Posted on 01/12/2008 2:15:27 PM PST by decimon
ALBANY, N.Y. - Earlier blooms. Less snow to shovel. Unseasonable warm spells.
Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years and now researchers have nailed down numbers to show just how big the changes have been.
A study of weather station data from across the Northeast from 1965 through 2005 found December-March temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees. Snowfall totals dropped by an average of 8.8 inches across the region over the same period, and the number of days with at least 1 inch of snow on the ground decreased by nine days on average.
"Winter is warming greater than any other season," said Elizabeth Burakowski, who analyzed data from dozens of stations for her master's thesis in collaboration with Cameron Wake, a professor at the University of New Hampshire's Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space.
Burakowski, who graduated from UNH in December, found that the biggest snowfall decreases were in December and February. Stations in New England showed the strongest decreases in winter snowfall, about 3 inches a decade.
There were wide disparities in snowfall over the eight-state region, with average totals ranging from 13.5 inches at Cape May, N.J., to 137.6 inches at Oswego, N.Y. Some stations on the Great Lakes, where lake-effect storms are common, showed an increase.
The reduction in days with at least an inch of snow on the ground was the most pronounced at stations between 42 and 44 degrees latitude a band that includes most of Massachusetts, a thick slice of upstate New York and southern sections of Vermont and New Hampshire.
Burakowski cites two likely causes for the reduction in so-called snow-covered days: higher maximum temperatures and "snow-albedo feedback," in which less snow cover to begin with allows more sunshine warmth to be absorbed by the darker ground, making it less conducive to snow cover.
The research has yet to appear in a peer-reviewed journal, though meteorologists who have studied long-term climate trends said the observations appear to be in line with other research.
Richard Heim of the National Climatic Data Center looked at trends in snowfall totals nationwide from 1948 to 2006 and found that patterns varied regionally and seasonally. For the Northeast in winter, he found totals mostly decreasing along coastal areas, with an increasing trend along the Great Lakes. Art DeGaetano, of the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University, said regions around New York state have recorded negative trends in snowfall since 1970.
DeGaetano cautioned that snowfall totals can vary a lot from year to year. Last month, for example, snow totals were well above average for December across much of the Northeast.
Ski center operators also have noticed an incremental increase in temperatures over the decades, said Parker Riehle, president of the trade association Ski Vermont, but he echoed DeGaetano's point that snow totals have gone up and down.
"We've seen some erratic winters in recent years," Riehle said. "The mood swings of Mother Nature, perhaps, are deeper than they used to be."
But while ski slopes can fire up snow-making guns to compensate for lack of flurries, snowmobilers and cross-country skiers have complained about later starts and fewer trails covered with snow.
Cross-country skiers never even get in the right frame of mind during some winters, said Mark Booska of the Hudson Valley Ski Club.
"They look out their window and they're not thinking skiing," he said.
We had record snow here in NH in December.
All-time record snow in New Hampshire this December.
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7560925
The MSM works tirelessly for Al Gore and his Big Lie. They are utterly shameless!
HA! Could have fooled those of us living here! What we just had was a typical, every year, January thaw. It happens every year.
Up here in the Cleveland area, we had two days this week where the temp was over 65. I enjoyed it!
I went icefishing in 60 degree temperatures. That’s the way to do that.
Which is a variation of the Anthropic Principle which basically states: 'Existence is what it is because thats the way we see it'
We just had severe thunderstorms/lightning with low 60s here in Connecticut. I love it!!
If it snowed another 2 feet like in 96, that'd be because of global warming too.
Figures lie and liars figure.
What has snowfall to do with cold temperature? I have witnessed frigid temps with no cold and temps at 40 degrees with alot of snow.
Check this out:
http://www.spaceandscience.net/id16.html
The book to read is Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years by Singer & Avery. It describes the cycles of the sun and the cycles of warming and cooling on earth which have been happening for a million years. It rips to shreds the man-made global warming hoax.
“I went icefishing in 60 degree temperatures.”
