In Poland, TVN Poland said a total of 53 people have died, eight of them in the past 24 hours. The victims are mainly homeless people, according to the report. Heathrow Airport, one of the world’s busiest international airports, canceled about half of its flights Sunday, its owner said Sunday — about 260 more flights than it expected to cancel as of the night before. Between two and four inches of snow fell on London overnight, as the British capital became the latest European city to be hit by winter weather wending its way west. Drivers in both London and Rome will need to worry about ice as temperatures rise slightly, then fall again to below freezing, CNN meteorologist Tom Sater said Sunday.
Full story here
People stand in snow in front of the Colosseum on Saturday, February 4, in Rome.
A boy and his mother skate on the partly frozen Elbe River as the skyline of the eastern German city of Dresden is silhouetted in the background on Thursday, February 2. A cold snap kept Europe in its icy grip, pushing the death toll past 150 as countries from Italy to Ukraine struggled to cope with temperatures that reached record lows in some places.
A man pets a dog next to frozen sea waters in Constanta, Romania, on Wednesday, February 1. Temperatures plunged to -34 degrees Celsius (-29 degrees Fahrenheit) in central Romania, where eight people died due to cold-related causes, according to local media.
Freshly plowed snow frames a road in Bucharest, Romania, on Friday, January 27.
iReporter Cosmin Stan sent in this photo from Bucharest, Romania, on Thursday, January 26. “The problem was not the quantity of the snow, but the strong winds,” he told CNN.
Andrew30: Don’t confuse weather with climate.
JF: I agree with you 100% on that on. But what about the” Punters in the cold”? What do they think? Maybe saving face is one of the reasons for the religious fever attached to people who believe that CAGW is the new holy gospel. Who knows? I have never managed to understand fanaticism and properly never will. Now very importantly on that point of face. All this cold weather has given the people who more or less believed in CAGW a way out. “Without losing face”.
Just my 2 bob’s worth.
What is to be feared the most is not the cold or the heat of La Nina dominant patterns, but the drought in major food growing areas. We had better be storing up. In particular, wheat and other dry land products that translate into basic food stuff need to be stored up.
The version I like is a new one (an “incongruous conflation”): “The devil is in the pudding.”
RE: “King of Cool says:
February 5, 2012 at 7:15 pm
Do they write the script as they go along?”
The answer is, “Yes.”
I’m pretty sure that ice-free water in the arctic would not create high pressure, but rather low pressure. Ice-free water is warmer, and causes air to rise, which created an area of lower pressure which the rising air has just departed from. High pressure, on the other hand, is created by cooled air sinking, and pressing down.
Therefore, when they state, “The ice-free areas of the ocean act like a heater as the water is warmer than the Arctic air above it. This favours the formation of a high-pressure system near the Barents Sea, which steers cold air into Europe,” I can’t help but feel they are making it up as they go along.
I am thinking of writing a parody of this sort of “science,” making things up as I go along, as a joke for WUWT readers.
After a relatively mild January here in the UK, the winter weather has now brought us sea ice off the English Channel coast at Sandbanks, Dorset – see the clip below:
The Independent: Saturday 04 February 2012 Steve Connor
Science behind the big freeze: is climate change bringing the Arctic to Europe?
A loss of sea ice could be a cause of the bitter winds that have swept across the UK in the past week, weather experts say.
Really Steve! Please say more? Notice the word “is” and the “could” and excuse me pal but who are the so called weather experts. Oh must be Michael E. Mann
Then click here http://thecomingcrisis.blogspot.com/2012/02/science-behind-big-freeze-is-climate.html and then have a read and a good giggle then click at the end “Read More”
Funny eh? Watermelons at the “”The Coming Crisis”
Pamela Gray says: February 5, 2012 at 7:36 pm
What is to be feared the most is not the cold or the heat of La Nina dominant patterns, but the drought in major food growing areas. We had better be storing up. In particular, wheat and other dry land products that translate into basic food stuff need to be stored up.
Agree in part Pamela – whether dought or cold, we need to store adequate grain.
Let’s talk predictive track record.
None of the IPCC’s scary predictions of runaway global warming have materialized.
We predicted in 2002 that global cooling would occur, as follows:
“If solar activity is the main driver of surface temperature rather than CO2 (as we said), we should begin the next cooling period by 2020 to 2030.”
Stay tuned… Faites vos jeux!
