Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The global warming which recently hit the USA, has spread to a large area of East Asia, with reports of a brutal cold snap which has killed at least 85 people in Taiwan, and confirmed snowfall as far south as the Japanese island Okinawa, on the Northern edge of the Tropics.
Record low temperatures have wreaked havoc in several Asia countries, with 85 people reported dead in Taiwan and tens of thousands stranded at airports because of the unprecedented cold snap.
In South Korea, at least 90,300 saw their flights canceled over the weekend due to bad weather and more than 10,000 travelers faced severe delays at Kunming airport in southwestern China.
Taiwan authorities advised people to stay indoors after the deaths, while in Hong Kong, teeth-chattering temperatures forced kindergartens and primary schools to shut Monday.
Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/25/asia/asia-cold-weather-travel-disruption/index.html
Taiwan is a modern state with a mild, marine tropical climate. The one time I visited Taipei in December, it was shirtsleeve weather, even at night. This is most likely why the fatality rate is so high, the locals are unprepared for extreme cold they are experiencing.
Proof that globull warming is happening. The hotter it gets the more the temperature can measured by decreasing latitudes at which snow falls.
It’s white heat!
Top of the world ma!
But it’s a dry cold…
It’s ‘Gambler’s Ruin’ catching up on the temp record!
I sincerely hope it was “unprecedented”. This word has been re-defined by the UK Met Office, the BBC and similar MSM as meaning “dreadful weather that, whilst we can’t link any specific weather event like this to climate change, is just what we expect from such (so, basically, yes it’s all down to climate change).”
Yes, Ian. But re-definition is taking a long time for the MetOffice Hadley Centre to update the HadCRUT4 Time Series, it is still in 2014.
See http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/diagnostics.html
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadcrut4/data/current/web_figures/hadcrut4_annual_global.png
Obviously still awaiting those new and improved ADJUSTED globull temperatures
IceAgeNow has reports of snow, for the first time ever, in Vietnamh. Worst snow in Moscow in January for 50 years and much more. Seems pretty wide spread.
http://iceagenow.info/
If this is what we get in the hottest year evah, I’d hate to thing what an average year would look like.
“If this is what we get in the hottest year evah,”
Gavin and Tom are working on the “re-adjustments” over a cup of hot coco as we speak.
You can almost BET that globally, it will be the hottest January … in like .. EVAH !!!
I do believe I saw where a warmista has already said that 2016 is shaping up to be another warmest year evah. This is of course a coded message, alerting the brethren to stick to their guns and redouble their lies, I mean efforts.
Heck, why don’t the temperature fudgers just go for broke and impose a 5 degrees rise? They’d look no more foolish than they do now.
belousov,
“I’d hate to thing what an average year would look like.”
There is no relevance to either extreme or ‘average’ weather. Even discounting seasonal variability, weather consistently bounces between extremes where climate is the long term average (decade to century) of weather.
It’s amusing to see a small anomaly in a 4-5 year average being considered the most extreme ever when the shortest term averages we see in the paleo data span multiple decades to multiple centuries. If we consider how the 50 year average as moved over the last century, it’s been remarkably stable.
Menicholas
January 28, 2016 at 2:24 am
I do believe I saw where a warmista has already said that 2016 is shaping up to be another warmest year evah. This is of course a coded message, alerting the brethren to stick to their guns and redouble their lies, I mean efforts.
Perhaps
Redouble their adjustments
co2isnotevil
You are right of course. Ed Lorenz showed that climate, from internal chaotic dynamics, never settles around any average but repeatedly jumps to new plateaux not previously visited. His insight was nicely described in a short passage in James Gleik’s book “Chaos” which was titled “Is there a climate?” This insight has of course been lost by the currently dominant climate “science” community.
I recall being in Thailand in January 1972, The temperature dipped into the 50s for a few days. To us Americans it was a chilly time, but the Thais were wearing all the clothes they could put on. WRT snow in Vietnam, if it happened it would have been up near the border with China and Laos.
The coldest most miserable night I ever spent was in a cottage near the Lao-Thai border in mid winter. The cottage was at about 3K feet and was normally used by people escaping the sweltering cities in mid summer and therefore had no heat and barely any blankets. Rice porridge never satisfied me more than the next morning, I practically inhaled it.
People returning to New Hampshire from Florida always seem to take a week to get used to the cold. It takes a while for the human metabolism to gear up. If you are underdressed and not used to the cold, hypothermia can set in when temperatures are in the fifties, (F). The poor are suffering in Thailand and Bangladesh, with temperatures down around 45 (7 degrees Celsius).
This seems to disprove the Alarmist idea that a warmer Pole will make a warmer planet. This winter warmer air pushed up to the Pole has merely displaced the cold south.
https://sunriseswansong.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/arctic-sea-ice-the-return-of-the-nudger/
Seems to me I heard that the most “street people” exposure deaths occur a few degrees above freezing, not actually freezing. Insufficient incentive to seek warmth and shelter?
Snow isn’t that rare in Sapa, north Vietnam. It’s not a daily event in winter but it’s not the first time by any means.
Every 40 years in fact:
http://iceagenow.info/17766-2/
Th’ glacier’s comin’.
The image linked to Wiki above is dated 2008.
