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.
R. Gates says:
February 5, 2012 at 9:14 pm
Those really wanting to understand how the Arctic-like cold could be shifted so far south should review this video:
You have it all wrong. The SSW event is not caused by a bubble of hot air from the Arctic zone. Planetary waves that travel up from the equator are allowed to travel to the northern polar vortex, if the conditions are right. The QBO is a big factor that has just entered its easterly phase which is now complementary to the planetary wave. It is thought changing ozone levels in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere also encourage this phenomenon. The weak science behind this media article suggests warm water in the Arctic (hard to imagine) creates warm rising air that forms a high pressure zone. Normally warm rising air creates a low pressure zone?
R. Gates says: February 5, 2012 at 10:26 pm ……
Maybe you should quit being a worrier, for your mental health.
Apparently, the cold spell in Europe is a consequence of global warming: Open water in the arctic north of Europe directs cold air south. And we all know what the lack of ice in the arctic has been caused by.
Since the winter before this cold spell was fairly mild most places in Europe, this cold spell will make the winter pretty normal on average. So what we really can conclude is that global warming also causes normal temperatures.
Actually, the statement “global warming causes ” can be quite correct. Everything in weather is connected.
Michael E Mann certainly likes his split infinitives. Is there anything at which he is competent?
NASA: Stratosphere Influences Winter Weather
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/36000/36972/npole_gmao_200901-02.mov
Polar vortex spliting appears to be affected by intensity of geomagnetic field.
Siberia field is getting stronger, Hudson bay weaker. Strong field drives the winter temperatures down.
http://www.vukcevic.talktalk.net/NFC1.htm
Sea ice looks similar to 2007 sea ice coverage. Was it cold in Europe then?
I made a comment at the following that includes a picture:
http://channel9.msdn.com/Forums/Coffeehouse/Slip-Sliding-Away-The-Joys-of-Global-Cooling/7639196083ac4af79a889fee0065df07
If the cold which hit not only Europe, but for a while most of Eurasia, was due to warm Arctic sea water, I think we have a clear case of negative feedback…
Sorry, sort of off topic, but over at Gocomics it looks like Garry Trudeau has started a week long blitz at Global Warming Skeptics, or maybe just this one strip. http://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/
Maybe someone could post a few of the ‘facts’ to counteract his strawman facts?
More problems for the EU Warm Plan:
“BEIJING – China’s airlines are not allowed to pay a charge on carbon emissions imposed by the Europe Union (EU), and neither to hike freights nor to add other fees accordingly without government permission, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said Monday.
The CAAC said in a statement that it had been authorized by the State Council, China’s Cabinet, to notify the ban to all domestic airlines.
The statement said the EU’s decision to charge flights into and out of EU airports for carbon emission “runs contrary to relevant principles of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the international civil aviation regulations.”
The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, which has taken effect on January 1, is one of the widest-reaching measures adopted by any country or regional bloc to regulate emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for climate change. It is estimated that around 4,000 airlines will pay the EU for their carbon emissions.”
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2012-02/06/content_14543325.htm
No end in sight here in the Balkans. It’s snowing again today and the temperatures didn’t increase at all. It’s -15 to -10°C and it will snow tomorrow as well. On Wednesday it will stop snowing and it will get colder (-20 °C)! Then on Friday, it will start snowing again. Most places already have ~1 m of snow, some 2 m. Thousands are cut off in villages.
Gates,
If you check out the sea-ice graphs, you’ll notice that recent records show the least amount of ice in early February occurred in the year 2006. However 2006 was also the year that had the most ice in September.
If you check out the Navy animation at http://www7320.nrlssc.navy.mil/hycomARC/navo/arcticicespddrf_nowcast_anim30d.gif
you get an idea of how the ice is moving. Any place the “red ice” is moving towards “blue” ice, ice that is moving is piling up against ice which is not. This creates pressure ridges as big as 30 feet tall, which also extend as far as 270 feet downwards, (because 90% of an iceburg is under water.)
Conversely, any place you see “red” ice moving away from “blue” ice, a “lead is formed, which is open water, even in the pitch dark during the dead of winter. These leads swiftly freeze over, as even during a “warm spell” it is thirty below.
If you check out the arctic temps at http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php you will notice there have been a lot of “warm spells” this winter. This is a sign of “mixing” caused by wind. When it is calm it is colder, because the cold air can sink and settle when it is cold. The wind is a sign of a positive AO.
The first half of this winter was “warm” and windy at the pole, which means there were more than usual pressure ridges and leads formed. I doubt the difference in “volume” this creates can be measured, because both the thick ice of pressure ridges and the thin ice of leads are often hair thin or thinner, when viewed from outer space. I would argue much more ice is formed when it is windy, because more open water is exposed to freeze, and also wind chill causes more cooling than calm.
