Bitterly cold weather has been gripping Tasmania as temperatures plummet as much as eight below average.
Widespread frost has affected much of the state in the last few mornings and has been severe in central and eastern parts. Liawenee has had minimum temperatures of minus seven degrees in the last two days, six degrees below average.
Some valley locations, such as Bushy Park and Ouse, which dipped to minus four on Wednesday morning, failed to get within seven degrees of the average maximum. Bushy Park only reached three degrees and Ouse four. Fog and a lack of wind were the main culprits, hampering any warmth from the sun. For Bushy park this is likely to be its coldest day in more than two years and coldest July day in at least eight years.
Earth Changes
Despite alarmist claims of dangerous global warming there's nothing to worry about - it's really getting cooler says Laurence Gould, a professor of physics at the University of Hartford and one of the seven signers of a letter to Congress warning against passage of the so-called cap and trade legislation now awaiting Senate action after being enacted by the House of Representatives last week.
Professor Gould told Newsmax that the evidence on cooling is being ignored by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) upon whose specious reports the cap and trade bill relied.
Gould explained that both "global cooling and global warming have happened throughout much of the earth's climate history," adding that "there have, for example, been the great ice ages as well as the more recent little ice age - all this taking place well before the large buildup of 20th century human industrialization - an industrialization that resulted and continues to result in the increase in the standard of living and in the increased life expectancy of people around the globe."
Professor Gould told Newsmax that the evidence on cooling is being ignored by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) upon whose specious reports the cap and trade bill relied.
Gould explained that both "global cooling and global warming have happened throughout much of the earth's climate history," adding that "there have, for example, been the great ice ages as well as the more recent little ice age - all this taking place well before the large buildup of 20th century human industrialization - an industrialization that resulted and continues to result in the increase in the standard of living and in the increased life expectancy of people around the globe."
© NASA ICESat
NASA ICESat shows ice thinning. Report ignores where it is thicker.
NASA ICESat shows ice thinning. Report ignores where it is thicker.
When looking at arctic ice reports, the most important thing to remember is that we have only been studying the arctic since the end of 1978. That's only three decades, which is a small data set to truly identify a trend for long-term climate. We must look closely at the reports themselves, such as the most recent one from NASA/JPL. The analysis does take time, but that could also mean old data is shown, ignoring current trends. Also, many of these ice reports are released in the summer, when it is 'expected' to be hot, and ice in the arctic is at its lowest point all year. So gloabal warming or climate change aside, the time of year can be misleading.
© Janice Hogan
Snow piles seen in Yonkers.
Snow piles seen in Yonkers.
It was Christmas in July for some Westchester County residents.
A wintry mix of hail and heavy thunderstorms downed trees and utility poles in Yonkers last night -- causing mountains of slush and ice to build up in parking lots and on grassy areas.
Police said at least two homes were damaged by falling sleet, which hit the area at 11:30 p.m.
Snow plows were called in early this morning to help remove the snow, while extra fire trucks were on hand to help with the unseasonal cleanup.
Temperatures dropped to a record low in Prince Edward Island overnight Tuesday, with reports of frost throughout the province.
An official record low of 3.8 C was set early Wednesday morning at Charlottetown airport.
The previous record for that date was 5.1 C, set in 2005.
Bob Robichaud, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said that to his knowledge, frost has never been reported before in July in P.E.I.
"That 3.8 we got last night kind of sticks out as being lower than some of the other records for anytime in early July," Robichaud told CBC News on Wednesday.
Good Monday everyone and welcome to a the post 4th of July holiday week. Many of you are probably confused by the weather as it has been anything other than July-like. This has been one of the coldest starts to July on record and a lot of people are asking one simple question... WHERE'S THE HEAT?
That reminds me of the old Wendy's commercial from the 1980s. You know the one I am talking about...
To put it all in perspective... most areas have not recorded a 80 degree temp since one week ago today. Many record low high temps have fallen over the past several days with Sunday seeing more added to the list. Take a look at this graphic I put together for you guys...
That reminds me of the old Wendy's commercial from the 1980s. You know the one I am talking about...
© unknown
To put it all in perspective... most areas have not recorded a 80 degree temp since one week ago today. Many record low high temps have fallen over the past several days with Sunday seeing more added to the list. Take a look at this graphic I put together for you guys...