It was very widespread. This all started towards the middle of October with a sudden cold wave encompassing most of Siberia. That cold wave then spread across most of the upper NH. At the peak of that period in November, the cold wave stretched from Moscow eastward to the entire State of Alaska and half of Canada. Temps were as low as 40 F below average. I felt a taste of that in mid November here in NorCal as temps dropped 20F below average for a week or so in my area. The lowest temp outside of my unit was 10 F at the time.
The next hundred years coming will be as bad as the LIA, old Sol is due for a sabbatical. AGW mob may have to change jobs.
“Change Jobs” – change to what? Cleaning toilets? Working as a scavenger on a refuse heap in India putting all those starving kids out of work? Seriously, who in their right minds would have them? Drug dealers? Sub prime mortgage brokers?
Change to predicting “Coldest Year Evah” good money to be made in mitigation schemes for Iceages.
What money? Western countries have spent it all on free energy and studies of how to save the overheated planet.
The same people pushing the global warming agenda will simply switch to pushing the anthropogenic global cooling agenda, AGC. They’ll deny that the sun has anything to do with it and the solution will continue to be Marxism.
They could run for office. After all, they have proved their worth at falsifying information and lying to the general public.
Oh, they will find high-paying jobs as university presidents, representatives of their countries at the UN, governors-general (Commonwealth countries), and the like.
Ian M (at his cynical worst)
Is it still cynicism, even when it’s true?
Change jobs? I have just the thing! How about those freeloaders get out there and bring down all those effing windmills they insisted on, working a ten hour day and using only a hammer and a sickle. Seems appropriate.
President Of The United States is always an option. Worked for a former community organizer who was RIF’d. Aim high!
Paul Erlich still has an academic position. nuff said…
‘Ole Sol is due for a sabbatical’. Yes, perhaps it’s time the AGW mob took their heads out of their butts and started learning something about our star!
Jay, I fear that whatever they learn they would warp to their Cause. Their sole aim is to destroy that which gave them freedom and wealth, food, warmth and a roof over their heads. They are seriously sick little puppies. Their joy is in hatred.
Mainstream media?
ssssssh!
This is not unusual because the Paris Climate Agreement has completely abolished all forms of climate change, extreme weather, and sea level rise for all people, everywhere, for now, and for all time. It is a done deal. Global warming has been eliminated and no longer exists. The Paris Climate Agreement forces the sun and the oceans to provide the ideal climate for all, for ever.
Sort of a supermodulation of the Gore Effect, considering his prediction of “We’re All Gonna Die!” climate catastrophe in a decade precisely ten years ago this week?
Weather, not Climate.
The effects of El Nino and the Blob are interesting though.
Apparently 19th century songwriter Stephen Foster was a better climatologist than he’s been given credit for. Recent events in Taiwan and Korea confirm Foster’s “Oh! Susanna” description of climate change. To wit:
“It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry;
The sun so hot I froze to death, Susanna, don’t you cry.”
This town is so hot I’m sweating ice cubes ??
Socialism meets reality !!
Marcus:
Yes, but “reality” in the form of the nearby Republic of China has always confronted Taiwan.
Taiwan was ruled by a military dictatorship until 1987. Since the overthrow of dictatorship, Taiwan has had a political system similar to the UK except that Taiwan’s President is elected while the UK’s monarch is inherited. And throughout that time the Taiwanese people have repeatedly elected socialist governments as being the most effective political system especially as an opposition to the communist system operated by the Republic of China.
More on Taiwan’s government can be read at and linked from here.
But I fail to see what any of this has to do with “a brutal cold snap which has killed at least 85 people in Taiwan”: political systems don’t control the weather.
Richard
Writes richardscoourtney:
They don’t? But the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ‘n all them politicians meeting in big honkin’ snowstorms to confer about global warming, and the left-versus-right political rumbling about Obozo’s “Clean Power Plan” to make sure that all our electricity rates “necessarily skyrocket” for to save the environment and Mother Gaia and like that there….
If “political systems don’t control the weather,” then how come the politicians keep telling us that they can if we just let them crush out industrialized civilization and reduce us all to poverty and starvation?
You mean Obozo’s been lying about that, too?
..Failure of a government to protect it’s people ?
A Govn’t never protects the people (I am sure you meant that). A Govn’t protects “it’s” people, the people who put it there. The rest can go get rooted! One reason why I view voting (In a democracy? A system that died ~2000 years ago?) is a waste of time!
Tucci78, Marcus and Patrick MJD:
I answer all of you in one post because this is really is off-topic.
Tucci78, as I said, political systems don’t control the weather. Anybody who says otherwise is wrong.
Marcus, you suggest that “Failure of a government to protect it’s people” would be an issue but the cold snap was beyond the possibility of Taiwan’s government – or any government of any political philosophy – to prevent.
Patrick MJD, most governments do try to protect all the people they govern. Totalitarian governments don’t but I do not see you providing any evidence that Taiwan’s government is totalitarian.
Richard
The rules of order for theTaiwan Parliament were originally drafted by the Marquis of Queensberry 🙂
Walt D.:
Thankyou for your excellent comment that I respond in similar humorous but factual vein.
I said,
“Taiwan has had a political system similar to the UK except that Taiwan’s President is elected while the UK’s monarch is inherited”.
