Walter Sobchak writes:
Unseasonable late April weather damaged vineyards in France and England
They warned us that the delicate vineyards could be severely damaged by man caused global climate change. We wouldn’t listen and see what we got:
French Bordeaux vineyards could lose half of harvest due to frost on Sat May 6, 2017
REUTERS BORDEAUX, France “Bordeaux vineyards in southwest France could lose about half of their harvest this year after two nights of frost damaged the crop at the end of April, a wine industry official said on Saturday. … Wines from the Cognac, Bergerac, and Lot-et-Garonne regions had also been affected … ‘For Bordeaux wines…we estimate that the impact will be a loss of about 50 percent, depend on how many buds can regrow'”
English vineyards report ‘catastrophic’ damage after severe April frost
GUARDIAN.COM “Chris White, the chief executive of Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey, said up to 75% of its crop was damaged by last week’s sub-zero temperatures: “The temperature dropped to -6C and at that level it causes catastrophic damage to buds,” he said. White said staff had worked in vain using special fans and heaters to protect the vineyard, which at 265 acres in the UK’s biggest, after an Arctic blast swept across the UK. … ‘It’s been a stark reminder of the difficulties faced by wine producers in the country, and yes … at this moment we are asking ourselves whether we were mad to try and grow vines in England,’ said Wenman”
WINESPECTATOR.COM French Winemakers Weathering Worst Frost in 25 Years
Cold weather struck France’s young vine buds again this week, and Bordeaux is the latest region to suffer frost damage. Farther north, Burgundy and Champagne also weathered cold conditions and frost. Damage reports are incomplete so far, mainly because winegrowers have been busy preparing anti-frost measures.
Bordeaux’s Right Bank Hit Hard
“We can already estimate that we have lost nearly half of the potential crop,” said Xavier Coumau, president of Bordeaux’s Syndicate of Wine and Spirits Courtiers.
Many are calling it the worst frost since 1991, as temperatures dropped to nearly 26° F in some spots. Damage has been reported on the Right Bank, including in Pomerol and St.-Emilion—though the plateau of St.-Emilion was spared—as well as Pessac and Graves and even up in the western edge of the Médoc.
“It is rather dramatic,” Stéphane Derenoncourt, proprietor of Domaine de l’A in Castillon and consultant to dozens of Right Bank estates, told Wine Spectator. “Only the plateau and the tops of slopes are spared. There is damage everywhere, sometimes 100 percent. We haven’t seen everything yet, and it is fo
We need to learn that the truly insidious thing about Climate Change is that it just doesn’t mean the world is getting warmer, it also means that frosts will occur in late April in locations as far south as Green Bay, WI.
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Of course this has never happened before ;
“Many are calling it the worst frost since 1991”
They have erased the LFA (Little Frost Age)
No, that is the really insidious thing about AGW propagandists: whatever happens it’s “just what climate models predicted”. ie any weather event of any type is interpreted as backing up what they’ve always said. Except that “what they’ve always said” changes as often as the direction of the wind.
This is why vine growing in Britain dropped out of fashion at the end of the MWP. Recent climate has been too susceptible to cold snaps. Despite man’s best efforts to make it more clement by burning everything he can find.
Greg,
Clearly, we need to burn more, to promote the British wine industry and be good for plants, children and other living things.
Unprecedented since the last time it happened.
During the LIA they had vine yards and banana trees at the north pole dontcha know!!!!
Frosts as late as late April in Green Bay? That’s a joke, I’m sure. We’ve had killing frosts as late as the first week in May here in central and southern Virginia, several hundred miles south of Green Bay. When we lived in Superior, WI (a bit north of Green Bay, to be sure), the ice didn’t go out from the bay until June 10 one year, and May frosts, freezes, and snowstorms were not all that rare. When our son turned 1 year old (May 5, 1974), we had to put on his snowsuit to let him play in the snow. He enjoyed it.
As for the frosts in France–surely those should be a thing of the past by now, in view of the constant and catastrophic warming of the climate. Sort of like snow in England–something our children would never see.