© Press Association
Torrential downpours forced guests to abandon tables and chairs and head for cover at the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace
Torrential downpours forced guests to abandon tables and chairs and head for cover at the Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace
The band at Buckingham Palace played on - but the rest of the country was ducking for cover.
Britain was battered with three months' worth of rain yesterday, with some parts suffering the heaviest downpours on record.
The flash floods, hail and electrical storms in the South of England made last week's 31.8C heatwave a distant memory.
And England cricket fans were braced for a severely delayed start to the first Test match of the Ashes in Cardiff against Australia as showers swept across the country.
Mathematician Luboš Motls takes on the new UAH data (source here) and some current thinking about slopes in global climate by adding his own perspective and analysis. Be sure to visit his blog and leave some comments for him - Anthony
UAH: June 2009: anomaly near zero
UAH MSU has officially released their June 2009 data. This time, they're faster than RSS MSU. The anomaly was +0.001 °C, meaning that the global temperature was essentially equal to the average June temperature since 1979. June 2009 actually belonged to the cooler half of the Junes since 1979.
Global warming is supposed to exist and to be bad. Sometimes, we hear that global warming causes cooling. In this case, global warming causes global averageness. In all three cases, it is bad news. The three main enemies of environmentalism are warm weather, cool weather, and average weather.
It is not a coincidence that these enemies are very similar to the four main enemies of communism. The four main enemies that were spoiling the success of communism were Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. :-) See Anthony Watts' blog for additional discussion.
UAH: June 2009: anomaly near zero
© unknown
Global mean temperature according to UAH MSU for the first 8.5 years i.e. 102 months of this century. Linear regression gives a cooling trend by a hefty -1.45 °C per century in this interval. So if someone tells you that the trend is "of course" positive as long as we omit the year 1998, you may be very certain that he or she is not telling you the truth.
Global mean temperature according to UAH MSU for the first 8.5 years i.e. 102 months of this century. Linear regression gives a cooling trend by a hefty -1.45 °C per century in this interval. So if someone tells you that the trend is "of course" positive as long as we omit the year 1998, you may be very certain that he or she is not telling you the truth.
UAH MSU has officially released their June 2009 data. This time, they're faster than RSS MSU. The anomaly was +0.001 °C, meaning that the global temperature was essentially equal to the average June temperature since 1979. June 2009 actually belonged to the cooler half of the Junes since 1979.
Global warming is supposed to exist and to be bad. Sometimes, we hear that global warming causes cooling. In this case, global warming causes global averageness. In all three cases, it is bad news. The three main enemies of environmentalism are warm weather, cool weather, and average weather.
It is not a coincidence that these enemies are very similar to the four main enemies of communism. The four main enemies that were spoiling the success of communism were Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. :-) See Anthony Watts' blog for additional discussion.
Gore / Nazis - two words I thought I'd never see together, and never wanted to. Yet here it is in a story in the Times Online. Surprisingly, Hollywood has been exploiting this linkage for years. I suppose the appearance of a proof of Godwins Law was inevitable, given how long the global warming discussion and Gore have gone on.
Does anyone else besides me get the impression that Al Gore is really reaching now? At the end of this post, Mr. Gore listed only two possible future questions, I'm sure our readers can fill in some of the missing ones. - Anthony
Addendum: I wonder, did Gore get paid for this speaking engagement "sponsored by The Times" and if so, is The Times responsible for creating this "news" where there would be none otherwise? - Anthony
Does anyone else besides me get the impression that Al Gore is really reaching now? At the end of this post, Mr. Gore listed only two possible future questions, I'm sure our readers can fill in some of the missing ones. - Anthony
Addendum: I wonder, did Gore get paid for this speaking engagement "sponsored by The Times" and if so, is The Times responsible for creating this "news" where there would be none otherwise? - Anthony
© unknown
Forecasting accuracy of Global Climate Models is something that has been at the very heart of the global warming debate for some time. Leif Svalgaard turned me on to this paper in GRL today:
Reifen, C., and R. Toumi (2009), Climate projections: Past performance no guarantee of future skill?, Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L13704, doi:10.1029/2009GL038082.
PDF available here
It makes a very interesting point about the "stationarity" of climate feedback strengths. In a nutshell, it says that climate models break down after a time because both forcings and feedbacks don't remain static, and the program can't predict such changes.
