From Wire and Twitter reports:
We know the northern hemisphere has been getting colder, for example we reported earlier this week that the USA was colder than any time last year with an average temperature of 16 degrees F. It isn’t just the USA, in northern Africa, reports suggest that it is only the second time in living memory that snow has fallen on the Sahara desert. The last record is for February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half an hour.
Snow falling on the Saharan mountain ranges is very rare, let alone on the sandy dunes of the continent’s largest desert.
Amateur photographer Karim Bouchetata says he took the incredible pictures of snow covering the sand in the small Saharan desert town of Ain Sefra, Algeria, on December 19. The unforgiving red dunes looked pristine and picturesque.
“It looked amazing as the snow settled on the sand and made a great set of photos. The snow stayed for about a day and has now melted away.” he added.
Quote via The India Times
https://twitter.com/MiltonWolfMD/status/811272816280686593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
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@ur momisugly ATheoK December 21, 2016 at 9:20 pm says “• Polar Bears are in danger of extinction! Not even the world’s greatest polar bear activists are making that claim anymore.”
N0, no, you are wrong. There is a front page article in the NYTimes attesting to the alleged fact that polar bears are reduced to scavenging in garbage dumps and we all know that the NYTimes is a peer reviewed journal so what they say must be true. See: wattsupwiththat.com/2016/12/18/claim-rubbish-dump-polar-bears-are-climate-refugees/ for clarification if you have any doubts. If the NYTimes experts said that up is down it must be true, dontcha know?
The NY Times: Piper of record.
The NY Times: All the News that Fits.
RayG:
Good sarcasm RayG!
Just to pile on:
Well, that sure defines what the leftist elites think is “peer reviewed”; research by brandished press release!
As Susan Crockford pointed out the other day, well fed fat polar bears are feasting in a Russian town’s dump.
The article’s text doesn’t match up with the photograph.
It isn’t just the USA, in northern Africa, reports suggest that it is only the second time in living memory that snow has fallen on the Sahara desert. The last record is for February 18, 1979, when the snow storm lasted just half an hour.
Snow falling on the Saharan mountain ranges is very rare, let alone on the sandy dunes of the continent’s largest desert.
Well these photos are from Ain Sefra, Algeria which is in the Atlas mountains not the Sahara desert. Snow in the atlas mountains is not that uncommon, in fact there are several ski resorts there!
Thirty seven years ago – near the end of a cooling period. Today – near the start of a cooling period.
Expect more snow in the Sahara over the years.
And heavier periods of fog along the coast of California as was seen back in the 1950s through the early 1970s.
And it never rains in Southern California….
http://i63.tinypic.com/nf027c.png
joelobryan December 21, 2016 at 10:29 pm
“And it never rains in Southern California….”
Hi joel, I live southeast of L.V. right under the green area of your map. Yeah its still raining, it was light out when it started. Desert is going to green up nicely.
michael
It POURS !!!
AndyG55 December 22, 2016 at 12:25 am
Hi Andy, just for yuks did anyone notice it also snowed in Saudi Arabia, a few days ago? Also last month…
http://www.arabnews.com/node/1027236
http://indianexpress.com/article/world/world-news/saudi-arabia-desert-kingdom-partially-covered-under-snow-with-extreme-temperature-drop-4402712/
One could begin to wonder….
also last January’s snow was the first in 85 years. Hmmm..
michael
If this isn’t an example of hell freezing over, then I guess the chances of remotely occurring events is still pretty remote.
I have noticed an effect from global weirding: as more and more mainstream newspapers close their comments because the election results didn’t work out the way they wanted them, and abandon climate change because it doesn’t sell adverts, so the trolls are descending like a flock of locusts, on Watts Up with That and other similar places….
Meanwhile up at the Pole…
https://forum.arctic-sea-ice.net/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1611.0;attach=39476;image
So what Griff the arctic average above 80 degrees north is still 0 degrees F. So the arctic is still way below freezing. Take a look.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
They have records going back to 1958. Compared to all of their records this year looks pretty normal.
I take a look at the temp at Iqaluit, a settlement just north of Hudson Bay, every day. Minus 28 C for almost the last month doesn’t look that warm to me. I guess the Weather Network may retire that station soon. It’s too bloody inconvenient to show perspective like that.
I check the live video feed from an Arctic research station that routinely shows temps below freezing, even in summer months. Oops, more of those pesky facts and what not.
meanwhile on Greenland….
oh ice accumulation that’s 3 months ahead? an all time record accumulation? sounds fishy…..
Grif the polar bear expert knows all and tells all, as fast as he can make it up. Question, wise Polar bear expert: where does heat go once it gets to the poles?