You have replied,
“The rules of order for theTaiwan Parliament were originally drafted by the Marquis of Queensberry :-)”
I respond
Please remember that the House of Commons in the UK Parliament deliberately has HM Government members and supporters facing HM Loyal Opposition members separated by two swords’ length.
Richard
Interesting link – and as usual for links a whole new subject to study. The right or maybe an opportunity to allow self destiny is very thin ice for Taiwan. My view is simple-straight democracy will in some form evolving into a dictatorial religion, where persons on high will become a worship idol of believers.
Overthrow is not the correct word to describe the process. There was actually an orderly process of democratization. The party of Chiang Kai-shek, the Kuomintang, continued to be the elected government (alone or as part of a coalition) until the most recent election.
The Kuomintang was not socialist. The economy of Taiwan is particularly open, especially when it is compared with every other economy in the area. You shouldn’t confuse traditional Chinese culture with Marxism. Voluntary cooperation between individuals and groups is not the same as state imposed socialism.
commieBob:
Here on planet Earth the Republic of China is totalitarian and is communist. It is NOT socialist.
Taiwan is socialist.
And most socialists are not Marxists ; see here.
Richard
political systems don’t control the weather.
===============================
they control the “facts” instead. here is a political dictionary:
people’s democratic republic of … – no democracy
Pravada – translates as Truth – no truth
unprecedented – we’ve seen it before
we are here to help – run for the hills
we promise, no tax increase – tax increase certain
it is for your own good – someone is trying to line their own pockets
revenue neutral – money comes out of your pocket and goes into mine
we are certain – we don’t have a fzcking clue
readers are welcome to add their own lists
richardscourtney… If a government can’t / will not protect it’s people from a simple problem like COLD WEATHER with cheap, AFFORDABLE energy, then that government is a failure that should be eradicated !
Taiwan was one of 198 countries at the IPCC meeting looking for handouts from America instead of looking for solutions !
Marcus:
Thankyou for the clarification. I agree that governments should – so far as they are able – protect their people from the effects of the elements.
Richard
If a government can’t / will not protect its people
======================
political dictionary continued
climate change – scapegoat. government is not to blame
global warming – failed version of climate change
global cooling – failed version of climate change
climate change – we need to tax the air your breathe
[Stray comma removed. -mod]
…” readers are welcome to add their own lists.”..Ferdberple, that would be a mighty long list !!
Marcus said: “richardscourtney… If a government can’t / will not protect it’s people from a simple problem like COLD WEATHER with cheap, AFFORDABLE energy, then that government is a failure that should be eradicated !”
Taiwan’s problem has nothing to do with affordable energy: “The cold wave abruptly pushed temperatures to a 16-year low of 4 degrees Celsius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) in the subtropical capital where most homes lack central heating, causing heart trouble and shortness of breath for many of the victims, a city official said.”
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/dozens-deaths-blamed-rare-cold-snap-taiwan-36494606
“Here on planet Earth” – Nice, very respectful. It really bolsters your case.
… “Republic of China is totalitarian and is communist. It is NOT socialist” – Are you referring to the People’s Republic of China? I wasn’t talking about them. The Republic of China is a different thing and is the official name of Taiwan.
“Taiwan is socialist.” – In the same sense that the USofA is socialist. If you disagree with that, please present some evidence.
“And most socialists are not Marxists ; see here.” – Mea Culpa. They are also not Leninists, Dengists, Trotskyists, Stalinists, or Bolsheviks of any stripe.
commieBob: Richard defends his claim that the national socialists were right wing by declaring that it’s something that everybody knows, and only right wing propagandists would ever disagree.
Most ‘communists’ are Engels-ists, not Marxists. “One way” and alla that. They are typed ‘unilinealists’. Virtually all unilinealist governments turned to State Capitalism to survive.
Richard: Isn’t that the goal of the IPCC, to establish a political system that will control the weather? The IPCC has high regards to the Chinese Communist system when it comes to controlling climate as a model. The spokes people for the IPCC have said so. Even some climate scientists in the US have called for racketeering laws to be invoked against people and organizations that criticize official AGW propaganda. If that’s not a political system, what is?
I think I have very valid scientific arguments against AGW. Some very important questions have never been adequately answered in context of the relationship of warming and co2.
The only difference between socialism and communism is how quickly you want to get to the same goal.
Many of our socialists here in the United States have spoken approvingly of how the political system in China allows it’s leaders to just go ahead and do the things that need to be done.
MarkW:
Your ultra-right propaganda being posted on almost every WUWT thread is becoming tiresome. For example, in this thread you have written
NO! I don’t need to “defend” anything. I only need to – and do – state the truth.
Naz1s were and are fascists which is as right-wing as it is possible to be.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines fascism as
and the OED relates
Only neo-Naz1s pretend the Big Lie that Naz1s were not the ultimate ultra-right. Nobody swallows that lie.
Richard
rishrac:
Sincere thanks for your post that addresses to me sensible questions and sensible points in this sub-thread. It is a stark contrast to the contemptible political propaganda of some posters one of whom has the gall to object to my expression of contempt at his/her/their/its propaganda.
