Earth ChangesS


Igloo

How Long Will the Cold-Snap Last?


The Washington's Blog
Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:47 UTC
The following sample of stories from the past year show that much of the world has been experiencing a cold spell:
  • Across the South, Midwest, and Eastern seaboard [of the United States], a stubborn “arctic outbreak," tacked onto an already cold return to work for many Americans, augurs what meteorologist at AccuWeather.com are calling “the coldest winter in many people’s memory.”
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Snowman

Record cold in Florida strains power grid, sets usage record

Rick Neale
Florida Today
Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:03 UTC
Demand for electricity across the bitterly cold Sunshine State has shattered Florida Power and Light's all-time record.

"This morning, we set a new all-time record peak load on the electrical system, with customers drawing more than 23,500 megawatt-hours of power," said Sarah Marmion, FPL spokeswoman. "This breaks FPL's previous peak record, which occurred on Aug. 17, 2005."
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Igloo

Cold stuns Floridians, causes deaths elsewhere

Brendan Ferrington
Associated Press
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:42 UTC
Orlando, Florida - Mark and Barbara Willard were at home in Wickford, England two weeks ago checking the weather forecast on the Internet before packing for their trip to Orlando - sunny and 70 degrees.

On Saturday afternoon they had the hoods on their brand new coats pulled tight around their heads as the walked down the International Drive tourist strip. The weather: 35 degrees and cloudy with a chance of icy rain or even snow.

"The good news is two days after we go home we're off to Jamaica," said Mark Willard.
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Propaganda

Global warmists falling deeper into denial: UK's Guardian asks "Could 2010 be the hottest year on record?"

Robin McKie
Guardian.co.uk
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:00 UTC
Despite the big freeze Britain's climate is getting distinctly warmer - and we may feel it this summer

It may be a hard notion to accept after a week that has seen the nation paralysed by snow and ice. Nevertheless, meteorologists are adamant that our world is still getting warmer. Indeed, many now believe that 2010 may turn out to be the hottest year on record.

Britain may be shivering, the Met Office may have issued emergency weather warnings for the entire country and hundreds of trains and flights may have been cancelled, but our future is destined to be a hot and sticky one. And we are likely to feel the consequences sooner rather than later.

It is a point stressed by Doug Smith, a climate expert at the Met Office. "The hottest year on record was 1998 and some people have argued that if global warming is really taking place, we should have had an even warmer year since then. We haven't, I admit. And yes, the weather is absolutely terrible at present. However, I am sure things will change - and we won't have to wait long either."


Comment: Very odd that he will admit in one breath that all the global warming hype has been a bunch of hooey and in the next breath, express hope that this hooey will come true in the future. This guy is delusional and should be locked up!

The most recent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines a delusion as:
A false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everybody else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary. The belief is not one ordinarily accepted by other members of the person's culture or subculture.
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Bell

John Hirst, UK's Top Meteorologist, Blasted For Receiving Bonus After Predicting 'Mild Winter'


Huffington Post
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 10:54 UTC
John Hirst, the head of the UK's national weather service (Met Office), came under fire this week over the fact that, as the country's top weatherman, he had a predicted a mild winter for Britain, which is instead currently suffering from its biggest cold spell in 30 years. To make matters worse, Hirst, following a significant pay increase, now makes more than the Prime Minister, despite leading an organization notorious for getting its forecasts wrong, the Telegraph reported recently.

In the video below, a BBC host asks Hirst bluntly, "So given that it's clearly not a mild winter by any standards, why are you getting a performance-related bonus?"

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Roses

How Plants 'Feel' the Temperature Rise


ScienceDaily
Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00 UTC
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© iStockphotoArabidopsis thaliana
Plants are incredibly temperature sensitive and can perceive changes of as little as one degree Celsius. Now, a report in the January 8th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows how they not only 'feel' the temperature rise, but also coordinate an appropriate response -- activating hundreds of genes and deactivating others; it turns out it's all about the way that their DNA is packaged.

The findings may help to explain how plants will respond in the face of climate change and offer scientists new leads in the quest to create crop plants better able to withstand high temperature stress, the researchers say.

"We've uncovered a master regulator of the entire temperature transcriptome," said Philip Wigge of John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom in reference to the thousands of genes that are differentially activated under warmer versus cooler conditions.
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Bizarro Earth

Colombian Volcano Erupts, Evacuation Ordered


Reuters
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 23:34 UTC
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© Ingeominas/ReutersAn aerial view of the Galeras volcano near Pasto city is seen in this handout file photo taken December 3, 2009.
The Galeras volcano in southern Colombia erupted on Saturday, shooting rock and ash and prompting authorities to order the evacuation of about 8,000 people.

No one was killed or injured in the eruption. But officials warned that the volcano could remain volatile.

Galeras, located in the Andes mountains near Colombia's border with Ecuador, erupted 10 times in 2009. Most people living in the vicinity have grown used to the alerts and refuse to evacuate when ordered to by local authorities.

Thousands of revelers celebrating the annual Black and White Carnival in the nearby city of Pasto were startled by Saturday's eruption but the festivities carried on.
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Bizarro Earth

US: 6.5 magnitude quake strikes off northern California coast


ABC 15
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:31 UTC
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The quake struck about 27 miles west of Eureka, CA
The U.S. Geological Survey says a 6.5 magnitude earthquake has struck off the coast of Northern California.

The USGS says the quake hit just before 4:30 p.m. Saturday about 27 miles from Eureka, a coastal city that's 110 miles south of the Oregon border.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there is no threat of the quake generating a tsunami.

USGS geophysicist Richard Buckmaster says the quake was felt as far south as Capitola in central California, and as far north as Roseburg in central Oregon.

Comment: The US Geological Survey's details are available here.

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Compass

San Francisco's famous sea lions relocate to Oregon

Keely Chalmers
KGW.com
Fri, 08 Jan 2010 07:28 UTC
Thousands of San Francisco's famous sea lions now calling the Oregon Coast home after their mysterious disappearance from San Francisco's famous Pier 39.

Marine experts now believe the sea mammals headed 500 miles north to the Sea Lion Caves near Florence, beginning in October, about the same time San Francisco's population began to dwindle.

Pier 39 is well known for the sea lions that crowd its docks. But those docks are now empty - and the El Nino weather pattern is likely to blame, scientists believe.
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Bizarro Earth

Strong earthquake strikes near Solomon Islands


The Washington Post
Sat, 09 Jan 2010 05:03 UTC
Sydney, Australia -- A strong earthquake shook the South Pacific near the Solomon Islands on Saturday, just days after a large earthquake and tsunami hit the country. No tsunami watch was issued after Saturday's quake.

The 6.3 magnitude quake struck 90 miles (146 kilometers) southeast of the provincial capital Gizo at a depth of 22 miles (35 kilometers), the U.S. Geological Survey reported. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued no tsunami warning.
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