In conclusion, even the “warm” part of this winter, (before the cold hit Europe and the sea began to freeze along the arctic coast,) may have had ice being blown north from the Barents Sea and piling up towards the pole in a manner like 2006, which leads to less ice now, but more ice in September.
In any case, arctic sea ice is too shoved about by winds and currents to be a very good measure of cold or warmth.
Pamela Gray says: February 5, 2012 at 7:36 pm
Don’t worry, the warmists will convert all the “excess” food stuffs into ethanol and store it in fuel tanks for later use. That will solve the problem. It will also have the beneficial side effect of making both fuel and food more expensive. /sarc
J Fischer says:
February 5, 2012 at 7:14 pm
European cold snap, 2012: 300 deaths
European heat wave, 2003: 35,000 deaths.
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Put on your swim suit and get out of your front door for half an hour.
After that, we’ll talk again.
Minus 17 to minus 20 degrees C here in Schwerin, eastern Germany, actually. It’s about 15 degrees C COLDER over here than on average for this time of the year – and that’s after two consecutive years of record-breaking snow-loads and longevity of cold, already.
When does weather become climate again?
Talking of tragic.
Global warming is happening? It’s real?
I don’t know about a planetary emergency but the UK is sure heading for another.
It is not unusual to have snow in North Africa. There are ski resorts in Algeria and Morocco.
You can go to the Google maps and see snow in Morocco.
There are a line of Mountains along the North eastern coast stretching fro Morocco to Tunisia.
The Atlas mountain range and the Sahara Atlas Range.
See this wiki entry on the Atlas – even the leading image has snow.
I have worked in Algeria in the midst of the Tell Atlas range and have been trapped in snow more than once. One of our crews was isolated by snow for two weeks in the town of Tiaret Algeria.
“J Fischer says:
February 5, 2012 at 7:14 pm
European cold snap, 2012: 300 deaths
European heat wave, 2003: 35,000 deaths.”
Mendacious and evil nonsense. What do you base your 300 on? Some headline in the Independent or Guardian? Last year’s excess winter mortality (in the UK alone) was as follows:
“Key findings
There were an estimated 25,700 excess winter deaths in England and Wales in 2010/11, virtually unchanged from the previous winter
As in previous years, there were more excess winter deaths in females than in males in 2010/11
Between 2009/10 and 2010/11 male excess winter deaths increased to 11,200, but female deaths fell to 14,400
The majority of deaths occurred among those aged 75 and over; however, deaths in this age group fell between 2009/10 and 2010/11, whereas deaths in persons aged under 75 increased
The excess winter mortality index was highest in Wales in 2010/11, whereas in the two previous winters it was highest in the South East of England.”
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/subnational-health2/excess-winter-mortality-in-england-and-wales/2010-11–provisional–and-2009-10–final-/stb-ewm-2010-11.html
Official statistics show how more people die of cold each year than of warmth. It’s tendentious interpretations like yours that actually lead to a lack of concern for deaths from cold.
Actually, unless the whole of February is really brutal, Europe’s winter won’t be regarded as an especially cold one.
December and January were pretty mild, it’s only since the beginning of February that the brutal cold has set in.
Europe might be shivering, but here in an Aussie summer…temps have been well below average for the most part of the summer season. And this summer is just like the last four or five, ie, we’ve NOT had a typical summer. We had two days of summer here in Sydney over the w/e. Summer ends in just over three weeks. My guess is there will be some more cold records being broken this winter…just in time for Al Gore to release his proof the Antarctic is melting.
The Independent, February 4, 2012: A dramatic loss of sea ice covering the Barents and Kara Seas above northern Russia could explain why a chill Arctic wind has engulfed much of Europe and killed 221 people over the past week.
Studies by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have confirmed a link between the loss of Arctic sea ice and the development of high-pressure zones in the polar region, which influence wind patterns at lower latitudes further south.
(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/science-behind-the-big-freeze-is-climate-change-bringing-the-arctic-to-europe-6358928.html )
The US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado, wrote in January 5, 2012:
While temperatures were above normal in the Kara and Barents seas, the positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation tends to keep the coldest winter air locked up in the Arctic, which keeps the middle latitudes free of frigid Arctic temperatures and strong snowstorms. This weather pattern helps to explain the low snow cover and warm conditions over much of the United States and Eastern Europe so far this winter.
