“At the National Arboretum, the white petals of snowdrops — normally an early spring flower — have unfurled,” reports the Washington Post.
The Post reports,
… It’s not in your imagination. The unusually mild temperatures across several regions of the country in the past few months are disrupting the natural cycles that define the winter landscape…
The pattern is most pronounced in eastern Montana, northeastern Minnesota and parts of North Dakota, Arndt said, where December temperatures so far have averaged 10 degrees above normal. But the mild weather extends to other Great Lakes states along with New England and the mid-Atlantic, with temperatures this month averaging between six and eight degrees above normal.
Just 19.6 percent of the continental United States is now covered in snow, according to the latest snow analysis by NOAA, compared with 50.3 percent this time last year.
Both scientists and those who question dire global warming predictions emphasize that one warm season should not be interpreted as a broader sign of climate change.
“It’s about long-term trends, and one year does not make a trend,” said Doug Inkley, a senior scientist at the National Wildlife Federation…
We suppose Post reporter Juliet Eilperin knows we would guffaw at her expense if she went too far with the mild winter-equals-global warming line of thinking. So she left it at the mere innuendo stage.
Very interesting comments everyone. I’m searching for answers but no-one is citing any sources so am I just supposed to take one stranger’s word against another’s? Also, what good does it do to call people idiots and fools if they haven’t come around to a particular point of view? Stick with the facts and be civil, they’ll be more likely to listen. My thoughts.
Extrapolation is such a dangerous tool in the hands of a fool. Take climate, which has been known to go in warm and cold cycles for thousands of years. These cycles run on multiple levels, and any idiot with half a brain could look at the Medieval warm period and Roman warm period and guess that we are returning to that state (which is notably as warm or warmer than today). Only a naive fool would apply proof by exhaustion (a tool best used for fictional murder mysteries) and say that CO2 plus absurdly unlikely multiplier effects are responsible because we cannot find anything else that could have caused this change.
Oh and polar bears are pushed to the brink, of civilization. There are approximately 5 times the number polar bears that there were in the 70s, and various norther populations are having to consider culling measures to keep the bears away. Don’t forget that polars are known man-eaters, and are one of only two predators that will actively seek out and hunt humans. They are far from helpless, and have survived warm periods with no ice cap at all. I think you give nature no credit.
Robert, was that a quote or your ‘data’?
Either way it’s a fraud. First off, we’ve been recovering from the Little Ice Age since about 1850 so naturally the temperatures have been rising in the 20th century. However they have yet to reach the Middle Ages Warm Period peak, so in fact we are not about to roast in our own juices, but merely return to “normal” (whatever the heck that is).
Secondly, if you use actual data that has not been “adjusted” you’ll find the 1930’s (in particular 1934) to be the warmest with a couple of 1990’s thrown in for Top Ten. According to satellite data temperatures plateaued around 1998 and then drifted downwards since. We are cooler now, not hotter.
Thirdly, sea ice has been recovering for some time now. The cause of the recent pullback was wind and warm sea currents, not temperature. Polar Bears are not now, nor have they ever in recent times been in environmental danger. They’ve been around for some 100,000 years and gone through much colder and much warmer and they are still here. duh.
That whole presentation is a crock.
IF— CO2 really caused global warming, one mild winter would reduce carbon output more than all of the hare brained schemes greens can come up with. Imagine parked snow plows, parked snow hauling trucks, furnaces only running a part of what they normally do, reduced power plant operatiions and reduced traffic jams and stoppages.
Enough “interesting” weather soon become evidence of climate change.
Our world has now seen 321 consecutive months with a global temperature above the 20th century average, meaning we haven’t seen a below-average temperature month since before The Goonies came out in 1985. Extreme weather records fell, with NOAA reporting 12 disasters of at least $1 billion in damage here in the U.S. Through November, 2011 has been the 11th-hottest year on record. If the pace keeps up, it will mean each of the last 11 years (2001–2011) will have been one of the 12 hottest on record. The Arctic continues to warm, melting sea ice and pushing several polar bear populations to the brink.
Of course I know the difference! Climate Change is when it’s warming, weather is when it’s NOT!
Weather isn’t climate. Except when it is.
When the cold January comes in and kills all the early petals, do you thing the Washington Post will tell you.
THE TREES ARE FLOWERING EARLY> I BELIEVE IT, ITS ALL THE BULLSHIT COMING OUT OF THE
WHITE HOUSE KEEPING THE TREES AROUND WARM. MAYBE OBAMA RESPONSIBLE. GOT KILO HEA ANGRY
WHILE IN HAWAII.