U.S. cold snap was a freak of nature — not global warming — quick analysis finds

Seattle Times ^ | January 11. 2018 | By SETH BORENSTEIN

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Consider this cold comfort: A quick study of the brutal American cold snap found that the Arctic blast really wasn’t global warming but a freak of nature.

Frigid weather like the two-week cold spell that began around Christmas is 15 times rarer than it was a century ago, according to a team of international scientists who does real-time analyses to see if extreme weather events are natural or more likely to happen because of climate change.

The cold snap that gripped the East Coast and Midwest region was a rarity that bucks the warming trend, said researcher Claudia Tebaldi of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the private organization Climate Central.

“It was very definitely strange, especially now,” said study co-author Gabriel Vecchi of Princeton University. A century ago “it wouldn’t have been that strange. Things like this are becoming stranger.”

The study by the World Weather Attribution analyzed weather records dating back to 1880 and found the cold weather that hit a swath of the U.S. from Maine to Minnesota tends to happen once every 250 years. In the early 1900s, it happened about once every 17 years. Climate change has made such cold spells less common and less intense, the group said.

[Chaos]

It’s January. It’s called WINTER (which is Cold.) Then we will have Spring, Summer (which is Hot) and Fall. The four season’s of the year. In a perfect world it would be great to have 70 degree’s 24/7 but don’t work that way.

[piasa]

Maybe it is easier to understand what these guys write when you have had a few too many cocktails.

[Bob434]

[[They are talking about a cold snap with similar regional coverage on a similar date,]]

Do they not watch weather reports? Every couple of years arctic air drops into the US- blankets the upper parts of the country- This is not unusual or rare- You can see the cold snaps descend o n the US from the maps they show- the whole upper part of the country gets blanketed- We have relatives on the other coast- and when We get cold snaps- they also get them- and it happens right across the country- We had one so severe a decade or so ago that it ruined crops down south as far as florida- and another one a number of years before that that affected the whole country-

‘once every 250 years?’

again I call BS on their analysis-

[chris37]

You, sir, know about cold!

Recently here in Florida it got down to 18 degrees a couple nights. That was waaay too cold, I couldn’t tolerate it, got sick, still a little sick right now.

But 18 degrees is amateur cold compared to Minnesota!

[shelterguy]

At 18 degrees I wear a hoodie.

[crz]

The age we are in is a median warm spell-part of the up and down climate cycle. Matter of fact, they find that this median warm spell is NOT normal and it will end. Human activity has nearly NOTHING to do with it at all.
The cycle will switch and if those who really have studied the cycles, sun activity, ocean activity, earth rotations etc, will tell you that we will enter cooling and maybe another mini ice age.

Ask these SOBs if they can survive a ice age, even if it is a mini ice age.

[crz]

Was only a few years ago-about 14, that they were taking bets on when the last snow banks would disappear in Duluth. And that was in JUNE.

[Paul R.]

The study by the World Weather Attribution analyzed weather records dating back to 1880 and found the cold weather that hit a swath of the U.S. from Maine to Minnesota tends to happen once every 250 years. In the early 1900s, it happened about once every 17 years.

My goodness, that one is such a howler, I laughed until my sides hurt, and then I wasn't sure if my tears were because my sides hurt or because of the thought that something like this could "seriously" get published. I had to go back and make sure this wasn't some sort of "spoof" or satire post.

[justa-hairyape]

The progressive dark ages continue. The barbarians have figured out that global warming did not cause historic cooling.

[KyCats]

Cold snap was a freak of nature? Maybe so.

But Rick James was a SuperFreak of Nature:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYHxGBH6o4M

[crz]

Remember when you sat in your house the house snapped and popped from the cold outside?
Or when you walked outside the packed snow squeaked like walking on chalk?
Or your swampers froze stiff from the cold?
Or when you spit, it snapped before it hit the ground?

[shelterguy]

I remember spending numerous days in the 1995 era putting up chain link fence around cell towers when the wind chill was 45 below zero.

[karnage]

Having collected 60 years of vital field data, you should be able to obtain massive grant funding to continue your studies...

[Bob434]

[[Ask these SOBs if they can survive a ice age,]]

Sure they can- they will blame man for it- tax the snot out us- and live happily ever after in their protected fortresses while the rest of us freeze to death

[Bob434]

[[Remember when you sat in your house the house snapped and popped from the cold outside?
Or when you walked outside the packed snow squeaked like walking on chalk?
Or your swampers froze stiff from the cold?
Or when you spit, it snapped before it hit the ground?]]

Yup- last week- (thankfully my short term memory is still ok lol)

[shelterguy]

I was born in northern North Dakota 60 years ago. I remember Dad telling me there was basically no snow that winter. I wonder if they called it global warming then?

[crz]

The worst winters I ever put in working in the woods was 1968 abt, 1976-77, 1982, 1996-97, and after that I didnt pay attention anymore.

1996-97-those two years, I spend a LOT of money plowing my jobs out. 97, I sent the last load of wood out on the truck on Dec 21st, I plowed snow till Feb 2nd till I got it through my thick skull to give up. A D6 cat with a 12 ft blade and at the end all I could do was push sideways. 5 miles of road and in a open cab. 20 below every morning.

[Bubba_Leroy]

The study by the World Weather Attribution analyzed weather records dating back to 1880 and found the cold weather that hit a swath of the U.S. from Maine to Minnesota tends to happen once every 250 years. In the early 1900s, it happened about once every 17 years. Climate change has made such cold spells less common and less intense, the group said.

This is truly one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in print.

Based on records going back 138 years, cold weather events only happened every 250 years, but 100 years ago they happened about once every 17 years. Math is hard.