I’m just waiting for the day we can begin pineapple production in Poughkeepsie and Bananas, botanically a berry, in Buffalo. Hey, gotta look at the bright side.
I detect sarcasm. You fool. Don’t you know that until recently every day had a fixed, Gaia-ordained temperature? Men’s meddling with CO2 etc has disrupted her order. Thank goodness for those righteous folk who would save us from the sin of prosperity.
If we had listened to Hansen and accepted a radical change of society this would not have happened? Yeahhh!
Always remember hitting a French ‘Bar’ (Pub), on the FR/SP border (a few miles west of Perpignan) where the ‘locals’ took great pride in their photographs of snow. They wanted to make me feel right at home, me arriving from N England and all that.
That was 30 years ago, the photos were 20 years old. That means that 50 years ago their ‘desert like’ world was ‘hit’ by snow. Back then they relied upon the grape harvest (probably still do to an extent). That’s why they remembered it so well.
If we can’t promote Global Warming then any old change will do. Any old ‘fear’ will do.
Jackholes being jackholes. We are realist enough to expect that. Nice post
Because AGW we are hastening the arrival of the next glacial age. You only need a prolonged time of good temperatures to start a new ice age. I wrote a sarcastic short story about a group of friends that got caught by a sudden freezing cold in a stone cabin in a mountain in April. It started to snow and to snow and later a frigid incredible cold came to stay. They were trapped in the cabin with plenty of food and wine, and firewood. The more enlightened of the group was blaming AGW for the extreme cold. It was so extreme the cold, that not even the batteries of the cars worked.
Makes me think of the jack rabbit Bugs Bunny cartoon with some poor duck getting a good clobbering.
I haven’t heard that word ‘clobbered’ in many years, but it sure does make my brain feel like it has been clobbered by anti science pagans ready to burn us all at the stake for imagined persecutions by CO2. Or maybe is the result of too much wine last night.
I am sure they will be sacrificing virgins to the climate gods soon, if not already.
Virgins in exchange for wine?
Now that sounds like a bad bargain,-
The Green Meanies do indeed advocate child sacrifice to their bloodthirsty climate god.
Ron, the problem is a lack of resources that would be required to pursue a comprehensive, sustained program of virgin sacrifice. In other words virginity is not a renewable resource and many experts believe we are well past peak virginity.
Jah.
Heh.
What did you expect. I told you it is globally cooling.
Global, I don’t know, but continental Europe has certainly cooled off since the early 2000s peak.
Cold, wet spring across Canada as well. If Russia is similar that is a good chunk of the Northern hemisphere.
Frosts in late April as far south as Green Bay? Honey, there was frost on my grass this morning, and i’m WAY south of Green Bay!
So this means a lack of Beaujolais Villages next year? Bummer! I guess I’ll have to stick with that cheap Tuscan red with a nice nose. But what ever will I do for a good, hearty Burgundy? Bummer!!!
I think you’re in luck – the article didn’t mention Burgandy so expect to enjoy a nice Beaujolais nouveau in a few months!
Not to mention the fine Australian and American wines.
They may rush a tatty Beaujolais nouveau as fast as they can but they can’t make with grape buds. You do actually need to wait for the grapes to form!!
To include South American wines, among the best in the world.
Greg
I’m taking your comment to imply there might, at some point, have been a non-tatty Beaujolais nouveau.
That’s what I was thinking. This Walter Sobchak obviously has no experience with Wisconsin. I lived there from 1971-2003 and can verify through personal experience that there were frosts virtually up to Memorial Day. It’s why we never planted our garden until Memorial Day weekend because we could be assured that the last frost had passed and the soil warm enough to plant. Yet my parents told me they had years where it snowed in early May.
Am I surprised? No. It’s effin’ Wisconsin. We lived right on the 45th parallel, so when I read about Europe suffering from late-season frosts at the higher latitudes I’m actually surprised it doesn’t happen with more regularity.
Anthony left off the /sarc tag. Green Bay at 44°30’48″N is slightly south of the city of Bordeaux at 44°50’N.
