Like it isn't bloody cold enough already....

Still snowing and freezing, I hope we"ll get a white Christmas. Global freezing isn't it?

 

As the Arctic waters and surrounding oceans and even fresh water seas warm up (they are over 70% of the globe), the weather patterns will shift, just as the computer projections have been predicting since 2007. Forest fires and droughts in Russia, floods in the far east, changing sea life as conditions alter (jellyfish invasions), and on and on. The misnomer "global warming" only applies to the bulk of the globe, the liquid.

The fact that a great many places which have been temperate in the past will be colder and wetter, and that a great many cold places will dry out and heat up is an ironic side-effect of the problem.

 

Makes a change. :lol:

 

Significant snow in London today which has settled quite heavily. Rare for the City, especially during daytime. Glad I'm not a retailer, this has really screwed their Christmas shopping hopes. Because of the weather everyone has sat at home in comfort ordering their pressies online. Result : warehouses full of packages which can't be delivered because of the weather.........

 

Global warming is an issue. I agree. But probably not because of man. Isn't our weather ultimately decided by the sun? Aren't sun flares and the suns activity the driving force on earths weather? Destruction of rain forests is a problem yes, but is that the cause?.... It's scary to think we could take wealth (credits ) from nations and transfer it around in the name of stopping GW? I don't get it. Have I got the take on this right?

 

It is complicated, and while we should be in a "cooling cycle" due to the solar activity being at a minimum, our home is warming up, especially our oceans and fresh water lakes. The only variable in this is the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which has been on the rise since the beginning of the industrial revolution. While "man" isn't completely responsible for every molecule of it, our cutting down rain-forests doesn't help, our pumping out the dang stuff from our industry doesn't help, and contrary to every other "cycle" measured by ice cores it is only that gas which is the difference. We are getting less heat from the sun, but retaining more of it inside our geo-sphere.

The Dalton Minimum was a period in history with very low solar activity characterized by prolonged cold conditions between 1796 and 1824 (Little Ice Age). This began with a solar cycle that lasted for 13.6 years, not dis-similar to the present elongated solar cycle. That cycle was then followed by two very inactive solar cycles. During this time period, there were reports of wide-scale crop failures and food shortages. If similar conditions occur after this present, ongoing, deep solar minimum, and there is a large drop in solar temperature due to an inactive sun, the world could see further stress on the food supply. Areas that had become available for growing food during the recent short period of warming, may become too cold again to grow food over the next two cycles, i.e., two to three decades.

The longer the sun remains quiet, the higher the chances of a prolonged series of cold winters and shorter summers. This is the quietest sun we have seen in almost a century. The current solar cycle, which began in 1996, was expected to reach a minimum and transition to a new solar maximum cycle in January 2007, i.e. 11 years.

It did not, although we have crossed 13+ years and are still counting in January 2010. We are experiencing an historically deep solar minimum! According to the climate change establishment, the sun is only one of a large number of factors that influence the climate, and the changes in solar radiance caused by sunspots are asserted by them to have a smaller impact on the climate than that caused by our ever-increasing levels of greenhouse gases. Nonetheless, even a relatively small cooling effect caused by reduced solar activity, may buy humanity valuable time in coming to grips with greenhouse gases we are pumping into the atmosphere, at least when it comes to Earth's average temperature increase. Ocean acidification and long term damage to the environment are not addressed via the possibility of much reduced solar activity.

Goto:

mi2g

So, while we are in a lengthened Solar Minimum period, when our short term weather events should give us colder winters and sorter summers, and even though the year of 2010 isn’t quite over yet; "the year may go down as the hottest on record worldwide or at the very least in the top three, according to the World Meteorological Organization. The average global temperature through the end of October was 58.53 degrees, a shade over the previous record of 2005, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

"2010 is becoming the year of the heatwave, with record temperatures set in 17 countries. Record highs have occurred in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, three nations at the center of the eastern European heat wave which has lasted for more than three weeks. But also African, Middle Eastern and Latin American countries recorded record highs. However the extreme heat experienced in Europe would barely have registered in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Niger, Pakistan and Sudan, all of which have also recorded temperatures of more than 47C (115F) since June. The number of record highs is itself a record.

The previous record was for 14 new high temperatures set in 2007. Only one nation had set a record for its coldest-ever temperature in 2010. Guinea, in west Africa, since it recorded 1.4C (34.5F) in a nine-day cold snap at Mali-ville in the Labe region in January. Farmers lost most of their crops and animals..

