it's official

[toolguy1000]

this is the snowiest january in NYC since records began being kept in the mid 19th century. thank goodness someone, somewhere, sometime, somwhow invented the snow thrower. while i realize this much snow is nothing for some parts of the country, it gets your attention in the NYC tristate area.

[BobSch]

I heard MYC got 19 inches. That's a good sized mess even up here in Minnesnowtah where we're used to it.

[herb fellows]

I hear ya, brudder! I'v counted 53 inches (including the 24 I got on Dec 26) so far this winter.
They started out yesterday morning saying 3-5" for this one, then it went to 5-7", then 6-8". They say they got 15" in Central Park, I got 19" in Queens. It seems we always get a few more inches than the Central Park readings, even though we're only 10 miles away. Just lucky I guess:-(

[dbhost]

How can this possibly be? The scientists say that the earth is heating up, not cooling down...

[charliex]

How can this possibly be? The scientists say that the earth is heating up, not cooling down...

Several things at play here, first snow is migrating from the glacial areas and the pole regions to places more conducive to creating removal issues. It's a conspiracy created by the snow removal and snow recreational vehicle manufactures to increase sales of their products. This is backed by the highway and street workers union which will benefit from more overtime pay and greater opportunities to plow driveways full of hardened, compacted snow and ice. This also strengthens their cause that their jobs are absolutely necessary, avoiding cuts to their ranks.
Hope this helps to clarify things.

Chas

[dbhost]

As much as the rest of it does... I am not trying to make this political, or take sides. It's the geek in me wondering the scientific aspects of it. I am simply wondering, if the scientists are right, why is it that I am shivering in Houston Texas? No snow, but it has been nasty cold this year... What would cause temps to be this low over such a wide swath of the planet if overall global temps are up? I would think that with this much of a discrepancy between what the scientists claim, and what is being actively observed in the field, there must be some flawed data points, some variable that wasn't taken into account.

[herb fellows]

'Global warming' is real enough, but everything is long term. Alaska is not going to turn into Miami overnight.
What IS happening right now is that the glacial areas are indeed getting warmer, there is undeniable proof that is happening (they measure glaciers every year). Some have receded more than 20% over a period of years.
Taken to its furthest point, if glaciers melt in any kind of accelerated fashion, you would have flooding that would make a tsunami look like a shower.

[dbhost]

'Global warming' is real enough, but everything is long term. Alaska is not going to turn into Miami overnight.
What IS happening right now is that the glacial areas are indeed getting warmer, there is undeniable proof that is happening (they measure glaciers every year). Some have receded more than 20% over a period of years.
Taken to its furthest point, if glaciers melt in any kind of accelerated fashion, you would have flooding that would make a tsunami look like a shower.

Not questioning the validity of the claims of global warming. Just questioning that if it is happening, then how is it we are having these cold as *#$@ winters these days...

The glaciation issue is on that is actively being monitored. There are groups of scientists that are tracking glacier growth as well as those tracking glacier shrinkage. Without a doubt SOMETHING is going on. I can tell you this. Since 2004, winters here in the gulf coast region of Texas have been MUCH colder than in the 10 years prior, and the summers have been milder with the exception of 2007 - 2008 which both had hot ends to the summers, and both had hurricane landfalls in the region.

[Cochese]

Climate zones have been shifting for millions of years. There used to be a jungle in North Africa.

[jhart]

And half of the United States use to be covered by glaciers at one time.

[TB Roye]

Is it true people back East are looking for and want to talk to Al Gore?

[gsmittle]

From some casual reading a few years back (Asimov's books on climate), I recall that climate change in any direction is accompanied by more extreme temperature swings for a while.

Plus, while things have been crazy the past winter or so, on average over the last couple of centuries I doubt things have changed that much.

Keep in mind I have no facts to back this up right now; I'm still at school and have no time to do any real research myself until about May or so.

g.

[vaking]

"Global warming" is a deceptive over-simplified terminology used by press mostly. Scientists prefer to use term "Global climate change". If you read about this topic you will find that it is a lot more complex than just "warming". It is a process in which polar areas are becoming warmer (with ice melting and so on) while equador is getting colder, so average temperature on the planet might not be changing much but the difference between climate in various places is becoming smaller. The process is also accompanied by increased amounts of hurricanes/storms/tornadoes. It is a fascinating reading material. Try it - you wan't regret. The debate how much of this is human contribution may turn political but there is no dispute that there is a natural process of global climate change, that it is more a less a cycle with a period of about 150,000 years and we passed through the coldest part of it not so long ago (13000-15000 years ago). It means that even without any human contribution we should expect 75000 years of melting ice and we are less than 1/4 into it. It also means that rate of change is increasing for the moment.

[jackellis]

Don't forget a big difference in the way we perceive time vs. geologic time. The earth is 5 billion years old and the average human life expectancy is around 80 years. An event that plays out in 150,000 years of geologic time is equal to around one week as we perceive time.

Weather variations that seem to play out over a decade or two are little more than random noise.