You ask and say
You are not alone in thinking you “have very valid scientific arguments against AGW” and “Some very important questions have never been adequately answered in context of the relationship of warming and co2.” Many of us have such arguments but that is NOT a matter which worries the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The IPCC does NOT exist to summarise climate science and it does not
and
the actual “goal of the IPCC” is not to “establish a political system that will control the weather”.
The IPCC only exists to produce documents intended to provide information selected, adapted and presented to justify political actions but those actions are not specified.
Appendix A of the most recent IPCC Report (the AR5) states this where it says.
This is completely in accord with the official purpose of the IPCC.
I repeat, the IPCC does NOT exist to summarise climate science and it does not.
The IPCC is only permitted to say AGW is a significant problem because they are tasked to accept that there is a “risk of human-induced climate change” which requires “options for adaptation and mitigation” that can be selected as political polices and the IPCC is tasked to provide those “options”.
This is clearly stated in the “Principles” which govern the work of the IPCC.
These are stated at
http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/ipcc-principles/ipcc-principles.pdf
Near its beginning that document says
This says the IPCC exists to provide
(a) “information relevant to understanding the scientific basis of risk of human-induced climate change”
and
(b) “options for adaptation and mitigation” which pertain to “the application of particular policies”.
Hence, its “Role” demands that the IPCC accepts as a given that there is a “risk of human-induced climate change” which requires “options for adaptation and mitigation” which pertain to “the application of particular policies”. Any ‘science’ which fails to support that political purpose is ‘amended’ in furtherance of the IPCC’s Role.
The IPCC achieves its “Role” by
1
amendment of its so-called ‘scientific’ Reports to fulfil the IPCC’s political purpose
2
by politicians approving the SPM
3
then the IPCC lead Authors amending the so-called ‘scientific’ Reports to agree with the SPM.
All IPCC Reports are pure pseudoscience intended to provide information to justify political actions (i.e.Lysenkoism) but the political actions are not specified.
This enables governments to do anything they want to ‘prevent global warming’, and various governments have claimed IPCC Reports as evidence which justifies impositions of taxes and ‘croney capitalism’. The impositions include – not exclusively – carbon taxes, fuel taxes, wind-powered and solar-powered subsidy farms, and biofuels mandates.
That use of IPCC Reports does fit with “some climate scientists in the US have called for racketeering laws to be invoked against people and organizations that criticize official AGW propaganda”. But it has nothing to do with China.
Whatever the IPCC thinks of “the Chinese Communist system”, the communist Chinese government does NOT support “controlling climate”. In fact, at the Copenhagen CoP in 2009 the Chinese ‘killed’ attempt to establish an international Climate Treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol. This has made it practically impossible for the IPCC to obtain such a Treaty (as was confirmed at CoP 21 in Paris a month ago). Incidentally, I have a little knowledge of the Chinese determination to prevent an international Climate Treaty because as part of their preparations for the Copenhagen CoP they requested me to provide some information which I did.
Richard
Richard, I realize that you can’t accept the fact that there are bad guys on your side, but fascism is a form of socialism. Always has been always will be. Just because you can’t accept the truth, won’t make it go away.
MarkW:
Fascism is NOT socialism. Also, good and bad can be found everywhere.
Do you write anything other than blatant lies?
Richard
@richardscourtney
Two swords lengths?? Nothing a simple balestra lunge can’t overcome. Throw in an advance if you’ve got particularly short legs.
One group of socialists agree with another group of socialists.
Color me surprised.
Fascism was about collectivization and the subsuming of the individual to the state.
That’s socialism, regardless of what you choose to call it.
PS: I’ve always loved the way socialists of all stripes seek to dehumanize those who disagree with them. You are in good company. What’s next, re-education camps?
This subthread demonstrates the extraordinary desire of anonymous neo-n az1s to try to pretend black was red at any opportunity.
The barrage of lies provided by MarkW and the attempts by anonymous supporters to redefine the centuries-old political spectrum are gobsmacking. For example, this nonsense from ldd
The naz1s were fascists which is as far to the right of the political spectrum as possible while socialists are to the left of the spectrum. And that has NOTHING to do with “a brutal cold snap which has killed at least 85 people in Taiwan”.
Richard
When socialism meets reality, the Ministry of Truth has to work overtime.
Totally agree Marcus – anyone claiming that the right is FOR more gov control is likely a CAGW worshiper as well. National Socialist Party of Germany were for total GOV control, therefore total leftists to me.
I can only presume that the well-known climate scientists who earlier told us that, by 2010, children would not know what snow is, were in the 3% who were not in the “science is settled” so-called consensus.
Otherwise, climate science is finally nailed as nothing but jiggery pokery.
I believe they were talking about Great Britain, not the whole planet.
But they were wrong about GB also.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/manchester-airport-is-reopening-after-bad-weather-cancelled-flights-out-and-diverted-all-flights-due-10010283.html
Hey Donkey, don’t be an ass !!
In Rockford Illinois we will be getting temps in the 40s before the end of Jan.
Global Warming is real
It is all weather until I see a 60/70 year trend.
Thirty years of increasing cold can kill billions through starvation. You can call it weather, but the end result will still be disaster.
I can’t understand the current concern over global warming at all. Not even once since the 1970’s which were cold, has the world come close to running out of food. Without back to back superhavests in the US, food would have been rationed.
