Sleet, snow tail off in New Orleans

[uppityperson]

Source: NOLA.com

For the first time in nearly four years, snow fell across the New Orleans region this morning, with flurries reported on the north shore and in the city, Metairie, Kenner, LaPlace and other parts of the south shore. By around 10 a.m., the snow had mostly stopped, replaced by freezing rain in many places, making driving treacherous. By noon, the precipitation had mostly ceased altogether.

By mid-morning, enough snow had accumulated on the ground in some areas to lure children and adults onto their front lawns to build snowmen or have snowball fights. In the city, neutral grounds remained blanketed in white, though the streets generally remained clear as the wet stuff melted upon hitting the pavement.

In Mandeville, where the snow was heavier, lawns were covered with thicker blankets of white fluff as school buses filled with squealing students made the rounds. Children, most seeing snow for the first time Christmas Day 2004, tried to catch flakes in their hands as the buses rumbled along.

Snow in New Orleans is a rarity. The last time it snowed was Christmas 2004; before that, the last snow recorded was in 1989, according to Jim Vasilj, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. Since 1850, snow had fallen in "measurable amounts" rather than traces in the city just 17 times, Vasilj said. Of the 17, today's snowfall was the earliest in the season recorded....(more@ link)

Read more: http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/12/the_new_orleans_area_is.html#post

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Global climate change?

This is a dupe on purpose since there was a glitch when I posted this a minute ago and it seems to not show up anywhere I can find. Odd. I will delete the other.

[Xipe Totec]

1. Hey! That's my snow! Give it back!

it is raining buckets in Boston today!

[texastoast]

2. I don't know about that climate change crap

The Farmers Almanac says we are on a cooling trend now that has nothing to do with "global warming." I just don't know who to believe--Al Gore or the Alamac who has a long term 80% accuracy record.

What to do what to do.

[jwirr]

3. It is not JUST Al Gore who is talking about global warming.

[texastoast]

5. Yeah, but he's a smart mofo who knows this stuff

And has a love and passion about the planet just like mine. I read my Almanac for the upcoming year like I always do and saw where they positively pooh-poohed "the very idea" of global warming. I've learned a tremendous amount from those folks, watched their accuracy, and respected their reverence for "the old ways," and I'm feeling a little wishy washy (more wishy than washy, though). I've also learned a great deal from scientists whose ideas about how carbon dioxide, CFCs, and methane behave have made perfect sense to me, starting about 30 years ago. Wish or wash?

[nyy1998]

4. I don't know about that 80% accuracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers_almanac

like xipe totec said, it's been raining for like 2 days now in boston and it suppose to keep raining tomorrow, in fact it went from like 10 degrees to like 60 degrees yesterday, very wierd

[DollyM]

9. I planned my February wedding in the midwest on the Almanac

It was right on the money too. Overcast the day of the wedding but my out of state family got there and enjoyed a few nice sunny but cool days and went back to California. The next weekend predicted a blizzard and we got it which was actually kind of nice being newlyweds. (snow? what snow? outside, what outside? LOL!)

[uppityperson]

7. Farmer's Almanac is fun but I don't think they have 80% accuracy for most places.

Global climate change, NOT global warming.

It is difficult sometimes, not knowing whether to believe someone who has a whole lot of science behind him or a farmer's almanac with soft paper.

[CreekDog]

8. look up "climate" and "weather" in the dictionary

they are not the same as you will find out.

[RedEarth]

12. That is exactly right

I had a conversation with some climate scientists at Al Gore's presentation of Inconvenient Truth at the University of Oklahoma(8,000 people in attendance) and they said too many people don't understand the difference between climate and weather. Climate=long-term, weather=short-term. Also, people need to keep in mind the term "global" when thinking of climate, as opposed to just what might be happening in their state or country. They also mentioned their concern was the speed at which climate has changed within the last 30-40 years.

[CreekDog]

18. As they say: "Climate is what you expect, weather is what you get"

:think:

:hi:

[RedEarth]

19. I haven't heard that phrase, but it makes sense

As I mentioned, the climate scientists I spoke with referred to climate as long term, and weather as short term.

From wiki...

Climate encompasses the temperatures, humidity, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and numerous other meteorological factors in a given region over long periods of time, as opposed to the term weather, which refers to current activity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate

[CreekDog]

20. Climatology grad here

:hi:

[Behind the Aegis]

6. It was pretty interesting to wake up to snow on the ground.

We didn't get much in the FQ or Westbank, but above the lake, they got quite a bit.

[HooptieWagon]

10. It snowed in Mobile when I was a child ... about '63?

Snowed stayed on the ground almost a week. Built snowmen, snow forts, had snowball fights, etc. Pretty cool.

[hedgehog]

16. I'm starting to get curious about whether some of the weather we had back then had

anything to do with the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons. 15 years ago I would have said that the very notion was absolute nonsense. Now, with all we know about how seemingly innocuous events can trigger chains of consequences (The butterfly's wing that causes the hurricane model)I wonder.

[Lifetimedem]

11. It is

all that global warming again

[uppityperson]

14. Indeed, global climate change changes weather in all directions.

Some places get more snow, some hotter temperatures. Global climate change (aka as the confusing global warming) means the overall global climate, not weather in any particular place.

[Feron]

13. We still have a decent amount on the ground, but it's melting fast.

Yesterday we had about 4 inches of snow here and I enjoyed every second of it.

I've lived in the NOLA area for 29 years and this is the first time I've seen daytime snow and had snow stick to the ground for more than a few hours. It's so beautiful and such a shame that it is so fleeting.

[cannabis_flower]

15. It snowed in Houston too

Day before yesterday.

[hedgehog]

17. What is very strange to me is the fact that the weather is relatively

mild up here on the Eastern Lake Ontario shore. Normally, if it were snowing in New Orleans and Houston, I would expect to see a tremendous dip to the south in the jet stream. That usually means temperatures well below zero in places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upstate Illinois, Michigan and Upstate New York. So where did the cold air on the Gulf Coast come from?