I know I’m being pedantic here but is 400ppm of CO2 deserving of the term “concentration” of gas. Anyway, at least polar bears can move to North Africa.
you all do know that temps cold enough for snow are not uncommon in the Sahara – it’s just there isn’t usually enough moisture to produce the snow ?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara#Temperature
“Still, it is true that winter nights can be cold as it can drop to the freezing point and even below, especially in high-elevation areas. The frequency of subfreezing winter nights in the Sahara is strongly influenced by the North Atlantic Oscillation, with warmer winter temperatures during negative NAO events and cooler winters with more frosts when the NAO is positive. This is because the weaker clockwise flow around the eastern side of the subtropical anticyclone during negative NAO winters, although too dry to produce more than negligible precipitation, does significantly reduce the flow of dry, cold air from higher latitudes of Eurasia into the Sahara.”
No need for mascara! Russians enjoy an Arctic blast with temperatures plunging to a bone-crushing minus 62C leaving their eyelashes frozen over.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4057686/No-need-mascara-Russians-enjoy-Arctic-blast-temperatures-plunging-bone-crushing-minus-62C-leaving-eyelashes-frozen-over.html
Heat/cold & local weather change constantly. If its colder somewhere on earth it will be warmer elsewhere. That’s called natural variability. Who cares about the N Pole? It has been ice free several times in history and the ice bears survived it. If that is to come again, be it.
Does the record ice low in november tell us anything apart from heat transport from another place somewhere on the globe? It can’t be CO2 directly because that is not heating and insulating specific places, especially those like the N Pole. The heat over there must come from somewhere else, being it heated air over land (probably partly by CO2) or solar heated water transported by ocean currents. So what are those N Pole record lows and highs are telling us? Nothing at all!
paulclim, you are asking questions climate kooks don’t like to be asked. And hate to answer. In the moronic obsession of the climate apocalypse true believers, heat magically lingers forever. And for them anomalies = temperature. Their world is essentially superstitious, but covered in a thin cheap layer of sciencey words.
It is worse than I thought…
The same variability is the reason for the snow in the sahara. Record warm in Arctic, record cold in sahara. So what does it tell us? Nothing. Once we have a good picture of ocean heat content we can judge the whole system. Up to then local wheather change will be interpreted as climate change. Global surface temp data, regardless whether adjusted or not, are meaning nothing without having the ocean heat content monitored at the same time because surface temperatures can always have the root cause in the ocean! The ocean is the dog, surface is just the tail and IR radiation has no big impact on this dog. For me that is the main reason why CO2 has no big global effect in the long run.
paulclim
“Record warm in Arctic, record cold in sahara. So what does it tell us? Nothing.”
______________
No one has suggested that temperatures in the Sahara are anything other than normal for the time of year; in fact, they are mostly ‘above’ average across the region currently: http://pamola.um.maine.edu/fcst_frames/GFS-025deg/DailySummary/GFS-025deg_WORLD-CED_T2_anom.png
Snow is unusual because there usually isn’t sufficient moisture in the atmosphere; but temperatures are nothing unusual. A strong wind has been blowing southward across N Africa from the Med. lately. Likely this is the source of the moisture.
You can clearly see mountains in the background, did you forget to post the coordinates? It doesn’t look like Sahara desert.
Mountains? What I see looks like hills at or around 1500m.
1500 meters is higher than mountains in the UK. If 1500 meters is not a mountain, Snowdon and Ben Nevis are relegated to hills.
“Gareth Phillips December 22, 2016 at 4:29 am”
Where I live now, yes. If I lived there, probably not. Perspective.
Well it’s in the Atlas mountains which go as high as 13,000′.
It is just over 1000 meters above sea level with higher mountains around it.
This is weather, not climate.
I see Nick Stokes thinks it’s not extreme weather – and he makes a good case.
I see Steve Heins thinks it is extreme weather and that the IPCC predicted it. Not sure I agree with that. If a warming world is indicated by snow in the Sahara then it implies that everything is predicted, when it has happened.
Now if they could have said when the snow was likely to become more common (if it has) then that would be evidence of expertise.
Meanwhile, back in the Arctic the temperature relentlessly climbs. Looks like, if things continue as they are, there will be little ice left at the end of next years summer melt. A lack of ice in the Arctic may well facilitate unusual weather patterns in the Northern hemisphere.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/meant80n.uk.php
Northern Hemisphere Sea Ice extent.
http://ocean.dmi.dk/arctic/plots/icecover/osisaf_nh_iceextent_daily_5years_en.png
Ah well the Antarctic is growing and so is the world’s third largest store of fresh water so 2 out of 3 aint bad, not that we have any say in it-
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/perito-moreno-glacier
Sorry Gareth that statement is a “So What”. The average above 80 degrees north is still way below freezing on that chart and not much different from most records going back to 1958 if you would check the history also posted on the same site page.
Ya, that warmth is going to pile up and man, they’ll be growing banana trees up there in a few more years. Amazing how all that heat lingers and hides forever, dude
We pay attention to the temperature of the surface of the southern oceans.
http://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2016/anomnight.12.19.2016.gif
Meanwhile in Oz the natives are getting restless-
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/hard-left-members-of-the-greens-have-formed-a-new-faction-called-left-renewal/ar-BBxqWav?