Some scientists have speculated that the negative Arctic Oscillation pattern of the last two winters was in part driven by low sea ice extent. The recurrence of the positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation so far this winter, following a near-record low summer sea ice extent, suggests that other factors play an important role. (http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ )
– I also think that other factors play an important role;
– If it is true that a warmer zone of a relatively small extent (Barents Sea) can trigger colder temperatures in large areas around it, the global temperature will likely decrease as one can ascertain at this moment. The extreme cold in large parts of Europe and Asia is not a proof of global warming, as some scientists suggest.
TerryS says: February 5, 2012 at 6:14 pm
“….A warmer climate will result in between 5,700 and 36,000 fewer winter deaths JUST IN THE UK.”
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And those figures are based upon the assumption that people will be able to keep themselves warm, ie, that electricity supply during winter will be reliable and affordable. However, due to the UK’s present energy policy the spectre of unreliable and intermittent winter electricity supply looms large, so too the fact that many people (not simply confined to low income or those on fixed income albeit that these two classes will be hardest hit) will be unable to afford to keep themselves warm. Thus one can expect that if there is no global warming the winter death rate in the UK will increase, not decrease.
The UK would do very well out of globing warming and the UK government, for the benefit of its citizens, should promote policies that lead to global warming. This is the best way future for the UK. Just imagine if Scotland could be more like the Midlands, the Midlands more like the South East and the South East more like the Channel Islands. Lovely. Think of the benefit to farming, viniculture and tourism Politicians, what are you waiting for?
Rhys Jaggar says:
February 6, 2012 at 2:26 am
Actually, unless the whole of February is really brutal, Europe’s winter won’t be regarded as an especially cold one.
December and January were pretty mild, it’s only since the beginning of February that the brutal cold has set in.
The use of the word “brutal” tells the story. We are supposed to be warming on a rapidly accelerating rate according to the alarmist media and AGW science brigade. It also is important to realize that “brutal” weather patterns happen in different parts of the globe selectively. The jet stream is unable to bend down to all locations at once, it has controlling factors.
Winter is not over yet, the stage is set for more “brutal”
Rhys Jaggar says: February 6, 2012 at 2:26 am
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Rhys has a valid point.
I must admit that here in Spain, to date, we have had a beautiful winter. In December temperatures were typically 19 to 22 deg C with 5 or so days being 22 to 25 deg C and in January typically 17 to 20 deg C with a few days about 22 deg C. It has also been very dry with only one wet day in January, and possibly one in December. It has felt quite warm in the sun and between 11 am and 4 pm such that on most days it has been shorts and T shirt, or even no T shirt. On many days I could have sun bathed, but the pool although visually enticing, is very cold.
It is still warm during the day typically about 16 to 17 deg C (today might be a little warmer) but now damn cold at night about 2 deg C (one night was meant to be down to 0 deg C). The houses over here are not well insulated so they get very cold very quickly.
There is no snow on the mountains near me as there has been during the last 2 or 3 winters, but this is probably explained by the fact that there has been all but no rain, very dry.
Freath3 says:
February 5, 2012 at 7:18 pm
Scientist: ‘Gulf Loop Current is broke’ -”Mini Ice Age” on the way Europe – Jul 21, 2010
http://youtu.be/syD80ez0d-M
“The gulf loop current is broke. “They have finally done something they can’t fix”. Take appropriate action (do not panic). This “climate change” will take place in 1-2 years, so there is not much time. God help us all and pray for love and peace to all life.
Hard science, current data shows *loop current broken*and worsening. Report by National Institute
Nuclear Physics etc… Links:
http://www.colinandrews.net/GulfStreamBroken.html
http://www.associazionegeofisica.it/OilSpill.pdf
http://www.cleancaribbean.org/docs/COREXIT_9500_UsCuEg.PDF
http://argo.colorado.edu/~realtime/welcome/ “
—–
That is quite frankly nonsense. The Loop Current breaks off and forms eddies all the time. It is normal behavior. The maps on that page even show past eddies that have broken off and drifted west to the Texas/Mexico coast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_Current
“A related feature is an area of warm water with an “eddy” or “Loop Current ring” that separates from the Loop Current, somewhat randomly. These rings then drift to the west at speeds of about 5 cm/s (0.18 km/h or 0.11 mph) and bump into the coast of Texas or Mexico.”
This little nitwit is a real repugnant parasite, a tapeworm on the taxpayers.
For the American NorthEast, which he is no doubt referring, winter began OCTOBER 29 this past year. And let me tell you something, after 10 inches of global warming and massive tree destruction, blackouts, accidents and other disruption, it can never snow again for all I care.
I remember we caught another lucky break back in 1981 or so, likewise in I think 1975, where we were temporarily spared dramatic snow totals for a season sandwiched between multiple hellacious snowfall years. Those of us that do not occupy an Ivory Tower know better than to look a gift horse in the mouth.
It seems that this Mann is another kind of gift horse, however we are stuck looking at his ass.