reader “agimarc” writes: As with the Lower 48 states, spring is late and cold here in central Alaska. Fairbanks reported a record low of 2 degrees F above zero Sunday, breaking the previous record of 8 from 1924.
Here in Anchorage, looks like we are around 3 – 4 weeks late with ice of local lakes and snow off the ground. Winter was not particularly hard, but it all changed with a very cold April. And at this point it does not appear things will be warming up soon. So much for manmade global warming due to carbon dioxide emissions.![usak_yestlows_i5_points[1]](http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/usak_yestlows_i5_points1.png?quality=75)
Story here: http://www.adn.com/2013/04/29/2883299/interior-alaska-sees-record-breaking.html
Yes, have a look at the image at right.
Here is a complete list of record lows for Alaska in the past 7 days, 996 new record lows were set (click low temp and details tab):
http://wx.hamweather.com/maps/climate/records/7day/usak.html?cat=maxtemp,mintemp,snow,lowmax,highmin,
And the cold is now creeping into the USA, look at the difference between Denver and Kansas City:
Expect a whole new crop of record lows for the USA, and some serious issues to develop with agriculture in the nation’s breadbasket as a result.
This in contrast to last year at this time of 49% of the corn crop planted and the five year average of 31%
The Weather Channel picked the wrong year to name winter storms, the snow and cold may be their Achilles Heel (h/t to Steve Goddard):
Winter Storm Achilles: Snow and Cold Kick Off May | Weather Underground
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When I left Valdez two days ago, there was still up to eight feet of snow in town in shady spots.
Canada switched to Metric in the 70s, and the worst part was that they did a “total immersion” conversion. You literally woke up one morning with all the street signs and weather reports and everything switched. It was not a good time.
However, it makes much more sense to logically think of freezing as a baseline for temperature. 0F never made sense to me, it’s an artificial construct based on the freezing point of a certain concentration of salt water. In the real world what matters more is the freezing point of water.
So if it’s 2F above freezing, that’s 34F. But 0C is when the roads and especially bridges are hazardous to drive on, when you need to worry about your garden hose freezing and bursting, when it’s useless to plant spring plants, etc.
We’ve had -8C overnight lows two days in a row (Calgary), and that followed a dump of several inches of snow. Admittedly the snow was gone in a few hours as the daytime highs are within average ranges again. But the record lows for this date are still several degrees C colder than this. There have been years when crops could be in the ground by now, but this is not one of those years.
Incidentally, one of Calgary’s record snowfalls was May 13 and 14, 1986. For the most part we got 3 feet of snow, which is unusually heavy for here. High winds meant 15 foot drifts in some outlying areas. It was pretty much gone in the next few days.
Unfortunately I’ve discovered that Environment Canada’s official records of various memorable weather events do NOT match my memory. I know for a fact that in the winter of 1995-1996 we had 30 days in a row where the high did not exceed -30C, however in the official records that didn’t happen. I wonder why? Also Calgary records “official” temperatures and snowfall at the airport, which contains its own distinct weather pattern completely different from the city just a few miles away.
This is why I have a hard time believing that historical records or temperature trends are accurate enough to be recording sub-degree accuracy on the century scale, and why it’s so easy for me to believe that station siting and contamination are a more likely reason for the last century’s “warming”.
(Oops… I ramble about weather… does this mean I’m getting old?)
Yes, those poor guillemots struggling in the overheated Alaskan climate; the canary in the coal mine as Jimbo noted.
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1404/segments/1404-1.htm
PBS 2004:
Ah yes, those “tipping point” feedback loops.
Note the absence of mentioning the The Great Pacific Climate Shift in 1976 or the PDO. One wonders if PBS will write a followup report and highlight the fact that Alaska has actually been cooling rapidly for the last several years.
Applying logic from the article, we can assume an Ice Age is imminent since Alaska is a foreshadow of global climate, but it only counts when Alaska is warming. Nothing to see here, move along.
Alll the heat has obviously gone into the oceans which are warming up. In balance the planet is still heating up.
Is what the GW dimwits will tell you. Not only are there no data to support that, it also would imply that the laws of thermodynamics have been turned inside out with heat flowing to the warmth and away from the cold.
I believe that Alaskans use zero as a temperature reference point, i.e., 10 degrees below zero or 10 degrees above zero. From the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner there is this: The low temperature at Fairbanks International Airport was 2 degrees above zero, which obliterated the old record of 8 above set in 1924. New records were set at Eagle (5 below), Eielson Air Force Base (1 above) and Delta Junction (3 above).
It has probably been used for so long it just comes out naturally while speaking. I can imagine that long ago when they first got telephone service there the conversation may have been along the lines: Yep, got a bit chilly this morning, was 40 degrees outside. The person at the other end of the call: Hey, that’s not cold. Alaskan says: 40 degrees below zero!
Just my two cents.
