LIVE at 1 p.m. ET: Winter Misery — The Climate Realism Show #188

Most of the United States is enduring the worst winter weather in years — digging out from a foot or more of snow while facing record-breaking temperatures far below normal. It’s simply miserable out there.

Yet, comically, the legacy media is blaming it all on global warming and man-caused climate change.

On this episode of The Climate Realism Show, we push back against the latest climate myth-peddling and offer a little camaraderie in our shared winter misery.

Special Guest: Steve Milloy of JunkScience.com

We’ll also cover Crazy Climate News of the Week, including:

  • Radical activists helping write climate “guidance” for federal judges
  • A scheme to make money by pumping poop into the ground
  • A status update on efforts to eliminate the CO₂ “Endangerment Finding”
  • A look back at Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth on its 20th anniversary

Join Anthony Watts, Sterling Burnett, Linnea Lueken, and Jim Lakely from The Heartland Institute LIVE at 1:00 p.m. ET on YouTube, Rumble, X, and Facebook.

💬 Participate live by leaving your comments and questions in the chat.

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Arthur Jackson
January 30, 2026 9:43 am

Weather is warm here in the Pacific North-West. 39 degrees and foggy. It’s been like that for a month now. Supposedly because of La Nina or something.

Reply to  Arthur Jackson
January 30, 2026 10:08 am

I live in the PNW (Willamette Valley) and it’s been below freezing here for a month, until 3 days ago when it warmed up slightly and started raining. Typical normal January. Just wanted to clear up the record. Normal, average, just the same, within the bounds of historical variation. No wild a** hypotheses required. Please remain calm and refrain from freaking out, about the weather anyway.

Also, welcome back Climate Realism crew. Some of you have been globe hopping. Looking forward to your report.

January 30, 2026 10:23 am

Said it before, but if both A and non-A “prove” your theory then you are dealing in religion, not science.

January 30, 2026 10:36 am

From the above announcement of the show:
“Most of the United States is enduring the worst winter weather in years — digging out from a foot or more of snow while facing record-breaking temperatures far below normal. It’s simply miserable out there.”

Could this possibly—remotely—be all that water injected into the troposphere and stratosphere in January 2022 by the Hunga-Tonga volcano finally “deciding” to precipitate out as recent heavy snowfalls over the US and Europe?

No, makes no sense . . . but I await all the comments that offer up the H-T eruption as the immediate cause for any recent weather perturbation.

D Sandberg
Reply to  ToldYouSo
January 30, 2026 1:28 pm

Copilot AI

Original Warming Argument

  • The January 15, 2022, Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai eruption injected an enormous amount of water vapor into the stratosphere—unlike most volcanic eruptions that emit cooling aerosols.
  • Water vapor is a greenhouse gas, so the expectation was a short-term warming effect lasting 2–3 years.

Why Some Now Claim Cooling

  • Timing Issue: Observed global temperature anomalies didn’t spike immediately; instead, some datasets show subtle changes appearing 14–16 months later.
  • Possible Explanation: The eruption also released sulfate aerosols, which reflect sunlight and cause cooling. Initially, these may have offset the warming from water vapor.
  • Delayed Signal: Climate systems have inertia—ocean heat uptake and atmospheric mixing can delay the manifestation of net effects.

Current Consensus

  • Most peer-reviewed studies still lean toward net warming from the water vapor injection, but the magnitude is modest compared to anthropogenic trends.
  • Cooling claims often hinge on short-term regional anomalies or model sensitivity rather than global averages.
  • The delayed impact could reflect complex interactions: aerosols causing early cooling, followed by gradual warming as they settle out while water vapor persists.
  • Effective Warming Period:
  • The strongest radiative forcing occurs during the first 18–24 months, when water vapor concentration is near peak.
  • After ~24 months, the effect begins tapering significantly as photochemical reactions and Brewer–Dobson circulation transport vapor downward.
  • Residual Influence:
  • Beyond 30 months, the remaining water vapor contributes only marginal warming—likely within natural variability.
  • So, the practical “impact window” for noticeable global temperature anomaly is closer to 2–2.5 years, not the full 43 months.

  • Why the Range Exists – Models
  • Differ on removal rates due to uncertainties in stratospheric mixing and seasonal circulation patterns.
  • ENSO phases can amplify or mask the signal, making attribution harder after ~24 months.
Reply to  D Sandberg
January 30, 2026 6:16 pm

D Sandberg,

Under your recounting of Copilot’s output, subheading “Current Consensus”:
“Most peer-reviewed studies still lean toward net warming from the water vapor injection, but the magnitude is modest compared to anthropogenic trends.”

