Despite the wailings at various blogs and news outlets about this mild winter in the USA being the result of global warming, NASA says otherwise. Not a mention of AGW, CO2, or any of that blame game can be found in their summary, just AO patterns and La Niña.
End of Winter: How 2012 Snow Stacks Up
By Ellen Gray NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
The mild winter of 2012 has many people asking, “Where’s the snow?” These two snow cover maps show the difference between snow extent on March 3, 2011, and March 5, 2012. The maps were compiled from data collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite.
In 2012, the snow cover is very spotty compared to 2011. In 2011, the Great Lakes were clearly defined by surrounding snow, and snow blanketed the Rocky Mountains, Nevada’s Basin and Range, and the Sierra Nevada all the way into southern California.
In 2012, areas that are usually snow covered are bare, including parts of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. The Snake River Plain in southern Idaho is clearly visible. This low-lying valley is the track of the hotspot that is now under Yellowstone National Park. In the east, the Great Lakes area, southern Ontario and the East Coast of the United States have much less snow cover than they did at this time last year.
2012’s relatively light snowfall is the result of two atmospheric processes, according to climatologist Bill Patzert of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. One is the La Niña conditions in the Pacific, which result in less moist air crossing the continental United States. The other is a strong Arctic Oscillation that keeps cold arctic air around the North Pole and away from more southern latitudes.
For a more in-depth explanation, visit: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/17jan_missingsnow/
Sometimes I get the feeling that the folks at NASA GSFC are slightly embarassed by their more er, flamboyant colleagues over at NASA GISS.
NASA, seem to be rethinking this whole thing;
This recently appeared on a NASA page:
“…. because the combined effect of all forcings is less than that of greenhouse gases alone, and much of the greenhouse gas forcing has been “used up” in causing the warming of the past century/b>. It is apparent that the solar forcing is not negligible in comparison with the net climate forcing.….”
NASA http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/2011/
Where was the snow? It was in Europe this year. There was lots of it.
Where was the snow? It was in Europe this year. There was lots of it.
Asia too!
Geography lesson please. In the 2011 image the snow line is perfectly straight across the South Dakota / Nebraska border. Is there something about the geography / topography that would cause that, or simply chance?
Still winter, and you Americans are already into inferno. Enjoy!
There was a pack of snow in SE Europe in February. Much of Europe had low snowcover, western Europe about record low.
Ted G says:
March 14, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Peter Kovachev says:
March 14, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Peter I agree with you the Canadian TV News coverage, but the CBC radio and the Vancouver Sun newspaper seem to cover every alarmist story with such monotony I call it my local warming rag and CBC alarmist central. P.S I listen to the CBC after midnight because I’m a night owl and the newspaper I get for free that’s all it’s worth and knowing what I know about the likes of Mann and the IPPC I will never support an alarmist cause!!
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You’re a brave warrior, Ted; I get too frustrated and agitated with the CBC and switch before noticing their climate stories which, on top of their de rigeur trashing of Israel and incessant whining about our Conservative government and our first good prime minister in a long time, they tend to really drive my personal temperatures right through the roof. My wife is a CBC radio junkie…she;s irritated by the politics but likes all those interviews with smart people. She knows she is being propagandized and we joke about our Friday night talks (a.k.a. Peter rants) being de-programming sessions. In any case, that great tax-supported boondoggle of ours needs to be severely chopped down and leashed, as it’s not only costing us an arm and a leg, but has become a dedicated mouthpiece for special interests, mainly the Libs, the NDP and Greens, and that just isn’t cricket.
Semi-OT:
Brit sceptic suffers dizziness, cog-dis-related, after prototypical Friends of Earth canvasser admits he and his buds now disbelieve in cAGW.
There’s a good reason why the warmists don’t mention climate change/AGW. Everyone loves the nice warm weather over much of the US. Where’s the disaster? Where’s the problem? At least they are smart enough to realize it would be a PR disaster to tie beautiful weather to something they want people to scare people with.
I’m sure they are biting their collective tongues. They really, really want to claim it is proof, but all that would accomplish is making people want more global warming.
