ALL weather reports I've heard blame El Nino for this warm weather but El Ninos aren't new and

[snagglepuss]

I for one have never experienced an El Nino like this. Has anyone heard any weather reports finger climate change rather than El Nino for this bizarre winter?

[sharp_stick]

1. This is a record El Nino year

I don't doubt that climate change is involved but this is quite possibly the strongest El Nino ever recorded.

I remember the one in 1997 and it really screwed with the normal winter.

[snagglepuss]

7. I feel like I'm living a Twilight Zone episode as "authorities" keep trying to make what is

happening weather-wise normal. This weather is like Trump or ISIS - developments that aren't inconsequential nor temporary and that are harbingers of worse things to come.

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. Having lived thoguh the 1997 floods

as an emergency responder. I can tell you that there is a very fine line to walk between informing people and creating a panic.

Then there is the issue that most weather critters work for corporate media... and for the most part none pays attention to the nerds at JPL. I do, I read their reports, and they are put out there. But your corporate media will pretend, in fact, many don't know, they exist. You too can go to JPL and read them... in fact, I think it is time for yet another news from JPL article. Thanks, I have been putting it off since they are kind of rough reading.

It is not the government. My state has produced pretty apocalyptic reports (yes we reported on them) on heat waves and wildfires, for example... and how they are becoming more common and more deep and with more casualties. (Now trying to get the number of dead in a heat wave event is like pulling teeth, wait pulling teeth is easier), Local authorities are supposed to tract this crap, by law. But releasing to the media is an altogether different story. See what I said about a panic. And they hide behind HIPPA. I am like ok, you release that an 89 year old died from the flu... how would this be different from 7 people died overnight form heat related causes. I am still having those arguments. And I think it is relevant information.

My state and local officials have also produced climate resiliency plans (yes, there is that), which for the most part get ignored. I don't, but like social justice issues, they make for pretty depressing reading. Yes, I have said it several times. I am glad we don't have children. Yes, it is potentially that bad.

When my city passed the climate action plan you had 25 cameras outside for the presser... some from national media (Reuters, AP, CNN hello), upstairs I was expecting a crowd media wise. Nah, it was me, KPBS, Univision (they did not stay for the vote, deadlines), and an independent from Tijuana.

Go ahead and do a web search for that vote.

It does indeed tell the story if you get my drift.

[HereSince1628]

2. In SE Wisconsin this is pretty similar to 1998

Builders in the bubble were excavating and putting in foundations in every winter month. There may have been a stretch of 10 days where ice-fishing was possible.

I never paid attention to "El Nino" as a kid, I don't think WGN's weathermen of the 50's and 60's ever used the word, but I do remember several years without snow and having rainy weather right into January.

[jberryhill]

3. It is an unusually large one

[hollysmom]

4. possibly caused by ocean warming in general which is caused by climate change.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. DIng, DIng Ding

[gratuitous]

5. It's a little strange

The weather reportage I've seen has mentioned El Nino and the effect it has on the jet stream, bringing cold and moisture to the western side of the Rockies, and warm tropical air to the eastern part of the United States. Part of the reason for the strength of this year's El Nino is, of course, due to warmer water in the Pacific Ocean due to climate change. It's like being told that the soup is hot because the pan it's in is hot, but making no reference to the pan being on the stove.

Because we mustn't upset the poor darlings who have been convinced that climate change is some kind of hoax that in some inexplicable fashion is a gold mine for climatologists who study such things.

[4139]

6. Polar vortex has been very strong, keeping the arctic air in th Arctic....

... When the polar vortex is strong, as it is now, it keeps arctic air fenced in. That is part of what is currently keeping the weather so mild in the eastern U.S.. But when the vortex is perturbed or weakened, the jet of air becomes more wobbly and can set up southward excursions of frigid air — what we saw plenty of times over the last couple winters. The polar vortex is particularly susceptible to such weakening when it reaches its peak in mid-winter, Judah Cohen, an atmospheric scientist with the private firm Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), said in an email.

And that is what Cohen is forecasting will take place in January.

Cohen expects some pulses of energy working their way from the lower to upper atmosphere to perturb and weaken the polar vortex over the next few weeks. That weakening would favor a dip in temperatures over the eastern U.S. and potentially an uptick in snowstorms, Cohen wrote in an AER blog post....
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-happened-to-the-polar-vortex/

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. The part they are not telling you is that this is the worst El Nino in recorded history

here is a good image for your compare and contrast

?w=120&h=120&crop=1

[rufus dog]

12. Context please

Not sure what I am supposed to see with a Nov 97 compared to July 2015 image.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. Those are the water temperatures in the pacific

water is far warmer this year, and was in JULY, than during the height of the 1997 El Nino

[rufus dog]

14. Thanks

I thought that was the case. The months are flipped on the labels November 1997 to July 2015, should be July 1997 to November 2015.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. That is actually NOAA data

and that includes their captions.

[valerief]

10. It's because of Arctic Oscillation along with El Nino.

There's also something called the North Atlantic Oscillation which may be affected by climate change.
http://www.whoi.edu/page.do?pid=83537&tid=3622&cid=54686&c=2

The NAO index varies from year to year, but also exhibits a tendency to remain in one phase for intervals lasting more than a decade. An unusually long period of positive phase between 1970-2000 led to the suggestion that global warming was affecting the behavior of the NAO.

[leveymg]

16. The trees in the southeast have been dropping acorns like crazy for months. Anyone know what that's

all about? Anyone?

[Munificence]

17. Hahaha

I don't know whether to laugh at your post and call you "Newton" or if you actually are posting this as a serious question.