The climate of the French city is moderated by the Atlantic Ocean. I live in Balmy Ohio (40°N) where the low was 35 this morning.
My dairy farm is in the uplands of SW Wisconsin. Iowa County, just south of the River, across from Lone Rock. We plant corn mid April-early May depending on weather, but NEVER do the veggie garden until Memorial Day weekend. On the other hand, the early area trout fly fishing using nymphs is always wonderful so long as the streams are clear and not turbid from snow melt or rain. Trout are always hungry that time of year. The morel mushroom season is anywhere from late April to mid May, again depending on weather. Morels are a biological climate clock with about a 3-4 week uncertainty. My brother and his wife came up a few years ago from Atlanta for the ‘planned’ climate date weekend closest to 10 May. We got a pathetic handful. Next weekend I went up alone and got three large shopping bags full. Dried them down and sent some south as a weather apology. Such is Wisconsin.
Heavy snows in the 1990’s for great snowmobiling gave way to pathetic snow cover and alfalfa winterkill in the 2000’s, to now again heavy snows and great alfalfa in the 2010’s.
Rud, we planted corn mid-April on a 55F day here in Jersey co IL and then got hammered with torrential rains and 40 degree nights for two weeks. 0 seedlings so far- looks like a replant year.
The climate change ideology should demand wineries be stopped immediately since they contribute so much to climate change and c02
Since the sugars which are fermented were only formed in the year of production, I don’t think you will find any long term addition to atmospheric CO2 because of the fermentation, if that is what you were trying to suggest.
Greg, does the same apply to all man-made processes that require fermentation? That, as you say, there is no long-term net contribution to the amount of CO2 up there in the sky?
Large-scale Bread and Dough manufacturing on a global scale?
Beer & Lager production worldwide?
Soy Sauce?
Yeast Extract (Marmite/Vegamite)?
plus . . . .
Kim’s suggestion (above) that wine fermentation might add a bit of CO2 as well.
Not that it matters because, as we all know, no amount of increased CO2 is going to change the weather.
Greg, if we didn’t grow the sugars in wine grapes, wouldn’t there be less CO2 in the atmosphere? Now there’s a conundrum fer ya.
Greg
Assume this means cow farts in < 1-year-old calves don't count, either.
The way Brexit ‘negotiations’ are going we’ll be buying our wine from the New World and Antipodes anyway.
Negotiations have not started yet. We are still at the “shouting insults through the letterbox” stage.
Cepheus, as you know, we already do. Top UK wine consumption is mostly attributed to New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. In complete contrast (at the bottom) French and German wines very seldom move off the UK supermarket shelves these days, and sales of Italian wine is beginning to slow down.
So all that political scaremongering about Brexit, trading with other countries, the dangers of pulling out of Europe is . . . . well . . . . er . . . . utter fantasy.
This year they will be calling it Beaujoless, Sara
So far, the late spring frosts have not impacted Texas vineyards.
aaaaaaaahhhhhh now i get it. I think they should listen a bit to the local sayings we got here in belgium.
first one are what we coin as “aprilse grillen” (translation April’s moods) that coins to the fact that one day you can have 20°C and the day after melting snow and frost. Very typical for April here in europe. april was this year very moody indeed 🙂 but well that’s why we heve that term we coin to it here.
then in May we got what we call the “drie ijsheiligen” (translation “the three ice holynesses”. that are the three days of 11-14 May. That’s actually the limit of the -for plant and crops- dangerous night frost. May is usually here the “transition month: it still can start “moody as in April (and it does) and at the end of May the long sun cycle did warm the land and sea enough to temper the moods at the end of the month.
we also got a weather saying that says “een lente vol met grillen geeft een zomer voor blote billen” transleted “a spring that’s moody makes the summer that warms your legs” so that points to the fact that a moody spring with not much warm days may increase the chances for a beautifull summer.
it’s not always the case but in general those sayings turn out to be correct in 80% of the times. Let’s see what this year has in store….
Stock up on California reds now!
