Reply #1: Nasa does not agree with FOX NOISE.

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More at link:

http://climate.nasa.gov/news/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=270

02.23.10
By Patrick Lynch
NASA's Earth Science News Team
That feeling of numbness in your toes, even inside your thickest boots, is not lying to you. It's been very cold so far this winter in most of the U.S. and many places at middle latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Washington, D.C., London and Seoul have already shoveled themselves out from major snowfalls. And over the course of 2009, average temperatures across some parts of the U.S. were cooler than the average temperature for a baseline period of 1951-1980.

To many people's confusion, these weather events happened against a backdrop of increasing man-made greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere that are gradually warming the planet. But scientists stress this weather does not mean that those gases are no longer exerting a warming influence. Nor does it go against the grain of basic global warming theory. Cold snaps and bouts of natural cooling that could last years are expected naturally even as the climate continues on a long-term warming trend, forced by man-made emissions.

It's snow joke
So, what has been going on out there these past few months? As for the Arctic winter weather, it is exactly that — Arctic. A pattern of high sea-level pressure over the Arctic has led to weaker westerly winds that typically pin cold air closer to the North pole. According to John M. Wallace, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington, the weakened jet stream has allowed cold Arctic air to creep into more southern latitudes over the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia.



United States: The same pattern with the Arctic Oscillation brought harsh winter conditions to the United States as well. Snow blanketed the East Coast just days before Christmas. Nearly two feet of snow covered the Washington, D.C. area. Image courtesy of NASA, MODIS Rapid Response Team.
This pattern of pressure is called the "Arctic Oscillation." The oscillation comes in two phases: a "negative phase" where there is relatively high pressure over the North pole and low pressure at the mid-latitudes (at about 45 degrees North); and a "positive phase" in which this pressure system is reversed. This winter, the Arctic Oscillation has been in an extremely negative state. This has caused unseasonably cold air masses to sweep over what are normally temperate latitudes, and unusually mild air masses to be brought in over much of the Arctic itself, Wallace explained.



"The unseasonable temperatures have been accompanied by well-above-normal sea-level pressure in the Arctic, especially over the Atlantic sector. That's how scientists characterize the Arctic Oscillation," Wallace said. "Winter isn't over yet, we're barely to the halfway mark. But this will be a winter to remember because of the Arctic Oscillation."