Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Record Snowfall In Harrisonburg: Is Global Warming Dead?

With our added snowfall yesterday here in Harrisonburg, Virginia, apparently this winter has set an all time record for snowfall of 53.26 inches, with winter not even over yet. In Washington, where they are also apparently setting a record, we have numerous politicians ridiculing Al Gore and declaring that cap and trade legislation is dead. The online London Times reports that "World May Not Be Warming Say Scientists," with most of these being usual suspects, although now with the addition of John Christy of the University of Alabama-Huntsville, a former lead author of the IPCC reports, now emphasizing the already well-known "urban heating" effect on long term surface recordging sites, on top of the revelations of errors by the IPCC on Himalayan glaciers and other matters.

Well, as those noticing the too-warm weather affecting the Winter Olympics in Vancouver might suspect, all this may be premature. There may be record snowfall in the mid-Atlantic states of the US, with its disproportionate effect on the political climate, but according to http://www.droyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures, the average global temperature in January 2010 was 0.72 above average, the highest monthly such anomaly since the El Nino year of 1998. Oooops! Also, Arctic sea ice seems to continue to be decreasing. It reached a low point for a January reading in 2006, which was followed by increases in the succeeding three Januaries, but this January is back down below the 2007 level, with only 2006 lower by about 69,000 square kilometers. The recent reading has the total at 13.76 square kilometers, which is about 1.06 million below the average for January of the 1979-2000 period, and as noted, the second lowest on record, http://hside.org/arcticseaicenews. So, it may be cold and snowy in Washington (and Harrisonburg), but it is plenty warm in many other places. Global warming appears to be on track still.

10 comments:

Jazzbumpa said...

Not to mention that the weather observations this winter are totally consistent with
climate change, and do not present even the slightest evidence against it. Except to idiots.

Cheers!
JzB

Rdan said...

Well Barkley,
You put this up and now I don't have to. Thanks. I would have thought the Vancouver, Canada weather item, temperatures 10 degrees higher than in Texas, would have put some of this to rest...oh well.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Jazzbumpa,

Yes, many claim we should be expecting greater variance, so, a much worse than "normal" winter once in awhile is consistent.

Rdan,

You are welcome, :-).

Sandwichman said...

Vancouver is hot because the Sandwichman lives there.

New York liposuctions said...

That is nice news, But i don't think Global warming is dead but it is not occurring many times.But hope it will remain in current situation.thanks for sharing information with us.

Anonymous said...

Of course, we'll never hear retractions from the idiots during the inevitable heat waves and droughts in future summers. Instead, we'll hear bs about sunspots even though satellites are not perceiving any greater solar radiation.

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

I shoulda known that the Sandwichman favors hot sandwiches, :-).

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

BTW, Rdan: Is the Angry Bear a Polar Bear?

Anonymous said...

I hope someone informs the writer that climate is measured over long periods of time - what happened this year does not affect our understanding of climate. Don't take my word for it-look it up! Please put some effort into cultivating scientific literacy!

rosserjb@jmu.edu said...

Anonymous,

I am well aware of this, which is the more serious critique of people who argue that lots of snowfall and cold weather in the US mid-Atlantic states this winter disproves global warming.