Shhh! Last year I bought a glass of a California red wine far more expensive than is my habit, but differently good enough that I sought it out locally, and found it for $7.50/750 ml in case lots and is now my gifting wine. House vin ordinarie is a Chilean Pinot Noir for $3 or $4/750 ml box wine, it’s fine.
Spanish reds are good, if you get a Marques de Riscal Rioja red. Spanish white wines such as the Vina Godeval, not made with the Palomino grape, are flinty like the soil, but friendly and good for pollo en salsa poblano gratinada.
Dadburnit, now I’m getting hungry!
It’s wine. It’s good. And it’s good for you. Good for your soul.
I know there are people in Michigan who make ice wine, letting the grapes run late and freeze before they harvest and press them.
“if you get a Marques de Riscal Rioja red”
Have you ever seen a Rioja which is not red?
Greg,
You didn’t ask me, but yes, I have.
La Rioja is a region, not a color. Its name comes from the Rio Oja, a river. The Spanish word for “red” is “rojo”, so I can see how one might get confused.
The region produces red (tinto), white (blanco) and rosé (rosado) grapes and wines. Among the tintos, the best-known and most widely used variety is Tempranillo.
Sorry Greg, here’s
https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&q=rioja+white&spell=1&sa=X&ved=0
Sorry, I did not mean to be unclear. A Rioja rojo is a red wine from the Rioja region of Spain, and it is quite good, and good for you. Sorry about that! Lo siento!
Back in the early 1990’s was travelling on MOT business to Silicon valley like once a week for 2-3 days. My divisional CFO and I on a lark each bought a futures case of Ridge Cabernet for delivery the next year (1993?). Think we paid (in advance) like $40/bottle. Very high end crazy risky stuff, since wine quality varies year to year. Enjoyed four bottles at significant events like my two children’s weddings, my Mot semi-retirement, and my 25th anniversary (we got divorced at 30 years). Just sold the remaining 8 bottles at auction in Chicago for $780 each! Wine is amazing.
On the other hand, my (purchased during the same general time) magnificent large oil painting by Joshua Meador of the Ridge winery above Santa Clara (probably) is near priceless. Joshua was the lead Disney illustrator for Pinocchio. I was able to track down and buy two of his roughly 300 oils, both from the estate of his late wife. Both contain the signature ‘Pinocchio’ visual distortion. Gone up in value a lot more than the wine. Not for sale ever. His sketches sell for $1000 plus. His small oils sell for $2000 plus. His large oils never come on the public market any more the past two plus decades.
I buy non branded Rioja wine at the farmers market for about $1.5-$2 per liter in 5 liter boxes, not very often, though, since my main wine provider is my cousin. He produces wine for the family by the traditional way with no chemicals (sulphites) added. Not for sale, just for own consumption.
Regarding red & white wine, all grape varieties (afaik) contain white flash. Some have white and some red skin.
The ‘red’ of red wine is therefore entirely from the skin, and white wine may be made from any red grape (whether a good wine or not) merely by not pressing the grapes enough to get juice from the red skin.
I am quite a fan of white burgundy.
IMO the best white wines are made with red wine grapes, like Sauvignon blanc.
ristvan May 7, 2017 at 3:19 pm
OK,
I now officially hate you.
Sara May 7, 2017 at 2:34 pm
Spanish for “red wine” is “vino tinto”, not “vino rojo”.
Chimp, I am not sure how much of what you say is pure sarcasim but just for the record, most White Burgundy is made from the Chardonay grape variety (a white grape). Sauvignon Blanc is a white grape variety (the name actually gives it away). On the other hand rather a lot of champagne (a wine style) is made from pinot noir (a red grape variety, just pressed very lightly). Most of the rest is made from Chardonay but not always exclusively. Pinot Noir is also the main red variety in the Burgundy region, and is the basis for most red Burgundy wines..
Rob,
Yes, most champagne is a blend of pinot and chardonnay, usually with about 10% of something else.
And, of course, you’re correct that the “wild white” grape has a green rather than red skin.
Aye!
And the basic lesser grade bulk bottle white burgundy makes for the finest chicken and fish soup bases!
I much prefer to guzzle the good burgundies directly.