I can tell you why the omitted the Climate Change buzzwords– because they’re painfully aware that Europe is being hammered. [a href=”http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-02-06/europe-weather-snow-cold/52992316/1″]They’re calling it a mini ice-age.[/a]
Climate and Weather are exactly like Wind Power. When the wind is blowing in people’s faces at 20kph, people say look at the energy this could be generating. Of course, when the wind doesn’t blow, the same people say what a nice day; no thought about power generation.
People experience weather everyday, it is in their face. So if it is warm, it must be due to Global Warming [or UHI]. If it is cold it must be due to Climate Change.
I feel that Climate can only be observed: Northern Canada, Siberia have a cold climate [but virtually no one lives there]. The middle of the Sahara Desert or Patagonia have a dry climate [but virtually no one lives there].
So, weather occurs where people live; climate occurs where they don’t live. My conclusion is that a weatherperson only talks about “weather”; never about climate, DUH. Of course, they don’t know the difference.
D’oh! I boned my link in the previous comment. The mini ice age article from USA today with proper html formatting.
Weather Underground has a great story on the record warmth in the midwest. Very interesting:
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2051
A couple weeks ago, here in central Pennsylvania, I had to call for fuel oil, talked with the delivery guy. As opposed to normal winters, when they work 52+ hours a week, no Saturdays and no overtime this winter. We agreed it’s averaging, we had a cool wet “summer” followed by this mild winter, it evens out. We both got a chuckle over those blaming it on global warming.
I mentioned there’s a web site he should see, wattsupwiththat-dot-com. He said: Oh yeah, I’ve gotten stuff off of there.
Not very scientific but,here it goes.All winter (fairly cold ,but not much snow,here in the lower elevations,northwest USA)i’ve had my home sealed up(caulking,window coverings,etc)My heater runs almost all the time.Wish it would run less to save a little money!There are four people inside,all breathing,and adding CO2 to my atmosphere.(it is a trace gas ,right).I dont know if i’m adding enough(it is a trace gas,right).Shouldn’t i be running my heater less?Maybe I could buy a can of CO2 ,add it to my atmosphere,and cut my heating bill in half?Or maybe when i open my door to outer space(the outside)I lose to much heat and CO2? WUWT?
mbur, if your home was indeed perfectly sealed from air changes with the outside, you would suffocate when you used up all of the oxygen.
I do have a few house plants and they’re doing fine.I never did say it was perfectly sealed.Is our planet perfectly sealed?
Little or no snow cover on the Snake River plain isn’t particularily unusual for this time of year .
On a leading meteoroligical website-instantly saw at least 4 references to global warming being behind the early spring warmth and severe weather season in the US-it was so sickening, that I instantly clicked off the site.
What amazes me is that there isn’t really a huge difference between the two. Yes, this year’s appears to be less than last – but considering the vast area of coverage overall difference doesn’t look all that significant.
Interesting, I got something similar. Said there was already a wordpress account with that email address and to login in order to post. Logged in but it still wouldn’t post. Had to use a non-wordpress email address.
TomB says:
March 15, 2012 at 1:45 pm
A butterfly flapped its wings last Saturday on NZ’s South Island.
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It is still alternately raining and snowing in the Cascade Mtns. When the pattern changes to a long warm rain there will be a lot of water on the move. Stand back.
Baa Humbug says:
March 14, 2012 at 5:27 pm
This time last year La Niña was stronger yet more snow. Should they be brave enough to say “we just don’t know enough”?
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Typically we have to wait until about until June or July to determine if next ENSO event will be a La Nina or an El Nino.
Last year was a strong La Niña (high pressure in the Gulf of Alaska was to the east and the Arctic vortex was weak – AO was negative) following a moderate El Nino.
This winter was a moderate La Nina (high pressure in the Gulf of Alaska was to the west and the Arctic vortex was strong – AO was positive.)
This typically leads to dry conditions in the West.
Also, last spring we had a late Arctic vortex which resulted in a mild summer in the West.
We have a late vortex in the Arctic again this spring so we may being headed for another mild summer.
Let us not fixate on snow. I for one am glad to see rain in Texas.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/expert_assessment/seasonal_drought.html
And I for one was glad to see propane bills of only $150.00 tather than $300.00.