That snow outside is what global warming looks like (UK)

[CHIMO]

There were two silent calls, followed by a message left on my voicemail. She had a soft, gentle voice and a mid-Wales accent. "You are a liar, Mr Monbiot. You and James Hansen and all your lying colleagues. I'm going to make you pay back the money my son gave to your causes. It's minus 18C and my pipes have frozen. You liar. Is this your global warming?" She's not going to like the answer, and nor are you. It may be yes.

There is now strong evidence to suggest that the unusually cold winters of the last two years in the UK are the result of heating elsewhere. With the help of the severe weather analyst John Mason and the Climate Science Rapid Response Team, I've been through as much of the scientific literature as I can lay hands on (see my website for the references). Here's what seems to be happening.

The global temperature maps published by Nasa present a striking picture. Last month's shows a deep blue splodge over Iceland, Spitsbergen, Scandanavia and the UK, and another over the western US and eastern Pacific. Temperatures in these regions were between 0.5C and 4C colder than the November average from 1951 and 1980. But on either side of these cool blue pools are raging fires of orange, red and maroon: the temperatures in western Greenland, northern Canada and Siberia were between 2C and 10C higher than usual. Nasa's Arctic oscillations map for 3-10 December shows that parts of Baffin Island and central Greenland were 15C warmer than the average for 2002-9. There was a similar pattern last winter. These anomalies appear to be connected.

The weather we get in UK winters, for example, is strongly linked to the contrasting pressure between the Icelandic low and the Azores high. When there's a big pressure difference the winds come in from the south-west, bringing mild damp weather from the Atlantic. When there's a smaller gradient, air is often able to flow down from the Arctic. High pressure in the icy north last winter, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, blocked the usual pattern and "allowed cold air from the Arctic to penetrate all the way into Europe, eastern China, and Washington DC". Nasa reports that the same thing is happening this winter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/20/uk-snow-global-warming

[liberal N proud]

1. The scientist who named it "global warming" was either...

simply mistaken or determined to make it a controversy.

[some guy]

2. Neither.

Global warming refers to the fact that overall planetary average temperature are rising (would rise, in the case of original announcement.)

But rising temperature causes weather pattern disruption / change. What "the normal weather" for a particular area used to be is undergoing change due to the overall increasing warmth of the planet.

Stronger storms, longer droughts, heavier rains - these were all also predicted.

[fatbuckel]

10. Thank You. Keep Science Smart.

[htuttle]

3. In 1896, chemist/physicist Svante Arrhenius first called it...

"The Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground,"

...but that isn't very catchy.

[CHIMO]

4. For

Anyone who doesn't understand that temperature is an indicator of energy, then it stops at how much snow or whatever is required in ones enclave. Temperature is an indicator of energy.

[certainot]

6. the cold in europe may be in advance of an ice age for that

part of the world due to global warming causing so much ice to melt around greenland/north that it effects salinity and slows or even stops the atlantic currents that help moderate weather in europe.

the europeans are much more aware of this than the flat earther americans who waste space in congress.

[Hawkowl]

8. Must focus on the "global"

People have a hard time focusing on the "global" part of "global warning". People live in localities. Also people are stupid and the vast majority incapable of understanding complex interdependent systems such as global climate or global economics or even how their damned refrigerator works.

[FailureToCommunicate]

9. "Global Climate Disruption" is the preferred term by John Holdren, science

advisor to the President...

though "Big F***ing Deal" might get more peoples' attention.

[applegrove]

5. I live in Canada and we had a really mild, snowless winter last year. We hardly had to shovel at all

[certainot]

7. it is amazing that many of our universities and

institutions of 'higher learning' support global warming denial by broadcasting their athletics on the limbaugh megastations that do regular global warming denial.

[Uncle Joe]

11. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, CHIMO.