I may need to check the basement larder tonight.
A long time ago, one of my Brothers went into the navy.
When he came home on leave once and actually had money; he went shopping for various wines.
Several days later, he put the box into my Sister’s basement and then didn’t get much leave for the rest of his submarine tour.
Well, he did, but where most people like to go home, he much preferred to visit Rome/France what have you.
Though he did express displeasure at extended stays on Diego Garcia. At his request, I managed to ship him a 16/0 reel for shark fishing, but the military mail refused the fishing rod.
Tim taped his huge reel onto a broomstick, hooked a shark and between him and the shark, lost his reel off the edge of Diego Garcia. Bloop.
But this tale doesn’t go there.
After years in the service, Tim took his honorable discharge, came and visited me and then went to visit our Sister.
Somewhere over the next few days, Tim was reminded of his box of “cheap” wines by our Sister who suggested he get the wines out of her basement.
Late that night, I got a phone call from my Sister.
Her complaint? My Brother Tim, was grossly drunk, which is why “her Brother” had become my Brother.. After a little more nagging and threats, I agreed to come get him.
Here I was thinking one drunk ex-sailor singing of his love for civilian life and women he was friends with.
What I found what a mostly comatose Brother laying on the floor of the kids bathroom.
I prodded my Brother’s body and asked my Sister if he had thrown up yet.
No he hadn’t; so we dragged him into the shower and I refused to take him any further.
Call me when he wakes up.
Tim called me later the next day and asked me a few foolish questions many drunk people have the day following a mighty drunk.
e.g. “Did I really chase an old lady last night?”
All those feeble foibles of the mind where relatives try to fill brain cell voids with good story fallacies.
So, I went back over to my Sister’s to pick up my Brother and his box of wines.
My Sister did make it clear that she wasn’t in a forgiving mood for a Brother who threw up all over her shower or for the Brother who refused to spare her that fun.
Tim surprised both of us with how good his cheap wines turned out from aging in a cool dry basement. Some of those cheap red wines were downright good. I enjoyed helping to drink some of them.
Even the weak white wines had mostly improved with a few nasty exceptions.
You can get a really good liter of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc (cardboard Tetra-pak) for about 1800 Chilean pesos which is about $2.75 US. It’s a lot lot better than the US box wine and better than a lot of the cheaper Cali and Australia bottles. My friend thinks it’s priced so low (low taxes on wine) to keep a good part of the population drunk so they don’t complain too much. It’s working!
Completely understandable.
I like Geppetto better.
Sara, I guess the Spanish wines have improved over the decades. Many, many years ago they were generally poor.
Because of lovely WARM weather, Australia has had one a large and high quality vintage.
One of my friends up the Hunter Valley says the quality will be amongst the best he has seen for a long time.
All because of the lovely WARM weather.
But I wonder what’s happening to New Zealand wines, because a friend in South Island reckons that the last year has been bloody miserable. Cold wet winter and cool, wet summer. Out of season snows in both North and South Islands. All that – and earthquakes too!
Sacramento and the coastal cities are full of reds. Do you have a warehouse where we can send them? Regarding wines, $2-buck Chuck is now $2.99 Charles but still a good buy.
Recently purchased my first “2-buck Chuck” for $2.00 in Austin. Not impressed.
We had two nights of sub freezing temperatures here in Colorado last weekend – 27°F.
OH well, I guess the Colorado wine harvest will be pretty small this year then 😉
Greg,
OH well, I guess the Colorado wine harvest will be pretty small this year
– pushes the prices.
“The worst since” or the “worst ever” or “unprecedented”
Must be climate change.
With apologies to all the folks suffering damage right now but it is like the current flooding occurring in North America. “Worst in Decades!”
[Thing] is, in terms [of] flooding – decades isn’t very long.
One reporter noted one flood was the worst since 1998 or 19 years.
Another larger flood in Quebec was the worst since 1974 – or 53 years.
When we used to do flood mapping for development 40 years ago, we tried using a 1:200 year flood level for restricted development and a 1:100 for no new housing development with some exceptions where main floors were above the 1:100 and no basement development.