Obviously,

(a) Copilot has the hallucination that peer-review has value in today’s world of publishing . . . hah! There is no objective evidence of such, and much evidence against this claim.

(b) Copilot has the hallucination that there is a “strong trend” in global warming that is anthropomorphic (that is, caused by mankind) . . . hah, hah! There is no objective evidence of such, and much evidence against this claim.

Beyond this, one just has to admire Copilot using a plethora of ambiguous words/phrases such as:
— “the expectation was”
— “some now claim”
— “some datasets now show”
— “these may have”
— “can delay”
— “still lean toward”
— “claims often hinge on”
— “could reflect”
— “likely within natural variability”
— “can amplify or mask the signal”.

I was rather shocked to see that Copilot did not follow the human pattern, after such pontification, of stating that this subject really needs additional substantial funding to further study the subject. /sarc

Reply to  ToldYouSo
January 31, 2026 5:26 am

With all that hallucinating Copilot should seek a good psychiatrist. 🙂

Reply to  ToldYouSo
January 30, 2026 2:09 pm

Could this possibly—remotely—be all that water injected into the troposphere 

No. I predicted above trend snowfall in the NH over a year ago. It is due to the Sun and Earth’s relationship with it.

The changes in solar power from day to day and season to season is the driver of climate trends.

Reply to  RickWill
January 30, 2026 6:26 pm

“No . . .  It is due to the Sun and Earth’s relationship with it.”

OK, so how is that Sun-Earth “relationship” this end-January 2026 different from what it was end-January 2025 or end-January 2024?

Reference the very first sentence in the above article:
“Most of the United States is enduring the worst winter weather in years . . .”

“The changes in solar power from day to day and season to season is the driver of climate trends.”

Uhhhh . . . NASA, NOAA and most real climate scientists define “climate” as weather over a specified geographical area averaged over a period of 30 years or more, and do not attribute it to day-to-day or season-to-season variations.

Reply to  ToldYouSo
January 31, 2026 5:30 am

Seems to me the weather has just swung back o what I recall from decades ago. Having worked outdoors for 50 years, I’m rather familiar with the weather, at least here in Wokeachusetts. I often worked in the forests in near zero temperature and with 3′ of snow on the ground. Got my snowshoes out yesterday. The snow is deep enough but its pure dry power so I sunk too far. I’ll wait until it gets a crust on it after a warming then re-freeze.

Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
January 31, 2026 7:42 am

Just so. And let’s not forget that in the early 1970’s most “climate scientists” were very concerned about the Earth cooling off . . . even to extent of publications talking about “the coming Ice Age”.

Reply to  RickWill
January 31, 2026 5:28 am

Along with many other things- most of which we don’t understand.

January 30, 2026 10:40 am

Need to get Lee Zeldin back on to tell us what is happening with “The Endangerment Finding”

Reply to  bnice2000
January 31, 2026 5:33 am

Trump now has him working on trying to resolve the problems with rebuilding in LA since the mayor and governor aren’t helping much- mostly by now granting building permits. I hope that’s a temporary thing- maybe he could go out there for a week, and leave a few of his people to do that chore. We do need him in DC working on terminating the EF.

January 30, 2026 2:04 pm

The Sun and Earth’s relationship with it caused the warm boreal summer followed by the above trend snowfall this boreal winter.

I predicted it over a year ago.

Similar conditions will prevail in 2033 summer and 2033/34 winter. The 2025/26 conditions will be eclipsed in 2037/28.

Edward Katz
January 30, 2026 2:38 pm

This is another example of the desperate measures that the proponents of climate change have adopted as they see their alarmist theories losing more and more traction. These were the same people who were assuring us that because of excessive fossil fuel consumption winter wouldn’t begin until mid-December and end by January 31. Yet here in Winnipeg we’re experiencing the 9th straight day of below normal temperature where January normals are lows of about minus-24C=minus 11 F. and highs are minus 12C=minus 10. F with plenty of snow in every direction. Meanwhile the rest of the continent is reeling from major winter storms that have caused travel problems on the ground and in the air. In other words, these are the types of variations that have always existed and this year is just a little more extreme, no more or less.

real bob boder
January 30, 2026 3:16 pm

All I know is in Pa this has been the longest sustained cold spell I can remember and I am pretty old. Been below average since early November with only a couple weeks in the normal to slightly over normal range. Can’t wait to get a little more of that global warming Al Gore keeps promising me.