The ultimate agenda is that nobody knows what to do about colder climate except to kill a bunch of us off before it gets here. Can you see the Russians condemning someone to be exiled to Hawaii? No, they exile them to a warmest paradise, Siberia.
M Simon January 28, 2016 at 1:48 am
It is not just Taiwan, Its all of southeast asia.
See the link below. Next year they will know to throw a “ice fair” like the Brit’s did on the Thames river during the L.I.A.
Also Simon you may want to check out what your global warming is doing in Turkey, As well as the Balkans,
Each winter has been getting a little worst & harsher over the last three years.
Look at the pictures Simon, maybe you may begin to understand why the Chinese started to make all the new islands and airfields in the south china sea.
Perhaps they know something you don’t. Their Astronomy records go back thousands of years. And you prattle on about a trend of 60/70 years.
Yes Simon Global Warming is real.. “and then you wake up”
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2016-01/27/content_23267116_4.htm#Contentp
michael
The deepest cold areas have been warming up a bit over the last 4 days. Note the southern areas of China have since warmed a bit. Then there is the expansion of the cold moving out of Siberia and into the waters of the Pacific. Some areas are just starting to feel some of the cold like in the Middle East…http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=63.00,34.83,497
The warmist will still focus on the upward temperature trend, but not recognise the cause as coming out of LIA, nor the fact that a pause can be as significant as my height stalling despite initial growth. Time will tell I guess and only being 50yrs old, I might still be around to see it in person.
And which upward trend might that be?
I failed to see how faking numbers to make them appear higher can have any affect except on graphs and the apportioning of the fat grant gravy train.
Events like this are not inconsistent with what we can expect to see with a return to LIA conditions.
Just because such events are likewise not inconsistent with run of the mill extreme weather, does not mean…um…well…that it may not be.
If you go back 50 years or so (before AGW). You can see the warming trend that started at the end of the “Little Ice Age”. There is a cooling warming cycle that occurs about every 1400 years and has been going on for the lase 2.5 million years. During the Holocene inter-glacial they are called Bond events. During previous periods of glaciation they are called Dansgaard–Oeschger events.
Irony : China Korea Produce/Release by far the most CO2. It should be warmer!!!!!
Brrr: http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=temp/orthographic=115.00,60.00,478
http://s23.postimg.org/lyg466qrf/Cold.png
how did you get the numbers to display on the scale?
found it. you hover over the scale with the mouse.
Thanks, AJB. Yes, it is cold to the subtropics.
Woah! You just blow my mind. That is the greatests map I have ever seen!
Jeff in Calgary:
http://earth.nullschool.net/
for the origin of that map. You have to play around with it; they do not insult human intelligence by spoonfeeding guests how to find all the wonderful things their page can do — great fun!
AJB
Wowza! Thanks!
Thanks WUWT for putting this story out there. You can add Japan to that list of unusually large snowfall. None of this cold misery is being published in the United States. In addition, Medittereanean countries have shared in the misery.
Ernest. Here in northern Honshu the winter has been remarkably mild and snowfall less than average (in my town we get an average of 12 metres snow every winter). What has happened is this. The polar airstream which normally flows SE from the Siberian High, across the Sea of Japan and dumps here, has flowed to the south rather than the SE. That has brought the sub-Arctic air mass to the sub-tropics.
We, in return, have had a southerly airstream, and rain (rather than snow) in January. Incredible! My upper body is telling me I’ve just dumped a metre of heavy wet snow off my garage roof FWIW.
Both LA and NYC are having a ‘warm’ winter this year ergo: the entire planet is overheating. Even though it got cold recently in Manhattan, it is generally a warmish winter this year due to el Nino. As per always, when la Nina hits next winter as it inevitably does, the howls will rise that…global warming makes the entire planet colder since Manhattan will be very cold again.
LA is hopeless, it is a desert on the ocean and thus, seldom is cold and wet so they will continue to brave on with the global warming to infinity.
What I see weather pattern is holding. It looks like Polar Vortex is still in action, meaning that west coasts of continents are warmer than usual, warm air is sucked to north polar area, on the other side east coast of America and Eurasia are colder. It looks like air mass exchange between tropics and polar area is faster, meaning warmer Arctic, but colder subpolar and moderate areas. Only south Alaska, west coast of US and Europe is warmer than average. Everywhere else there is colder.
I have led in Pattaya Thailand he last 8 years.The last 4-5 days have been far colder than anything I can remember
From the OP:
“…with 85 people reported dead in Taiwan…”
is re-reported as:
“…reports of a brutal cold snap which has killed at least 85 people in Taiwan…”
Now, having read reports of a non-existent man-made global warming disaster for over 15 years now, I’m naturally suspicious, and I would just like to point out that “85 people reported dead” does not mean “cold has killed at least 85 people” – at least, not until the causes of death are officially stated…..
From the link in the article above …
Dodgy, cold kills far more people than does heat. People in Taiwan begin wearing coats, hats and gloves when the temperature drops below 20 C. They are acclimated to highs of 30 C with high humidity, thus temperatures of 0 C would be truly bone chilling with no central heating in most homes.
This
Manmade Global Warming Climate ChangeExtreme Weather Event brought to you by Manmade Weather.“Weather. It’s probably your fault”.