Never flew. The Politicians who commissioned the work got so much flack that things were never implemented so on it goes. No one looks beyond a few years and their chequebook.
Wayne
I’ve often said global warming is caused by poor memory. If people could remember back past last week, they would realize how silly “worst ever”, etc, sounds.
It’s important to check where records come from. In Wyoming, Riverton records often only go back to 1996 I believe, when the records were moved from a different station. The actual website for the National Weather Service states this information, but news people rarely do.
(Most seem to have forgotten the extreme flooding in the Midwest in 1993. Wiki calls them the “Great Flood of 1993. It flooded for months. Yet it’s so much worse now. Sure…….)
That’s what I don’t get. “Worst flooding in decades” shouldn’t mean much to anyone since we use the 100 year flood plain for insurance purposes, and we HAVE a 500 year floodplain that’s used for planning.
The flooding starts up a lot quicker now with everything paved over, and massive instant run off. Granted, this is probably a 50 or maybe a 100 year event when it is over. But even that gets misconstrued. A lot of people think a 100 year storm event only happens once every 100 years, but it really means that there is a 1% chance that it will happen any year.
“it also means that frosts will occur in late April in locations as far south as Green Bay, WI.”
Funny you mention that…
==================================================================
URGENT – WEATHER MESSAGE
National Weather Service Green Bay WI
1149 AM CDT Sun May 7 2017
WIZ020-022-030-031-035>040-045-048>050-073-074-072230-
/O.CON.KGRB.FZ.W.0001.170508T0500Z-170508T1300Z/
Menominee-Door-Marathon-Shawano-Wood-Portage-Waupaca-Outagamie-
Brown-Kewaunee-Waushara-Winnebago-Calumet-Manitowoc-
Southern Marinette County-Southern Oconto County-
Including the cities of Keshena, Neopit, Sturgeon Bay,
Fish Creek, Sister Bay, Wausau, Shawano, Marshfield,
Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point, Plover, New London, Waupaca,
Clintonville, Appleton, Green Bay, Kewaunee, Luxemburg,
Redgranite, Wautoma, Oshkosh, Neenah, Menasha, Chilton, Brillion,
New Holstein, Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Harmony, Peshtigo,
Porterfield, Crivitz, High Falls Reservoir, Loomis, Middle Inlet,
Little Suamico, Sobieski, Brookside, Oconto, and Pensaukee
1149 AM CDT Sun May 7 2017
…FREEZE WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 8 AM
CDT MONDAY…
* TEMPERATURE…Cold temperatures are expected tonight. By Monday
morning, temperatures across the area are expected to drop to
26 to 33 degrees, with the warmest readings right along the
shoreline of Lake Michigan and the Bay of Green Bay.
* Lighter winds may also allow for more frost formation than
occurred Sunday morning.
* IMPACTS…If left unprotected, cold-sensitive plants and crops
may be damaged or killed.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…
A Freeze Warning means sub-freezing temperatures are expected.
These conditions will damage or kill cold-sensitive vegetation.
Such plants should be brought into a shed or garage for
protection. If that is not possible, cover them with a cloth.
&&
$$
Skowronski
==========================================================================
Snowing in upstate NY at this moment…11am May 8th. Frost warnings into southeast Ohio.
Last week beneath the never absent promise of
“NWS’ New Version of Forecast coming soon!”
came the red lettered warning link:
“456 AM PDT Wed May 3 2017
THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Region
. Day one…Today and Tonight
Very warm temperatures can be expected today with 80s to mid 90s expected for inland locations. Closer to the water highs will be in the 70s to the lower 80s.”
Along with the alarm came a picture of a sunny blue sky 83, a near cloudless moon with a low of 56 and a Thursday high of 71.
Ahh, California, known to all as The Hazardous State.
It was ~350 in 1991…..there’s no hope
….drink more beer
Every decade or two south Florida gets a freeze….doesn’t stop anyone from whining about it….or growing mangoes and avocados and bananas ….suck it up and live with it
Here in SW Florida Friday and Saturday just past we suffered near winter like weather.
