It’s time again.
There’s snow, so there can’t be global warming. I guess I’ll have to update my video on this, yet again. This one is from 2009, a period of extreme winter weather in the US, just before the drought and heat events of 2010-2012 – but still applies.
Chris Mooney in MotherJones:
All of this is all wrong in ways that have all been explained before. So just a few brief observations:
1. Statements about climate trends must be based on, er, trends. Not individual events or occurrences. Weather is not climate, and anecdotes are not statistics.
2. Global warming is actually expected to increase “heavy precipitation in winter storms,” and for the northern hemisphere, there is evidence that these storms are already more frequent and intense, according to the draft US National Climate Assessment.
3. Antarctica is a very cold place. But global warming is affecting it as predicted: Antarctica is losing ice overall, according to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. However, sea ice is a different matter than land-based or glacial ice. Antarctic sea ice is increasing, and moreover, the reason for this may be climate change! (For more, read here.)
Finally, just one last thing. When it’s winter on Earth, it’s also summer on Earth…somewhere else. Thus, allow us to counter anecdotal evidence about cold weather with more anecdotal evidence: It’s blazing hot in Australia, with temperatures, in some regions, set to possibly soar above 120 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming days.
UPDATE:
SFGate:
On the shoreline at Lake Tahoe, where snow should be piled high by now, Valerie Chownand her family this week stumbled across a most unusual winter phenomenon.
There, on the beach, was a nude sunbather.
“It was crazy,” said Chown, 59, of Los Altos Hills, about the encounter at Secret Cove, where a few too many secrets were revealed, at least for this time of year.
High-country vacationers have been enjoying brilliant blue skies and 50-plus-degree temperatures throughout the holidays at Tahoe, where only patches of snow can be seen and ski conditions are simply atrocious. The Sierra sun has been so persistent that skiers and snowboarders are resorting to such summer activities as mountain biking, hiking, beach walking and, yes, sunbathing in the buff.
“It’s still beautiful,” said Chown as she watched her husband, son and daughter-in-law skip rocks on the lake, where the surrounding mountains reflected off the glassy blue surface. “You make the best of what you’ve got.”
Tahoe’s best soon won’t be good enough if it doesn’t hurry up and snow, according to experts. The mountains are mostly brown, ski resorts are only partially open and businesses are beginning to feel the pain of what, so far, has been an exceedingly dry winter.
The dismal snowpack is a statewide concern, especially after what was, in many areas including San Francisco, the driest calendar year in recorded history.
The state’s frozen water supply, as snow is known to water-resources officials, is 19 percent of normal for this time of year, according to electronic measurements taken across the Sierra. This is the water that is going to be used to irrigate millions of acres of farmland and quench the thirst of many of California’s 38 million people when it melts in the spring.
One very important new wrinkle in the climate conversation that has emerged in the last decade, is the understanding of “a new normal”, related to the loss of arctic sea ice, that may in fact may blizzard events like the current one MORE common in the future. I’ve interviewed Rutger’s Jennifer Francis and Weather Underground’s Jeff Masters on this one.
Finally, since we’ll be hearing more of the “Antarctic Sea ice is growing” nonsense following the rescue of scientists in that area, here is the definitive video setting that one straight. You’re welcome.
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