This hits all the same high spots as that Olde-Tyme Religion–ever notice? Apocalyptic thinking, we’ve all been “bad” with our greed and avarice, so Zeus is throwing thunderbolts to punish us for our collective human guilt. Just a different focus for the oldest meme in the world!
It’s so cold in Canada, I can’t find my nuts !!…
mostly they are back east in Ottawa
Looking for a live world temperature map. This one at earth.nullschool.net even has a misery index which is a combination of wind chill and heat index. Area in question does look very miserable right now..
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/overlay=misery_index/orthographic=-257.81,38.95,302
Okay, let’s see a survey of their belief in AGW and the need for carbon taxes now.
Wow! Very cool….or cold. I love the last line of the story….”No one who lives on the island has ever seen it snow there before, because it’s the first time it’s happened in 115 years”.
Global Warming is having a catastrophic effect on comma usage.
“The global warming which recently hit the USA, has spread to a large area of East Asia …”
should be
“The global warming which recently hit the USA has spread to a large area of East Asia, …”
The relative clause is a defining clause, and thus combines with “The global warming ” to form a subject clause. There should never be a comma after a subject clause.
[And why not: “Global warming, which recently hit the USA, has spread to a large area of East Asia ..” But that does assume the actual sentence is true. .mod]
Another victim, of global warming!!
☺
It appears that the elderly who are living alone are at high risk in South East Asia with usually cold weather.
John
I think that applies globally to the elderly, John. But predominantly those of modest income, who must trade other necessities for what they term “comfort” and disregard their personal safety.
I lived in Taiwan for 18 years – let me just say, there is no such thing as indoor heating in almost all residential buildings. Walls and floors are concrete, add in high humidity, and 14 degree C weather can suddenly feel like you’re freezing your tuckus off.
I don’t know how cold it was when it snowed (at least 0, presumably); my wife is still over there, sent me picture and video and everything but neglected say the actual temperature.
Chris Jones on January 28, 2016 at 6:51 am
– – – – – –
Chris Jones,
I lived in Taiwan for almost eight years and I agree with you. I had to buy electric plug-in space heaters to use in the winter in our house in Tien Mu in northern part of the city of Taipei. That was in the late 1970’s to mid-1980’s. Had to bring good space heaters from the US to supplement the insufficient local Taiwan available ones.
John
There’s some heating in places like Taipei, but certainly not southern Taiwan. I mean, who needs heat when the coldest temperature ever recorded in Kaohsiung is 40? Well, the dead in Kaohsiung as one day didn’t top 50 and the night was in the lower 40’s, ensuring indoor temperatures around 50. That can kill the elderly.
I understood that Taiwan is subtropical, not tropical. Title of post my need editing.
John
Oops, should be may need editing, not my need editing.
John
Technically doesn’t need editing as Taiwan passed though the Tropic of Cancer. Kaohsiung is at 22 degrees and some change, north of the equator.
Todd on January 28, 2016 at 7:28 am
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Todd,
Based on the following link, it looks like Taiwan is virtually all subtropical with a relatively tiny part of Taiwan on the sourthern tip.
Overall, it appears to be subtropical or at least it is virtually/ predominately subtropical.
John
I lived in Taiwan during many semiconductor projects. I had an apartment in Hsinchu City for several years. It had a very good air conditioner. It might have been a heat pump, but I never needed to find out. Taiwan has a central mountain range with peaks higher than 4,000 m. It certainly snows in the mountains. Most people, however, live in the coastal plain to the west of the mountains. The weather on the plain is strongly influenced by the Taiwan Straits. Typical temperature ranges are 20 – 30 C with humidity. The infrastructure is totally unprepared for snow.
People own coats and hats. I remember seeing many people donning their coats and hats when the morning temperature dropped below 20 C. I visited many friends at their homes. Some had window air conditioners in one room and used fans for staying cool in the rest of the house. The window AC was the only “climate control” that the houses had.
I’ve been seeing friends from Taipei posting pictures of their kids playing in the snow.
…No Human should ever die from lack of heat/warmth !! It is just unacceptable.. from the wino’s on the street to the elderly with no one to care for them !! COLD KILLS !!
Not to be a hater but the visual is of a place in China within the Humid Continental Climate Zone.
I would guess that even the uneducated and primitive peoples of the world have trouble with the concept of increased warming causing an increase in freezing conditions. All cultures will have trouble with heat causing cold since they are opposite and usually mutually exclusive. It takes a real salesman to sell ice to the Eskimos… at double the world price. GK
There is a reason that 90% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the American border !,,,,,IT’S $#%*&^ COLD !!
What benefits do Humans get from cold ?? Ice cubes ?
What benefits do Humans get from warmth ? LIFE…
P.S…My opinion may be biased because I am a Canadian/American living in an igloo !!
It’s global warming, Jim, but not as we know it!
The reported 85 deaths in Taiwan probably refers to deaths caused by extreme cold weather.
Far greater mortality is associated with moderate cold weather – given its population and location, I would estimate the average Excess Winter Deaths in Taiwan as about 5000 to 10,000 per year – similar to Canada. Excess Winter Deaths total about 100.000 per year in the USA and up to 50,000 in the UK.
