Sunday, March 09, 2008

Climate change: A little something for everyone.


First, for the scientifically literate and non-brain damaged among you, we have Dave:

Whoa! Would you look at that! A polar air mass covering most of eastern Canada. That would normally be clear stable air... if it weren't for the Great Lakes. So, eastern Canada and the northeastern United States are getting a two stage snow storm.

It's called Lake Effect. Yes, it's happening later than it should and this year has been particularly heavy. That would be because the Great Lakes aren't as cold as they should be. That leads to more, not less, snow.

Whether you believe in global warming or not, I'd make sure you keep your snow shovel in good shape. From UCS:

... lake-effect snow may increase as a result of warmer lake surface waters and decreased ice cover, burdening cities with increased cost for snow removal.


And for the intellectually defective right-whingers out there, well, um, "OHMIGODOHMIGODOHMIGOD, it's snowing so global warming must be a hoax!!!!"

Canadian Cynic: Writing for all kinds of readers. Even the phenomenally stupid ones.

8 comments:

Southern Quebec said...

If you are talking about climate change, shouldn't you also show a picture of a weather station?

We had 800 cm of snow and we're in southern Quebec. I guess that means...absolutely nothing.

Dear Deity of my choice -- ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!!

Red Tory said...

Hmmm. I just saw a meteorologist on CBC News who said it had nothing at all to do with climate-change, although exacerbation of the natural "lake effect" as a result of warming does make sense.

Dave said...

I'm surprized a meteorologist said that. Most remain neutral on the subject of climate-change.

I found it interesting that historical NOAA charts for "lake effect" suggest that it should have diminished due to ice cover by mid-February.

Dave said...

Oh yeah, did you know that NOAA is now naming lake effect winter storms? After dogs.

The last one was "Husky". What breed starts with an "I"?

Mike said...

Yeah, and it has to be relatively warmer than normal in the winter for it to snow this much anyway. So while Ottawa has experienced a record snow year, it has also experienced a record weather year of another kind...the least number of days below -20 C. And we all know that it doesn't (can't) snow when its below -15 C.

Its snowing because the average winter temperature is warmer, not colder...

QED

HT said...

Gosh, just finished watching "The Day after Tomorrow".
It's always interesting to hear the deniers come out with the "Cold" disproves the "Global warming".
Quite frankly, this has been the worst winter for storms and snow that I can remember. It's disquieting. I never thought of becoming a snowbird and moving south because I loved all four seasons, but I'm pretty darned tired of this one. Call me PO'd.
a disclaimer, yes, I do have a car. One needs one in Mississauga because the public transit system is so fu'ed. I got my car in 2001. It was five years old, with an odometer reading of 120K. I've had it for 7 years (I loves me my Mazda) and the odometer reading is now 201K, and most of that is attributible to my wonderful, but willfull offspring.

Gigi said...

Irish Setter.

Anonymous said...

You know, the nutters think that the movie 10 000 BC is a serious documentary - did you expect them to understand basics?