Eyal Porat says:
May 1, 2013 at 10:57 am
Ric Werme says:
May 1, 2013 at 10:43 am
Pierre Gosselin has links to snow in Spain and Saudi Arabia at http://notrickszone.com/2013/05/01/global-warming-now-leading-to-snowy-springs-snow-from-denver-to-saudi-arabia/
The Saudi “snow” is actually a severe hailstorm. Just look at the pictures
Don’t tell me ! Hail is warm rain.!!
(Oops… I ramble about weather… does this mean I’m getting old?)
No, of course not, IT MEANS YOUR ARE THERE; 🙂
Steve Keohane wrote about Loveland / Ft. Collins snow. Yes, Steve, we have 6-7″ of global warming stacked on top of tables, chairs, cars, bushes, etc. It’s still snowing hard. Hope I don’t lose too many branches due to the snow.
Steve Lohr wrote about 30″ dumps in Colorado. Are you referring to the dump around Oct 27, 1997 or March 21, 2003?
The fahrenheit scale works just fine, and if it aint broke, don’t fix it is my motto. Besides, can you imagine a book with the title “Celsius 232.77”?
For those worried about the cold, I will bet a C-Note that this months anomalies will not only be enormously positive, but will be higher than last months positive anomalies, and the news will still call this the top 10 hottest on record..
“It was just 2 degrees above zero at Fairbanks” is unintelligible to most people in the world.”
And the ignorance of most people in the “rest of the world” is our problem…how?
Bruce Cobb says:
May 1, 2013 at 1:55 pm
The fahrenheit scale works just fine, and if it aint broke, don’t fix it is my motto. Besides, can you imagine a book with the title “Celsius 232.77″?
But movie “Fahrenheit 9/11” is better “Celsius -1715/99” 🙂 !
C= (F-32)*5/9
How about “tuna fish”? Is that only in America too?
@steveta_uk
It’s just that…here in Alaska…we can’t help bragging a little…when we get above zero.
Resourceguy says:
I suppose we should get ready for $5 gasoline if the corn (ethanol mandate scam) crop is going to be hit this hard. Oh well, blame it on oil companies again as standard attack message number 52. That comes from rule number one of never taking responsibility for anything bad happening from policy decisions.
In addition to potentially higher ethanol fuel costs the other effect of a big hit on the Corn crop would be higher food prices. Time to drop the immoral unsustainable ethanol subsidies and mandated fuel blend regulations.
Wayne Delbeke says:
May 1, 2013 at 12:51 pm
– – –
I watched that CBC weather report and they included the term “Wacky” in their on screen visuals. So they are still trying to push the CAGW theme.
Michael Gersh says:
May 1, 2013 at 11:35 am
The thing is, all the world used to have a standard temperature scale. Then you metric nuts screwed it all up.
Nearly right, but in fact the world had but one temperature scale and then that Fahrenheit fellows came along and mucked things up by introducing a second illogical scale. Look up Romer temperature scale.
Interesting that while you guys up in the NH are struggling to get from winter to spring, down here we seem to be holding onto daytime summer temps quite well so far. 28C yesterday, nearly a May 1st record.
Nights and mornings are starting to get a big cooler though.
After uprooting and transplanting a balsam fir, from its (not) National Forest in northern Wisconsin to the Chicago suburbs, I have noted the following times of its “bud” breaks.
(in its new Chicago climes).
2013, 5/1
2012, 3/30
2011, 4/29
2010, 4/12
2009, 4/25
2008, 4/25
2007, 4/21
As an added note:
Some lakes in northern Wisconsin will be iced over for the traditional fishing opener (first Saturday in May), which hasn’t happened in a while, if memory serves.
It used to be, and not too long ago, from my personal experiences, that in the environs around Denver, May 9th was the magic date for seedlings. If you put them out earler, or they poked out of the soil before then, they risked being frozen and you lost your annual garden or crops.. If you waited until May 15th, it was safer, but you lost a week of growing season. 31 degrees and snow for Denver on May 1st is normal climate variation. Nothing to see here, move along.
The tax funded climate industry and their academic groupies couldnt give a flying fig that their religion is based on computer model junk science..
Whats climate science to do?. Push Meteorologists out the side door and rake in billions delivering the 3 day forecast?..
Its doom or nothing for this sad excuse of a industry, so they will not be changing their minds any time soon..
Got to love our Canadian cousins who went metric in the seventies yet blog on about several feet of snow. Is this so our American nephews living in the only developed non metric nation can understand? All those complex pesky Napoleonesqe decimals! Meantime Andy55 my part of Aussie Newcastle is nearer 24F than 24C that’s above zero for imperial Steve in the UK and the winds blowing a gale; speed maybe 5000 rods per light year?
Gonna be a record breaker
http://www.noodweercentrale.nl/de/wetter/profiwetter/stroemungsfilm/nordamerika.html
A cold spring doesn’t count if it came at the end of a warm winter and before some warm summer.
2008 and 2011 were real late corn plantings. “Knee high by July” as the farmers say. If it gets into June planting then the yields do get progressively worse.
But I’d recommend the other golden opportunity right now. IAG, loading up the truck. GLD, SLV shiney niblets.