Oh yeah! That’s great. I’ve been ice-fishing when it’s been well below zero. That requires Jim Beam!
The nice thing is the fact that I can walk out 50 yards from my front door and fish.
I took my lawn chair and gas hibachi and made some hot dogs while I was out there. Even my house phone works at that distance.
Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years
LOL - Dumb as a rock to print this now...
Let me start with posting here the beginning of my column printed this week:
"No longer prepared"
By ....
(Created: Tuesday, January 8, 2008 4:26 PM EST)
The sun is acting up again, going into one of its cycles of high sunspot activity.
On Jan. 2, the Space and Science Research Center released the following press release:
Today, the Space and Science Research Center, (SSRC) in Orlando, Fla., announces that it has confirmed the recent Web announcement of NASA solar physicists that there are substantial changes occurring in the suns surface. The SSRC has further researched these changes and has concluded they will bring about the next climate change to one of a long-lasting cold era.
Today, director of the SSRC, John Casey has reaffirmed earlier research he led that independently discovered the suns changes are the result of a family of cycles that bring about climate shifts from cold climate to warm and back again.
This announcement echoes the report last spring from the NOAA Space Environment Center that we are headed into another 11-year cycle of solar storms, peaking in late 2011 or mid-2012. Observations over many years reveal a 22-year cycle of activity in the photosphere, 11 years of low activity and 11 years of high.
Time to batten down the hatches?"
*********************
It seems. measuring the snows here in my little forest haven in Maine, that we are, indeed, slipping into another 11 year cycle of high sun-spot activity and high snows. I bought my house out here 17 years ago and the first few years we had huge amounts of snow - my yard was often buried in 6+ feet, my car and mailbox buried, my roof in grave danger of ending up in my living room.
Those years would have corresponded with the last 6 years or so of the "high-spots" 11-yr cycle.
For the last 10-11 years, the snow falls have been very low. Last winter, for example, the drive way only needed to be plowed 4 times....not once in Dec.
This year, I had to have 8 plows just in Dec.
All this seems to coincide exactly with the above reports from NASA and Space and Science Research Center...and I am not looking forward to the next 10 winters.
I have no place to put all this Global Warming...
My brother finds my car...
Who are we going to believe? The tripe of the Goracle and those who slavishly acquiescence to his nonsense and pseudoscience or the scientists and our own eyes - and aching backs?
(It's the Communist way - When you tell a lie, make it a BIG one, repeat it often and denigrate any naysayers.
"Signs that winters in the Northeast are losing their bite have been abundant in recent years"
Yeah , the past 11 years of low sun-spot activity. How much more Global Warming will have to pile up in our driveways in the next 11-year cycle of HIGH sun-spot activity before the sheeple wake up - and will it be in time?)
If this is an example of "Less snow to shovel..." I am going to crawl into my featherbed, cover my head with my down comforter and set my alarm for July.
Yep - good Ole January Thaw - comes every year like clockwork. Were it not for this respite before the snow and bitter cold of February come stampeding in, I wouldn't make it through winters....
It was bitter cold here in Maine in late November and in December.
In December 2006, Bangor, Maine received 3.5 inches of snow for the whole month.
In December 2007, Bangor received 42.1 inches of snow
for the entire month. Then, on New Year’s Day through
January 2nd, another 12 inches arrived. Much of this snow has since melted during the January thaw, but 10 inches of snow are coming on Monday.
And March ain't no picnic either in the northeast....
I long ago decided that when I make MY world ;o) = there will be no Feb or March. Just slide from Jan. thaw straight on into spring...
The highest average winter temperature in the Northeast US is about 31 degrees. The lowest average winter temperature in the Northeast US is about 17 degrees. The change in the mean over the last 100 years is about 1.6 degrees. The standard deviation from one year to the next is about 5 degrees. So over 100 years the mean has changed by about 1 quarter of the average change from one year to the next. Doesn’t sound like a problem.
http://www.brodiejohnson.com/page4.html
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