Thread: SNOW CHAOS: AND THEY STILL CLAIM IT'S GLOBAL WARMING

SNOW CHAOS: AND THEY STILL CLAIM IT'S GLOBAL WARMING


A man clears snow from the paths outside his house in Wilkieston in West Lothian

Wednesday January 6,2010
By Martyn Brown
Comment 134

AS one of the worst winters in 100 years grips the country, climate experts are still trying to claim the world is growing warmer.

With millions of Britons battling through snow and ice to get to work today, scientists claim that the cold conditions should not be used as evidence against man-made climate change.

Blizzards, ice and sub-zero temperatures that have gripped the UK for almost a month in a record deep freeze are not “robustâ€

Experts: Cold snap doesn't disprove global warming

AP foreign,
Wednesday January 6 2010
MALCOLM RITTER AP Science Writer

Beijing had its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap since 1981. And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South, including Florida's orange groves and beaches.

Whatever happened to global warming?

Such weather doesn't seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn't disprove global warming at all — it's just a blip in the long-term heating trend.

"It's part of natural variability," said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. With global warming, he said, "we'll still have record cold temperatures. We'll just have fewer of them."

Deke Arndt of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., noted that 2009 will rank among the 10 warmest years for Earth since 1880.

Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes, such as heat waves, storms, floods, droughts and even cold spells. But experts interviewed by The Associated Press did not connect the current frigid blast to climate change.

So what is going on?

"We basically have seen just a big outbreak of Arctic air" over populated areas of the Northern Hemisphere, Arndt said. "The Arctic air has really turned itself loose on us."

In the atmosphere, large rivers of air travel roughly west to east around the globe between the Arctic and the tropics. This air flow acts like a fence to keep Arctic air confined.

But recently, this air flow has become bent into a pronounced zigzag pattern, meandering north and south. If you live in a place where it brings air up from the south, you get warm weather. In fact, record highs were reported this week in Washington state and Alaska.

But in the eastern United States, like some other unlucky parts of the globe, Arctic air is swooping down from the north. And that's how you get a temperature of 3 degrees in Beijing, a reading of minus-42 in mainland Norway, and 18 inches of snow in parts of Britain, where a member of Parliament who said the snow "clearly indicates a cooling trend" was jeered by colleagues.

The zigzag pattern arises naturally from time to time, but it is not clear why it's so strong right now, said Michelle L'Heureux, a meteorologist at the Climate Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The center says the pattern should begin to weaken in a week or two.

Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for Weather Underground, a forecasting service, said he expects more typical winter weather across North America early next week.

That will be welcome news in the South, where farmers have been trying to salvage millions of dollars' worth of strawberries and other crops.

On Miami Beach, tourists bundled up in woolen winter coats and hooded sweatshirts Wednesday beneath a clear blue sky. Some brazenly let the water wash over their feet and a few even lay out in bikinis and swimming trunks. A brisk wind blew and temperatures hovered in the 50s.

"Last year we were swimming every day," said Olivia Ruedinger of Hamburg, Germany. "I miss that."

--

Raphael Satter in London, Cara Anna in Beijing, and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/8886954

Front Page of the Day

Heaviest snowfall in 6 decades in Beijing

Posted by Jeremy Goldkorn, January 4, 2010 3:58 PM
jinghuashibao20100104.jpg
The Beijing Times
January 4, 2010

Many Chinese newspapers today report on the heavy snowfalls yesterday in northern China:

The National Meteorological Center said that the snowfall in Beijing is the highest in a day since 1951 and predict that in the next two days the temperature will fall to -16 Celsius (3.2 Fahrenheit), the lowest since 1980s.

Today all primary and secondary schools in Beijing suspended classes and companies and state work units have been encouraged to be flexible for employees whose commuting transport may have been disrupted. Traffic in the capital and surrounding areas has been disrupted, and more than 750 flights into and out of Beijing Capital Airport have been delayed or canceled.

The large photo on The Beijing Times' front page shows a truck clearing snow from Chang'An Boulevard in front of Tiananmen Square.
Links and Sources

* The Beijing News (Chinese): All secondary and primary schools stop class for a day
* The Beijing News (Chinese): Heaviest snowfall in 59 years hits Beijing

http://www.danwei.org/front_page_of_the ... ecades.php

Britain paralysed by snow and freezing weather

Much of Britain has been paralysed by blizzards and freezing weather which forced hundreds of schools to close and crippled transport networks.

By Murray Wardrop
Published: 12:11PM GMT 05 Jan 2010
Link to this video

Commuters and holidaymakers faced travel chaos as snow and ice shut airports, caused gridlock on the roads and led to scores of delayed and cancelled rail services.

Thousands of children were sent home as schools across Scotland and northern England were forced to close amid sub-zero temperatures.

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Forecasters warned that the snow and arctic conditions are set to continue into the weekend, while southern England is braced to be the “crucibleâ€