"Los Angeles had its hottest day in recorded history on Sept. 27: 113 degrees. In May, 129 set a record for Pakistan and may have been the hottest temperature recorded in an inhabited location.
In the U.S. Southeast, the year began with freezes in Florida that had cold-blooded iguanas becoming comatose and falling off trees. Then it became the hottest summer on record for the region. As the year ended, unusually cold weather was back in force.

"Northern Australia had the wettest May-October on record, while the southwestern part of that country had its driest spell on record. And parts of the Amazon River basin struck by drought hit their lowest water levels in recorded history.


By SETH BORENSTEIN and JULIE REED BELL, of the Associated Press

Now, in a worst case scene we will continue to create the atmosphere which retains heat (high carbon content), and the solar activity shifts to the maximum cycle. We would then be getting more solar heat from the sun and retaining more. That would be much more devastating than the high temperatures, acidification of our oceans, and loss of rain-forests have been so far. It ain't gonna get better by ignoring it.

Here is one report from 2008.

Goto:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080501091349.htm

For new fresh water lakes warming effects.

Goto:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/earth-largest-lakes-warming-climate-change-101123.html

The latest article is from National Geographic, Dec., 2010.

Goto:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/101202-freshwater-global-warming-lakes/

And for the ten most unexpected "side-effects of global warming".

Goto:

http://www.livescience.com/environment/top10_global_warming_results.html

 

!

 

Heathrow closed yesterday and passengers stranded in Paris instead for 48 hours until Heathrow and both Paris opened again. Frankfort closed as well, same for Brussels . Don't try the train as tracks are covered with broken trees and three people died this morning in northern France when their car was hit at 140km/h as they were trying to cross without visibility. Trucks? forget it ! They are banned from motorways until 2 pm at least today . And drivers? Well I give it a try to Normandy soon and will let you know how it went.

 

Hmm...global warming predictions seem to be like horoscopes; even if they're wrong, they can spin it to look like they were actually right.
I ain't convinced.

 

Anyway, the machine I started this thread on is still in St Andrews Square in Edinburgh, churning out artificial snow on top of the real stuff.....

 

Thanks BD1. Got me thinking ... Here in Alberta global warming is a bad word. We are absolutely taxed to death here and the idea of GW credit transfer scares a lot of people. We'd be very happy with 100$ barrel of oil though.
-18 here tonight calling for -3 tomorrow. Lot's of sun. Last chinook melted just enough snow to make it dangerous.

 

Well, just play the front 9, only once. Walk, brown-bag it, and don't buy any un-needed souveniers. That should save you a bundle.

 

Ok then, go over there, run out to the course at night, sneak on, drive a few, make a few puts, then slink off. The next day, dig around the garbage can for a used score card, pencil your name in as if you played the course. Then go to the pro shop and buy a few un-needed souveniers as proof, snap a few pictures and nobody will be wiser.

 

Greetings To Heathrow...

BBC News - How Helsinki airport deals with snow and ice

Helsinki airport had 188cm (six feet) of snow last winter but the last time it was forced to close because of the weather was in 2003.

That closure lasted for half an hour.

This winter planes have been taking off and landing as normal despite an unusually heavy snowfall in December - 65cm (more than two feet).

There is a big difference between Helsinki, which has a total of 600 landings and take-offs per day on its three runways, and Heathrow which has twice as many - on two runways - and five times as many passengers to deal with.

Running a big airport like Heathrow - which is privately owned by BAA - would be a bigger operation than running state-owned Helsinki airport.

But the principles for dealing with snow and ice, Ms Kala suggests, are probably the same.

 

Swept the path again, had some smart-ass saying you can get sued for that its against the law. My answer was no it's not, and that BS was put around by lazy sods who can not get off there rumps and carry out there civil duty. I remember as a kid the whole street swept there pathways and there section of the pavement outside, how times have changed for the worst.

 

Here in PA it is law that you must.

Home and property owners are responsible for their areas, including public access. For example, when it snows in Reading, Pennsylvania, property owners must either clear a 36-inch path for pedestrians, or place salt, gravel or cinders on sidewalks to create a hazard-free path. Another example is Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where property owners who don't clear their sidewalks within 24 hours after a snow-fall can be cited and fined between $50 and $1,000. Thick ice and freezing temperatures are taken into consideration as well as the effort put forth by the property owner

Read more: Snow Removal Laws in Pennsylvania | eHow.com Snow Removal Laws in Pennsylvania | eHow.com​