Winter in Florida. So highs in the 70s, lows in the 50s.
Here in Central Florida we really enjoyed the cool blast. I open the window at night and turn the bedroom window fan on when it gets into the 50s. Any warmer and it’s A/C.
Fort Lauderdale for the Sat May 6 air show: high 73F. Brrrr….
Below freezing a few nights in the last couple of weeks and frost expected the next two nights here in southern Adirondacks, latitude 43 degrees 30 min. – slightly south of Green Bay. Average monthly low for May is 24 degrees. Don’t plant garden yet.
Stop your wining.
+1
But keep on dining.
There’s going to be frost (south of Green Bay) here in central Ohio tonight (May 7-8). It’s not unusual. Heck, I remember a frost in early June here a few years ago.
People just don’t remember those things, I guess. It freezes and has snowed into June in Wyoming (Casper) and we’ve had frost in August. It’s all normal.
The funny thing is that when there is a bumper crop, prices fall, and then they cry about that too.
More so for commodities like soybeans and corn rather than wine grapes, I think.
Which reminds me of one of the saddest, most despicable news stories I have ever heard in my life—back when the French government decided to turn 150 million liters of wine into ethanol to be burned in cars:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/world/europe/a-wine-of-character-but-how-many-miles-to-a-gallon.html?_r=0
To think today of how valuable that wine would be to connoisseurs makes me sick to my stomach.
More Inconvenient Truths, methinx, for the Alarmist morons.
Remember that in Roman times, vineyards grew as far North as Newcastlein U.K…… the threshold for viability is now being pushed south to France. So much for “global warming”. Were it the other way round, we’d never hear the end of it from the Alarmists as “proof-positive”. By the same token then, here is “proof negative!”
…in the 1800’s there were orange groves as far north as coastal South Carolina
Coastal South Carolina’s rice plantations from the 1800s border most all coastal rivers, now overgrown with wild coastal grasses especiallly designed to wrap around and interfering propellers of unsuspecting outboard motors who stray out of the channels.
Another extreme weather event, just not one predicted by CAGW.
Yep, children growing up today just won’t know what saying something and meaning it is any more.
“Another extreme weather event, just not one predicted by CAGW”
ristvan, what good is CAGW other than ‘predicting’ ?
Once again a news report almost meaningless because the terms are vague and equivocal. It is possible to talk of weather, climate and climate change meaningfully, but not the way most news is written.
https://rclutz.wordpress.com/2017/05/06/climate-confusion-and-clarity/
What happened in UK and France is not so bad. Look what happened in Phoenix one time.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXuc7SAyk2s&w=740&h=416%5D
2960 F at Cave Creek! global warming just as the climate models predicted.
That’s still nothing, Ron. I was told that under heavy German bombardment during the battle of Stalingrad, Red Army artillery battalions regularly experienced sine and cosine values spiking to 3.
Colorado, please explain
artillery battalions regularly experienced sine and cosine values spiking to 3.
Sine and cosine vary between -1 and 1.
Got to give the weather guy credit for handling the situation with a nice sense of humor.
Yes, I liked his sentence that started out normal: “And Sunrise is warming at 1300 degrees.”
“Ice Wine” is a big seller in the frozen North …! (Canada) .
don’t be fooled. Chilled wine is just a clever marketing ploy to disguise the taste of mediocre red wine. If a red is worth drinking it will be at its best between 14 and 18 deg C.
You are confusing ice wine with iced wine. We drink our ice wine at cool cellar temperature but with the cold spring in BC, the temperature of the Chateau Wogga Wogga may be below zero at room temperature. That is an iced wine, not an ice wine.
My Willamette Valley connoisseur friends keep their pinot noir refrigerator at 58 degrees F (14.4 C). It does taste better that cool, IMO.
I too lije a chilled red Pino Noir. It’s just about the only red I really like to drink in the tropics in summer for that reason. I often put reds in the fridge for a few minutes in summer anyway, when room temp is about 30C, reds get too warm.
