Despite the repeated efforts of paid propagandists like Joe Romm (Center for American Progress) to try to make this event about global warming, by parroting faulty science from James Hansen, it simply isn’t true. Hansen’s paper isn’t even peer reviewed, it simply reflects his own opinion published on his own website: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/2012/20120105_PerceptionsAndDice.pdf
Despite these efforts to turn something natural into something sinister, the evidence keeps accumulating showing that global warming had nothing to do with it, and blocking highs, a natural pattern that develops and often stays static for days or weeks, does.
For example back December 2011 I covered a story out of UCAR via Dr. Roger Pielke Sr that spoke to the Russian Heat Wave saying:
How much could global warming have contributed? Although the heat wave unfolded during one of the warmest years on record globally, the NOAA group found no evidence of a significant trend in blocking during July over western Russia in the last 60-plus years of upper-air records. And they noted that average July surface temperatures have not risen significantly over western Russia, unlike some other parts of the world and the world as a whole.
I also covered the original story and peer reviewed paper from NOAA: Peer reviewed paper: 2010 Russian heat wave “mostly natural”
“In summary,” to quote Dole et al., “the analysis of the observed 1880-2009 time series shows that no statistically significant long-term change is detected in either the mean or variability of western Russia July temperatures, implying that for this region an anthropogenic climate change signal has yet to emerge above the natural background variability.” Thus, they say their analysis “points to a primarily natural cause for the Russian heat wave,” noting that the event “appears to be mainly due to internal atmospheric dynamical processes that produced and maintained an intense and long-lived blocking event,” adding that there are no indications that “blocking would increase in response to increasing greenhouse gases.”
Previously I covered Final words on the 2010 Russian heat wave from AGU: weather, predictable and, NOAA finds”climate change” blameless in 2010 Russian heat wave. The story hasn’t changed.
Now another paper has emerged concluding that the heat wave of 2010 was “a result of natural atmospheric variability.” The paper published in the Monthly Weather review is titled: Large scale flow and the long-lasting blocking high over Russia: Summer 2010
And it concludes as NOAA and UCAR have previously that it is all about blocking highs,
“The anomalous long-lasting blocking high over Western Russia including the heat wave occurs as an overlay of a set of anticyclonic contributions on different time scales: (i) A regime change in ENSO towards La Niña modulates the quasi-stationary wave structure in the boreal summer hemisphere supporting the eastern European blocking. “
…and there’s nary a mention of global warming:
Large scale flow and the long-lasting blocking high over Russia: Summer 2010
Monthly Weather Review 2012 ; e-View
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-11-00249.1
Abstract:
Several studies show that the anomalous long-lasting Russian heat wave in summer 2010, linked to a long-persistent blocking high, appears as a result of natural atmospheric variability.
This study analyzes the large scale flow structure based on ERA-Interim data (1989 to 2010). The anomalous long-lasting blocking high over Western Russia including the heat wave occurs as an overlay of a set of anticyclonic contributions on different time scales: (i) A regime change in ENSO towards La Niña modulates the quasi-stationary wave structure in the boreal summer hemisphere supporting the eastern European blocking. The polar Arctic dipole mode is enhanced and shows a projection on the mean blocking high. (ii) Together with the quasi-stationary wave anomaly the transient eddies maintain the long-lasting blocking. (iii) Three different pathways of wave action are identified on the intermediate time scale (~ 10-60 days). One pathway commences over the eastern North Pacific and includes the polar Arctic region; another one runs more southward and crossing the North Atlantic, continues to eastern Europe; a third pathway southeast of the blocking high describes the downstream development over South Asia.
Time to bring out Dr. Roger Pielke Jr.’s handy gadget ala the Staples “That was Easy” button and push it for Joe Romm and Jim Hansen, repeatedly:

![195_180_l[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/195_180_l1.jpg?w=320&h=232&fit=320%2C232&resize=320%2C232)
Having lived in at least three “blocking highs” in Texas since 1980, with three dastardly hot summers to boot, I find nothing surprising and everything compelling about this paper. Because these kinds of highs are, in my experience, more frequent and longer-lasting in relatively flatter areas. The Texas plains and prairies and the Russian steppes are very similar geographically. I just hope we don’t have a second consecutive summer like last year’s. That was hard on me.