Experts: Cold Snap Doesn't Disprove Global Warming

[Kadie]

Experts: Cold Snap Doesn't Disprove Global Warming
Experts Say Cold Weather Is Just A Blip In Long-Term Heating Trend

MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer
POSTED: 2:20 pm PST January 6, 2010
UPDATED: 2:49 pm PST January 6, 2010


Beijing had its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain is suffering through its longest cold snap since 1981. And freezing weather is gripping the Deep South, including Florida's orange groves and beaches.

Whatever happened to global warming?

Such weather doesn't seem to fit with warnings from scientists that the Earth is warming because of greenhouse gases. But experts say the cold snap doesn't disprove global warming at all -- it's just a blip in the long-term heating trend.

"It's part of natural variability," said Gerald Meehl, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. With global warming, he said, "we'll still have record cold temperatures. We'll just have fewer of them."

Deke Arndt of the National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C., noted that 2009 will rank among the 10 warmest years for Earth since 1880.

Scientists say man-made climate change does have the potential to cause more frequent and more severe weather extremes, such as heat waves, storms, floods, droughts and even cold spells. But experts interviewed by The Associated Press did not connect the current frigid blast to climate change.

more...
http://www.kcra.com/weather/22162575/detail.html

[FBaggins]

1. It doesn't... but what would you expect them to say?

Whoops? Everyone can go home now?

There's a difference between "weather" and "climate".

It does, however, prove that god has a sense of humor. :)

[elocs]

2. It's too bad that "global warming" was not called "climate change" from the beginning.

I wish I had a dime for every time I've heard here when the weather is cooler or colder than normal, "Well, what happened to global warming?"

[doc03]

3. If the polar ice caps and glaciers are melting

how come we are not up to our knees in water?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

4. Because you're in Ohio?

[notadmblnd]

5. Nope. The great lakes are right there and have the potential to flood

states like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, etc. Don't let the name lake fool you, these are great, freshwater, inland seas.

[doc03]

7. Lake Superior reached it's all time lowest level

in 2007 and Lakes Huron an Michigan are near there record low. As a matter of fact all the great lakes are lower than average.

[notadmblnd]

12. I know. Last time I was in Bayport

I could drive my truck out onto the lake bed for about 1/2 mile out. Dry as a bone.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Are there a lot of melting glaciers and ice caps out there in the Great Lakes watershed?

[notadmblnd]

11. As the oceans rise for glacier melting, the great lakes will also rise

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. It's going to go all the way up Niagara Falls, is it?

[notadmblnd]

15. why wouldn't it? Via the St Lawrence Seaway

Do you think that ships from Europe and oil freighters get loaded on a trailer and driven to the Great Lakes region?

The Saint Lawrence Seaway (St. Lawrence Seaway), in French: la Voie Maritime du Saint-Laurent, is the common name for a system of locks, canals and channels that permits ocean-going vessels to travel from the Atlantic Ocean to the North American Great Lakes, as far as Lake Superior. Legally it extends from Montreal to Lake Erie, including the Welland Canal. The seaway is named after the Saint Lawrence River, which it follows from Lake Ontario to the Atlantic Ocean. This section of the seaway is not a continuous canal, but rather comprises stretches of navigable channels within the river, a number of locks, as well as canals made to bypass rapids and dams in the waterway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Lawrence_Seaway
.
I've seen ships from Russia sailing down the Detroit River

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

16. I think they take a series of locks.

The lowest lake, Lake Ontario, is over 200 ft in elevation. I'm pretty sure the ships don't wait around for a really big wave to wash them up.

[notadmblnd]

18. Didn't say they did

But it's all inter-connected. And the Wikipedia link said that the one portion was a series of locks an channels, not the entire system(s)

[Quantess]

13. A few islands near the equator have submerged.

The rising sea levels are not expected to be uniform. Certain places of the world get the worst of it.

[msongs]

6. this cold snap is NOT historical, have been many like, and worse the last 100 years.

according to weather.gov, the official NOAA weather site.

Just like it's been warm this week in so cal, but nothing record breaking with a few exceptions.

msongs

[Canuckistanian]

8. It's no surprise to me

With the global temperature rising, we should EXPECT more unusual events like this. Sudden cold snaps, unusual violent storms, severe droughts and long wet spells are going to be the norm from now on. It's what to expect when you add heat to an already dynamic, changeable system - it gets MORE changeable.

Here in my corner of the world, I've seen thunderstorms in January and snow in October, things I've NEVER heard of before. Even my older relatives say so.

Already, the cold snap has passed here and we're getting temperatures much higher than normal for January.

[zbdent]

9. and when the summer brings record temperatures not seen in decades,

they'll be saying "It's not due to global warming ... it's cyclical ..."

had a RW co-worker one year at the Christmas party in downtown Cleveland (yes, Ohio). Late December.

Walked into the party in a light jacket. Temp in the high 50s. Made a joke to him about global warming ... he got all "it's cyclical ..."

[northernlights]

17. and Maine is in the grips of it's warmest winter

in the 7 years I've lived here.

Normally we'd be 15-20 *below* at night around here this time of year, and climbing into the single digits by day. Instead, we're 15-20 *above zero* at night, and mid-30s during the days. We had torrential *rain* Christmas weekend, for cripes sake. And the harbors should be under several feet of sea ice by now.

I'm not complaining, though. I'm grateful my heating bill will be a little less of a nightmare than usual.