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I noticed that this past winter has been really cold worldwide with record breaking low temps seeming to be broken every single day. The "Icebox of the Nation" broke an all time record low to -41F! South America had its coldest winter in 90 years and Afghanistan is experiencing the coldest weather ever since records began there and the cold weather there has killed 650 people.
Tajikistan is "facing an energy crisis in the midst of the coldest winter in more than 25 years."
Mumbai, India is experiencing its coldest weather in 40 years. Overall, the planet just experienced its second-coldest January in 15 years.
Greenland ice is expanding southward and western toward Canada and has regained all of its ice it had lost during the summertime. The ice between Greenland and Canada is it's highest in 15 years. And Antarctica's ice cover is 30% above the average.
And a Russian scientist is expecting the planet to began cooling by around 2012-2015 with gradual cooling and following a more dramatic cooling period of about 60 years to come in 2055-2060 because of the sun spot levels, which has been relatively quiet and calm so far.
Also, snow cover in the United States is the high since 1966.
So, Al Gore look at what's going on around you and that picture of the polar bear you took hanging off of the glacier was taken in August.
We all seem to have our own beliefs about this, but you make a very good point. I remember they thought the ice age was coming back in the 70s. Of course it didn't happen. There was actually a mini ice-age between 1550 and 1850. My understanding is that the most noticeable drops in temps were in Europe, but that we also felt the effects over here.
My own winter temps have been much lower then average. Of course we may have a day or two that are about normal, but there is sometimes more then a week that goes by where we're 25 degrees below normal. I've noticed that at times three quarters of the country is well below average.
Remember when it was originally called "global warming"? That was when they held the theory that the earth was warming because of what we've done to the ozone layer. (Of course, we ARE bad stewards of the earth) The phrase is now changing over to "climatic change". Since their theory about the entire earth warming isn't proving to be true, they decided to say that certain parts of the earth would actually be colder then normal. Go figure. Another thing that bothers me is when it's stated, "Climatic change isn't even a debate anymore because everyone in the scientific community knows it's happening." Yet there are many scientists who also believe it's a scam. That is totally dismissing the scientists who don't believe in it. Guess it's all open to interpretation.
I personally don't believe in global warming for many reasons nor do I personally think the ice age is coming back. But my main feelings on all of it is that I believe in a Supreme Being who just cools earth off and heats it back up as he sees fit. I sometimes think he has a sense of humor where weather is concerned.
This has been one of the few winters in many years in the Upper Midwest that have had below average temperatures in the 3 core months of winter.
Fortunately our winter while often below seasonal, was only slightly below.
For temperatures, Toronto's winter was just about normal.
For precip, we're way above though.
January saw a lot of rain with some snow. (just about all of our milder days POURED)
February we just got dumped on for the first half with snow.
Also, we had less sun than even normal for us, so it's been really dark.
Lately we've had the odd sunny day for a change... Since maybe mid-Feb.
I can only give my own opinion, for what it is worth. I think the planet is warming up slightly and has been since the early-mid 1980's. There isn't one specific smoking gun I can point to that causes me to say that but I can share some observations:
Mt. Ranier's Nisqually Glacier has retreated at least 600 yards since I marked its terminus for the first time in 1971. The Emmons, Winthrop and Interglaciers, all on the N.E. flank, have retreated similarly since then.
In my trips through North Carolina I have observed Green Anoles as far north and west as Greensboro. The reptile guides claim they don't get much farther north than a line running from Rockingham thru Fayetteville and on to the coast near New Bern. What's chasing them so far out of their historical range? Heat? The Cuban Anoles? Who knows.
I have also spent some time in the Mid-Mississippi Valley. Bald Cypress is a common tree south toward Memphis and although they aren't especially delicate I wouldn't expect to see them as far north as Cape Girardeau (MO). I'm seeing them there now - and not a one of them older than about 20 or 25 years.
For years Maine was a place allergy sufferers could find relief if they were sensitive to Ragweed. Historically Maine's climate has been too rugged for the plant to establish itself. Not any more. You can find it in the southern triangle below Portland - At least I could (AAAAAH-Choo!).
I drew up a list of 61 weather stations in Oregon and Washington that had been in continuous operation since at least 1931 (some as long ago as 1890). None of them are in or near an urban setting so I can confidently factor out the Urban Heat Island effect. I parcled out two thirty year time periods, 1961-1990 and 1971-2000, and compared then to the long term averages. of those stations, 42 of them were cooler during the period 1961-1990 and 36 of them warmer during the 1971-2000 time frame. My source is the Western Regional Climate Center's historical climate data page.
None of this is intended to sway opinion one way or the other. Other posters can share their own observations and use them to predict which way the temperature is going, but the indicators I have presented as well as other I have not seem, at least in the U.S, to point toward a warming....
Whatever the effects from Global Warming, it probably wouldn't be enough for my tastes:
I'd like to see at least 25-30 F warmer winters and 10-15 F warmer summers,
though if I needed to, I could probably also handle summer averages being 30 F higher than they are already.
In my trips through North Carolina I have observed Green Anoles as far north and west as Greensboro. The reptile guides claim they don't get much farther north than a line running from Rockingham thru Fayetteville and on to the coast near New Bern. What's chasing them so far out of their historical range? Heat? The Cuban Anoles? Who knows.
Neat! I like anoles.
I've spent a lot of time in the Carolinas and have only seen one anole, and it was in Myrtle Beach, SC.
The east coast of Australia is set to record its coldest February in history. In Sydney, the highest max for the month is only 28.3ºC, in Melbourne it is only 35.5ºC which is the lowest February max in over 20 years. Down the road at Geelong, there have been more days below 20ºC than above 30ºC. Temps across Vic, NSW and SE Queensland are between 3-5ºC below average.
Al Gore can show his propaganda up where the sun don't shine.
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Comedic Relief?