Kyoto hot air can’t replace fossil fuels
Allan M.R. MacRae
Calgary Herald
September 1, 2002
The Kyoto Accord on climate change is probably the most poorly crafted piece of legislative incompetence in recent times.
First, the science of climate change, the treaty’s fundamental foundation, is not even remotely settled. There is even strong evidence that human activity is not causing serious global warming.
The world has been a lot warmer and cooler in the past, long before we ever started burning fossil fuels. From about 900 to 1300 AD, during the Medieval Warm Period or Medieval Optimum, the Earth was warmer than it is today.
Temperatures are now recovering from the Little Ice Age that occurred from about 1300 to 1900, when the world was significantly cooler. Cold temperatures are known to have caused great misery — crop failures and starvation were common. Also, Kyoto activists’ wild claims of more extreme weather events in response to global warming are simply unsupported by science. Contrary to pro-Kyoto rhetoric, history confirms that human society does far better in warm periods than in cooler times.
Over the past one thousand years, global temperatures exhibited strong correlation with variations in the sun’s activity. This warming and cooling was certainly not caused by manmade variations in atmospheric CO2, because fossil fuel use was insignificant until the 20th century.
Temperatures in the 20th century also correlate poorly with atmospheric CO2 levels, which increased throughout the century. However, much of the observed warming in the 20th century occurred before 1940, there was cooling from 1940 to 1975 and more warming after 1975. Since 80 per cent of manmade CO2 was produced after 1940, why did much of the warming occur before that time? Also, why did the cooling occur between 1940 and 1975 while CO2 levels were increasing? Again, these warming and cooling trends correlate well with variations in solar activity.
Only since 1975 does warming correlate with increased CO2, but solar activity also increased during this period. This warming has only been measured at the earth’s surface, and satellites have measured little or no warming at altitudes of 1.5 to eight kilometres. This pattern is inconsistent with CO2 being the primary driver for warming.
If solar activity is the main driver of surface temperature rather than CO2, we should begin the next cooling period by 2020 to 2030.
The last big Ice Age, when Canada was covered by a one-kilometre-thick ice sheet, ended only about 10,000 years ago, and another big one could start at any time in the next 5,000 years. Mankind clearly didn’t cause the rise and fall of the last big Ice Age, and we may not have any ability to control the next big one either. …
Allan MacRae says:
February 5, 2012 at 6:10 pm
Snow in Italy?
“Heck, it’s snowing in North Africa, south of the Mediterranean!
Here is a picture from Tunisia, taken this Saturday (yesterday).
http://www.tunisienumerique.com/meteo-tunisie-20-centimetres-de-neige-a-ain-draham/101733
Is this the Gore effect? Did Al go to Tunis recently to lie on the beach?”
No, he had a much bigger job to do, freezing the Antarctic where temps run 15 degrees below average since his ship arrived.
Gore’s Antarctic friend needs your help with his tomb
http://motls.blogspot.com/2012/02/gores-antarctic-friend-needs-your-help.html
We did have snow in Thredbo (Australia) this summer.
http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/a-snowy-summer-for-thredbo/story-e6frfq80-1226242343088
It has happened before, but not often.
@TokyoBoy
That frozen car photo from Switzerland is real, but apparently it is from Jan. 2005:
http://www.hoax-slayer.com/ice-storm-photos.shtml
@ur momisugly Steve from Rockwood
Glad to hear you had a milder winter in Ontario. Most of the country didn’t. Have relatives all over who got pounded by the snow. Out West, we’ve had a rising amount of snow in the last couple winters. (And yes, I’m aware it’s still nothing to complain of when compared to the rest of the Canada.)
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/science-behind-the-big-freeze-is-climate-change-bringing-the-arctic-to-europe-6358928.html
“The current weather pattern fits earlier predictions of computer models for how the atmosphere responds to the loss of sea ice due to global warming,” said Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “The ice-free areas of the ocean act like a heater as the water is warmer than the Arctic air above it. This favours the formation of a high-pressure system near the Barents Sea, which steers cold air into Europe
JF:Oh I am so sorry my page did not load: See it is on the computer model. So it has to be true!
Hmm “Climate Attribution?? Maybe?
Video of Rome under the snow
http://video.repubblica.it/dossier/neve-emergenza-maltempo/roma-il-video-dall-elicottero-della-polizia-1/87369/85762
Some quotes on this thread:
“Last year, Auckland (New Zealand) experienced snow for first time since 1939.”