The more their catastrophic global warming meme falls on deaf ears the more apopleptic and lunar they become. One thing’s for sure, it aint about the science for these people.
now in Sahara before Christmas! A Limerick.
It snowed in Sahara last night!
Ain Sefra’s, Algeria delight.
It did last for a day.
Cold. What more can I say?
A wrench in the Climate Change fight.
It is the first time since February 1979 it has snowed in Ain Sefra, located on the edge of the Sahara Desert. That snow lasted for about an hour, and it was mid-winter. This time the snow lasted for a whole day, and it was on the last day of fall!
I guess this is why the alarmists changed from calling it Global Warming to Climate change. Snow that lies doesn’t lie.
It is getting cold. https://lenbilen.com/2016/12/22/snow-in-sahara-before-christmas-a-limerick/
lenbilen December 22, 2016 at 5:38 am
It is the first time since February 1979 it has snowed in Ain Sefra, located on the edge of the Sahara Desert. That snow lasted for about an hour, and it was mid-winter. This time the snow lasted for a whole day, and it was on the last day of fall!
Otherwise known as Midwinter’s day.
Funny how that is, that official winter starts at the winter solstice.
Personally I prefer the meteorological delineation – Winter = Dec Jan Feb.
In the 1960s I recall water buckets at Kano Airport in Northern Nigeria being frozen almost solid during the Harmattan (this time of the year) when the air can be very dry and the temperature drops like a stone. Later the same day you could swim in the pool but come out shivering when the temperature was 90f because the humidity was so low, 10 per cent or so, and the skin on your hands could crack.
I hadn’t realized that the Sahara got cold enough to be able to sustain a snow coating like that. I would have expected that the sand would have to be at least no more than low 40s, probably upper 30s for the snow to accumulate to the amount in these pictures. Does anyone know how long it lasted before it melted?
Don’t know how long till it melted. I can tell you that it gets cold in deserts. Very. Cold.
Damn you, Globall Warmining, DAMN YOU!!!!!! Just felt it needed to be said.
@gareth
Since researchers first located the magnetic pole back in the early Nineteenth Century, it has meandered over 600 miles.
[more north]
Back in the early Twentieth Century the pole was moving at just 10 miles per year, but that rate has accelerated up to around 40 miles per year.
Thinking of earth’s inner core like a magnetic stirrer it makes sense to me that a shift in the sun’s inner core just pulls the earth’s inner core with it.
That explains my results: no warming in the SH and the arctic melt.
You realize this elephant in the room when you go down 1km into a gold mine here….
hence
there is no man made global warming
agreed?
“I hadn’t realized that the Sahara got cold enough to be able to sustain a snow coating like that. I would have expected that the sand would have to be at least no more than low 40s, probably upper 30s for the snow to accumulate to the amount in these pictures. ”
It depends at what time the snow fell. If during the latter part of the night then the sandy surface could easily have fallen to 0C with a thin layer of snow then able to settle. As someone said it is because very little moisture gets down there normally that makes the precipitation unusual. The town is at 3500ft, which equates to around 8-10 C at SL with a standard DALR for that part of the trop.
“Although the air is dry and evaporative to an extreme, in the winter strong polar fronts from the Mediterranean can occasionally produce rain, and, in this case, snow,” Parker said. “It is not unusual for temperatures to dip below freezing in the winter.”
Though it isn’t a common occurrence, snow does fall in the Sahara about once every decade or so when conditions are just right…
https://www.wunderground.com/news/snow-blankets-sahara-desert-sands-in-algeria
Although temperature is obviously important, snow is about humidity. Mauna Kea is in the foreground and Mauna Loa (of CO2 monitoring fame) is in the background. The snow has been there now for two weeks, but snow on those mountains is not unusual, since Mauna Kea means White Mountain. Even so, at 19N lat and 13,000 ft high, the snow has not been lasting very long for the last 30 years. In the 1980s, the snows often lasted steadily through the winter months and snow depths reached 10 ft after a good storm. Not so much after that. Temperatures weren’t all that warmer, but at that high altitude and the typically very low humidity, the snow actually sublimes. Now the snow is lasting again. The cold PDO is having the expected effect of more rain and more snow. The islands are green down below and white on top.
http://louxeng.com/pictures/mkcam%2012-21-16.jpg
Yea, people are having a conniption fit over snow falling on mountain tops where it ROUTINELY falls. F**king morons.
Here in the Pre-Alps we were warned not to stay longer in Nature / in the open during the holidays Christmas until New Year’s Eve –
From 7° outside temperature and above the ticks become active.
Pre Alps
Where is that?
All along the Alps. Like the foothills of the Rockies:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpine_foothills
is that why 2 days ago i had to wear hat, big coat and had to ride on my bycicle through icy conditions? and where i live it’s not that far from the prealps…. at least when you speak in global contexts