See The Lancet study for details:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(14)62114-0/abstract
or our paper below:
Cold Weather Kills 20 Times as Many People as Hot Weather
September 4, 2015
By Joseph D’Aleo and Allan MacRae
https://friendsofsciencecalgary.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/cold-weather-kills-macrae-daleo-4sept2015-final.pdf
[excerpts]
Cold weather kills. Throughout history and in modern times, many more people succumb to cold exposure than to hot weather, as evidenced in a wide range of cold and warm climates.
Evidence is provided from a study of 74 million deaths in thirteen cold and warm countries including Thailand and Brazil, and studies of the United Kingdom, Europe, the USA, Australia and Canada.
Contrary to popular belief, Earth is colder-than-optimum for human survival. A warmer world, such as was experienced during the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period, is expected to lower winter deaths and a colder world like the Little Ice Age will increase winter mortality, absent adaptive measures. These conclusions have been known for many decades, based on national mortality statistics.
…
Canada has lower Excess Winter Mortality Rates than the USA (~100,000 Excess Winter Deaths per year) and much lower than the UK (up to ~50,000 Excess Winter Deaths per year). This is attributed to our better adaptation to cold weather, including better home insulation and home heating systems, and much lower energy costs than the UK, as a result of low-cost natural gas due to shale fracking and our lower implementation of inefficient and costly green energy schemes.
…
When misinformed politicians fool with energy systems, innocent people suffer and die.
****************
Hello Moderator – my above post needs a period (.) after Canada in paragraph 2..
Thank you, Allan
[yes and I need a million dollars -mod]
Thank you Mod – the cheque is in the mail.
+ 10….But Allan, You must realize, Liberal voters only want to feel good TODAY !! Their Grandchildren are not on the agenda !
Off topic and irrelevant to thread. Not the first time you’ve spammed threads.
If it was this cold in the subtropics, imagine how bad North Korea was.
Have no fear. After proper adjustment, the cold temperatures won’t be records—it’s too warm for that—and those who died will be found to have died for unrelated reasons.
Did some research using Google Earth and Weather Underground’s website (www.wunderground.com/history). Taipei (according to my measurements) is roughly 110 miles north of the line of latitude where the tropics begin on the map (Tropic of Cancer). And it got down to about 39 or 40 degrees there one night recently (and 42 the next night).
WUWT readers and Florida residents may remember the unusual and prolonged cold snap which that state experienced back in January of 2010. The cold made it all the way down to the Florida Keys and the city of Marathon, FL. Marathon (according to my measurements on Google Earth) is only about 90 miles from the Tropic of Cancer (slightly closer than is Taipei) and at a slightly lower altitude above sea level than Taipei. According to Weather Underground’s history database, the temp in Marathon got down to 41 degrees F on the night of January 10th, 2010, and 39 degrees F on the night of January 11th. Miami got down to 38 degrees on the 9th, 35 on the 10th, and 36 on the 11th. I seem to recall watching a video on Youtube showing how coconut palm trees in Marathon (and likey in Miami too) were damaged or killed by the cold. Maybe they shouldn’t be growing coconut palms in South Florida???
Anyway, from what I can see here, having cities so close to the edge of the tropics (even when they are near seal level) experience this kind of cold is not necessarily unprecedented (there’s that word “unprecedented” again). And any climate alarmist who expects me to believe that the rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere have anything to do with it…..well, they can forget it.
“Record low temperatures have wreaked havoc in several Asia countries, with 85 people reported dead in Taiwan and tens of thousands stranded at airports because of the unprecedented cold snap”
I cringe at the language. A cut and paste from an warmest article. One need change only 2 words
Noticed the N. polar vortex is looking like it’s morphing into a double vortex. Currently strong cold one over Europe/Asia and new one fr N. Pacific ocean is warmer. Must say that here in snowy, +2.3C, eastern Ontario, I’m appreciating the break – last few winters have been brutal.
http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/10hPa/overlay=temp/orthographic=-85.53,54.34,371
Nothing says warming like cooling.
At the end of the southern hemisphere summer ‘Climate Reanalyzer’ tells us that Antarctica has a – 0,51 ºC anomaly.
http://cci-reanalyzer.org/DailySummary/
CO2 does a very bad job down there.
Snow in Kuwait http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/snow-falls-kuwait-first-time-ever-1565913282
Freezing is the new burning up.
Over the last couple of years I remember “unprcedentred” stories of cold and snow not only in North America where ice was still on Lake Superior in July, but also all across Europe with snow in the mediterranean, snow in the middle east, Isreal, and north Africa. To blizzards across China and various points in Asia causing many disruptions. Cold snaps in South America killing llamas in the Andes, and even a bit of weather in Austrailia. What I do not remember reading in thr last couple of years were any unusual or long standing heat waves anywhere. A few cities had a few hot days in the US but 90 much less 100 degree days in the US in particular are way down in frequency. As far as my local Nevada, last years winter was warm, this years winter is average, and last two summers were way mild. So where was it so unbelievably hot that the last two years were thr hottest evah?
NOAA, HadCrut, GISS, BEST and the rest must be working overtime with that much territory to get corrected.
But they promised we were going to fry!