Seems history has repeated it self once again. Seems like I’ve read passages from the ancient books, of warm winters and then the wicked witch of the north comes down and sits on the area for a few days. Even better snow comes down to a depth one to three meters or more. All it took for the wheat of western Kansas and the cattle die off in Colorado to be loss was 20 inches.
geez…I wish that wicked witch could make up her mind. A month ago, that wicked warlock, Dr. M@nn was telling Congress “that cattle were being burned alive” in his opening statement about their new findings on Attribution of CO2 causing all those wildfires. I suppose CO2 does everything.
The 3 cold gardeners, the cold Sophias,
https://www.google.at/search?q=The+Three+Ice+Saints&oq=The+Three+Ice+Saints&aqs=chrome.
every year rediscovered.
None of the three news articles quoted in this post mentioned “Climate Change”, i.e. they were just responsible, factual news reports. Perhaps nobody told them that global warming can also cause cooling. I suppose the alarmist pundits took the weekend off, and no doubt they will be on hand tomorrow to explain how it’s all our fault.
global warming can also cause cooling
===============
climate change can cause the climate to not change. thus the Pause.
Europe isn’t through with the cold yet, so even if some of the buds regrow they might get clobbered again.
e.g. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-05-08/news/ct-wea-0509-asktom-20100508_1_chicago-weatherman-paul-kubecka-iron-men-dear-tom
Back in the good old days when we had bad weather, it was just that – bad weather. Now, of course, we know better. it isn’t bad weather, it’s climate change. Before there was climate change, the winters were always mild, the summers hot (but not too hot), and everything we needed grew on trees /sarc.
Weather is a statistical phenomenon, which means that every now and then we get exceptional weather. In January 1998 eastern Ontario and western Quebec had an impressive ice storm (four continuous days of freezing rain) which brought down power lines and trees and left the place looking like the aftermath of a gigantic bombing raid. It was probably a hundred-year event.
On a larger scale, probably the worst storm to hit England in recorded history occurred in 1703, and was almost certainly a hurricane. Hurricanes at that latitude are extremely rare phenomena, occurring perhaps once every thousand years, but that doesn’t mean to say they don’t happen. However, the first recognizable steam engine had been patented five years earlier in 1698 by Thomas Savery, which 97% of climate scientists agree was the start of man-made climate change, and was undoubtedly responsible for the 1703 storm /sarc again.
“Hurricanes at that latitude are extremely rare phenomena, occurring perhaps once every thousand years”
You mean that tropical hurricanes are extremely rare. Temperate hurricanes (= storms with sustained winds over 33 meters/sec) happens every few years. They very rarely get beyond Cat 1 however.
“In Hartford, Hereford, and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen.”
And don’t forget that other bastion of English weather, King Arthur:
Wine makers should know ‘the three ice saints’ – and they do.
But not to speak in the open, maybe there’s some compensation.
Odd. My mother told me about the three ice saints last week.
“La helada de Santa Rita todo lo quita, la de San Bernardino quita pan y no da vino, y la de San Urbán quita vino y no da pan”
“The frost of Santa Rita takes everything away, the one of San Bernardino removes bread and does not give wine, and the one of San Urbán removes wine and does not give bread”
I only knew about Santa Rita.
San Bernardino falls on May 20th, Santa Rita falls on May 22nd and San Urbán on May 25th. So, frosts are not unusual in late May.
Thanks for you confirm !
It’s been unusually cool and damp here in northeast US, and will be for a while. Tomorrow will be in the upper 40’s, some 20 deg. F below normal.
GISS, HadCrut, Best, temperatures for April have not been released yet, but vine growers can take consolation that this April is likely to be the third warmest on record for those datasets. Ah, the wonders of averaging and adjusting. As usual the recommendation from climatologists to vine growers is to move North or up in altitude to cope with the rising temperatures. I will add they better have a good insurance coverage.
Vineyards planted in the Walla Walla Valley of OR and WA during the last century have been frozen out in recent years.
The planters should sue Michael Mann.
Yes the global “temperature” averages are pushed up by the areas where there are no people to experience the weather, e.g. Pacific and other oceans, Siberia, Arctic, etc.