“Even North Africa has been affected by the chill, with children who had never seen snow playing snowball fights in high-lying districts of the Algerian capital Algiers. Roads to several villages in the mountainous Kabylia region near the coast were cut by snow.”
“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”
Which places did Dr. David Viner have in mind? : -)
Those really wanting to understand how the Arctic-like cold could be shifted so far south should review this video:
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/36000/36972/npole_gmao_200901-02.mov
This video was from 2009, but the exact same thing happened a few week or so ago. Some may recall the large “bubble” of warm air that was forced up from the troposphere into the Arctic stratosphere a few weeks back. It was even commented about here on WUWT.. Arctic stratospheric temperatures soared, and, more important, the normally closed Arctic vortex broke down and forced cold air down over latitudes further south.
Of course, Arctic Sea ice extent continues below normal, as some areas of the Arctic have been quite warm this winter (not unlike the past few winters). Of particular concern is the dramatically low sea ice in areas such as the Barents sea (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/recent365.anom.region.6.html) and Kara Sea (http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/recent365.anom.region.7.html) which are incredibly low in sea ice for this time of year, and the perpetual high pressure that is associated with this open arctic water is forcing a lot of of the colder air south. In a very real sense, the poor people of Europe are getting the weather and especially the cold that the regions near the Barents and Kara seas should be getting. .
Looks like the diabolical Koch Brothers and Evil Big Oil have finally perfected their Weapons of Mass Cooling, and are using them to punish the EU and fool the public into ignoring the Planetary Fever. Poor Mann and the other Climate Champions, operating in a world built on impeccable integrity and transparency and pure goodness, never expected such a low trick and never saw this coming. Now they are dazed and confused. Since they are working so tirelessly to save us, we really should try to be nice to them. Maybe put them in a home.
If I had 5 cents for every time alarmists associated weather events with climate change I’d be retired a rich man in Tahiti sipping mint juleps in a beach chair under a white canvas beach tent by the supposedly unprecedented rising sea side.
KR says:
February 5, 2012 at 5:25 pm
. . . “That said, it’s global averages, and . . . trends . . .”
Please desist!
Try something like — ‘long term pattern of characteristics’ — and then list those characteristics shown to be important. Pattern is an important concept in this. Before lots of weather stations, the patterns of vegetation were used to draw boundaries and explain climate.
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/climate.htm
[“This includes the region’s general pattern of weather conditions, seasons and weather extremes like hurricanes, droughts, or rainy periods. Two of the most important factors determining an area’s climate are air temperature and precipitation.”]
In contrast, put one foot into a bucket of ice water and the other foot into a bucket of hot water. On average you should be very comfortable. I will spare you the example of the average human’s appendages.
R. Gates: “and the perpetual high pressure that is associated with this open arctic water is forcing a lot of of the colder air south.” The perpetual high pressure seems to be gone now: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat_a_f/gif_files/gfs_t30_nh_f00.gif
Quiet sun this past week. How’s the cloud cover?
In Sweden we have had -42.7C (Kvikkjokk) and with inofficial readings of -48C.
Lowest ever recorded temp is -52.6C
Joe Bastardi says:
February 5, 2012 at 3:38 pm
. . . (btw likely to change and last into March) when the rest of the globe is cold ”
Are you going to throw this thought out and let it hang?
I don’t disagree with you. However, once in awhile I check the CPC
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/
and their One and Three month maps seem to be following a standard “repeat” progression based on multiple past-year after effects of ENSO (I think). That’s somewhat like shooting a rifle at Mr. Moon, and based on the first hundred yards of trajectory, predicting a hit.
So, Joe, say a little more.
Heh,
Climate is what you expect, Weather is what you get.
Maybe, just maybe, predicting the “climate” is actually a really HARD problem, so those folks with some modicum of self respect don’t attempt it……….
Cheers, Kevin.
Joe Bastardi said:
” As I said 4 years ago, and will continue to say, we will back to temps of the 70s by 2030.”
——–
Doubtful, at least not on a decadal basis. Granted, we could get a few really big volcanic eruptions around that time frame, that, if one was cherry picking data, you could say, “look, we’re as cool now as the 1970s!” But on a longer-term basis decade over decade and the century looks to be showing warming, not cooling.