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Environment/Freezing-temperatures-kill-man-burst-water-pipes-around-the-country-443194?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Neo-Marxism is the one constant in all the CAGW Warmist nonsense.
Written in 2012 – we now know the answer:
We elected an NDP government in Alberta and a Liberal government in Ottawa.
Jesus wept.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/28/germanys-new-renewable-energy-policy/#comment-1067214
In North America, we too have our share of CAGW scoundrels and imbeciles – an ignorant stew of Harpo and Groucho Marxists who are convinced that if all industry were shut down and everyone worked for the government, the economy would perk along just fine. These leftist ideologues appeal to that idiot 30% of humanity who are somehow convinced they are much more intelligent than the rest of us, despite their lack of any technical or economic competence.
From time to time, these ideologues gain power and proceed to wreak havoc upon their economies – witness the Canadian Liberals under Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien, or the Ontario Liberals under Doltan McGuinty. Out of neighbourly courtesy, I will not comment on USA politics.
Because of the boom in cheap natural gas from shale, and similar apparent success in shale oil, North America is again enjoying abundant cheap energy. The question is, will we use this incredible competitive advantage to rebuild our economies and our manufacturing sectors, now increasingly outsourced to China, or will be squander this opportunity in a quagmire of regulatory incompetence and pseudo-environmental obstructionism?
Stay tuned.
Observes Allan MacRae:
Now, now. This is a science blog focusing most concentratedly upon meteorology and climatology, and we’re not to be distracted into discussions about how climate catastrophism is inescapably prevalent on the political left throughout the western world.
[/sarc]
Let’s look at the position of the polar vortex in the lower stratosphere. Visible are the two centers, one over Asia. Now the second center will approach to Scandinavia.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat_a_f/gif_files/gfs_z100_nh_f00.png
Yep …
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/STRAT/
Probably not an SSW (yet) but enough to blow apart and cause a sizeable vortex displacement. That should shake things up. Look out UK going into Feb/March, consistent with past El Nino of this type. Mild start to winter then hit over the head big time later. Stock up on salt, get the sheep indoors.
[SSW = ? .mod]
Lop sided, about to rock and roll …
http://ds.data.jma.go.jp/tcc/tcc/products/clisys/STRAT/
Sorry Mod. SSW = Sudden Stratospheric Warming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudden_stratospheric_warming etc.
Thanks AJB, as I didn’t know what that was either. I’ll be watching to see if that develops.
Strong waves in the upper stratosphere.
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_WAVE1_MEAN_JFM_NH_2016.png
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/stratosphere/strat-trop/gif_files/time_pres_TEMP_MEAN_JFM_NH_2016.png
You can follow the strat freeks here 🙂
Strong growth in the galactic radiation.
http://oi68.tinypic.com/2q9hu69.jpg
THE WINTER 2008-2009 MAJOR SUDDEN STRATOSPHERIC WARMING OBSERVED BY LIDAR AT THULE (76.5°N, 68.8°W), GREENLAND
Abstract
Lidar measurements of atmospheric temperature profiles and aerosol backscatter ratio and depolarization have been carried out at Thule (76.5°N, 68.8°E), Greenland, in the period January – early March 2009. The Lidar, installed at Thule in 1990, is part of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). During winter 2008-2009, Lidar profiles were acquired on a regular basis with a maximum of 5-6 hours of measurements per day, except for a few periods characterized by poor weather conditions or instrumental problems. A total of 44 Lidar temperature profiles between 25 and 70 km were obtained during the measurement campaign. Radiosonde data obtained at the stations of Eureka (79.9°N, 85.9°W) and Alert (82.5°N, 62.3°W) were used to derive temperatures below 25 km. Lidar temperature profiles have permitted to show the evolution of the stratospheric thermal conditions. During the first part of the campaign, in mid-January 2009, the polar vortex was still present above Thule. A polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) of NAT particles was detected on January 17 and 18 between 17 and 19 km. The major sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) was observed during the second half of January. The warming affected the upper stratosphere (~ 40-45 km) first, and then propagated rapidly from the upper to the lower stratosphere. The temporal evolution of the stratospheric temperature was derived at fixed potential temperature levels between 500 and 1500 K. Lidar data show the first signs of the warming at the 1500 K level (~ 42 km) on 22 January, after a week of instrumental problems that prevented from carrying out measurements. After 2-3 days, the warming reached 1000 K (~ 34 km), 900 K (~ 32 km) and 800 K (~ 29 km), and after 5-6 days it reached 600 K (~ 23 km) and 500 K (~ 20 km). Comparison of Lidar data with CIRA model profiles indicates that during the SSW the measured temperature between 25 and 45 km altitude exceeded by 40-50 K the expected CIRA values, reaching a maximum of ~290 K at 40 km. The intensity peak of the SSW was observed between 22 and 24 January. The warming produced an abrupt and irreversible break of the polar vortex. Comparison of 2009 data with Lidar atmospheric temperature measurements obtained during several years between 1994 and 2007 indicates that the 2009 SSW was the strongest event ever observed by the Lidar at Thule.
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009AGUFM.A21C0202D
Great link, my thanks again AJB. 🙂
High ionizing radiation.
http://oi68.tinypic.com/eq56ko.jpg
Look at the distribution of temperature in the stratosphere. Neutrons exceed 6400 counts.