Snowman Mike in Anchorage
Waiting to cross the street in snowy Anchorage
Favorite Web Cams – Anchorage
Downtown Anchorage, click for live image
Here’s a link to borealisbroadband.net’s list of camera’s.
Why Views on Climate Matter
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With temperatures cooling and not rising you’d think that the debate on Global Warming, or Climate Change as the kids are calling it these days, would be more of a debate. Instead, most of the liberal politicians are ignoring the facts and acting to prevent more warming when much of the globe is freezing!
A great example comes to us from the U.K. Seems some British politicians are hoping to ban plasma TVs because they use too much energy! Read it for yourself from the Independent.
Energy-guzzling flatscreen plasma televisions will soon be banned as part of the battle against climate change, ministers have told The Independent on Sunday.
“Minimum energy performance standards” for televisions are expected to be agreed across Europe this spring, they say, and this should lead to “phasing out the most inefficient TVs”. At the same time, a compulsory labelling system will be drawn up to identify the best and worst devices.
How do Brits feel about this? The story doesn’t say.
Could you imagine if this was tried in the United States? I know a few Texans who might say, “They’ll have to pry the remote from my cold, frozen, global cooled fingers!”
This in the face of the coldest Winter in a decade. Glaciers grew last year in Alaska. Snow is falling in the south of France and Madrid, Spain! The Sun is quiet and Solar Scientists say colder decades are ahead. We should be drilling for more oil and natural gas and burning it to produce electricity and to stay warm! Not banning plasma TVs.
It really does matter your view of global warming. If you believe man is causing it then you have to control peoples behavior to combat it. If it’s natural and we are entering a very cold spell then it’s time to prepare by mining, and using, more fossil fuels!
It’s a debate we better have. Otherwise we could waste a lot of time, money, resources, and even lives.
Snow Job
Man caused Global Warming is losing support. Maybe because of the actual weather across the globe. This Winter is turning out to be another unusually cold and snowy one. Not just in Alaska as I noted a couple of days ago. How about this from Breitbart. Madrid, Spain was paralyzed by a rare snow storm and cold temperatures! The same story talks about the extreme cold in Germany.
In Germany, the death toll from the cold snap rose to three and several rivers were frozen over, blocking ship traffic, authorities said.
Drift ice covered 80 to 90 percent of the surface of the river Elbe from Doemnitz to the Germany’s main port of Hamburg in the north, a spokeswoman for the Water and Shipping Office said.
Meanwhile, Russia has decided to shut off the natural gas to parts of eastern Europe.
As temperatures plummeted throughout the continent, around a dozen European nations were suffering the effects of Russia’s decision to turn off the natural gas supplies transiting through Ukraine to Europe.
Bulgaria received no Russian gas for the fourth day in a row as temperatures plunged to minus 17 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Fahrenheit) and heavy snow covered most of the country.
Meanwhile the extreme cold in Alaska and Canada is set to move into the U.S. next week. If you live east of the Rockies, get ready for VERY cold air. New York City could be below zero for only the second time since the 1940s!
It’s COLD!
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Not everywhere, of course. Here in Tucson it’s been near normal with some days above and some below. Today should be about 70 which is a good 6 or 7 degrees above normal. However, it’s been cold and snowy enough so far this Winter that nearby Mt. Lemmon is having another good ski season! With last weekends storm they say they now have enough snow at Ski Valley to last until Spring.
In other parts of the country it has been extreme snow. So much snow that avalanches are causing problems for some ski areas and even some deaths. Here is that story.
On the “Glabal Warming” front, it’s quite the opposite. Alaska, known for it’s cold in the Winter is having an unusual bitter cold arctic outbreak. Here’s an article from AP on Yahoo! News.
Alaskans are accustomed to subzero temperatures but the prolonged conditions have folks wondering what’s going on with winter less than a month old.
How cold is it?
Johnson lives in Stevens Village, where residents have endured close to two weeks of temperatures pushing 60 below zero.
In Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city, residents are used to lows of about 10-degree temperatures in January — not 19 below zero, which is what folks awoke to Wednesday morning.
Temperatures finally settled to about 10 below at midday, but that was cold enough to cancel races in the U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships.
More evidence that its the Sun that causing all of this cooling. As it continues to be less active, we on Earth continue to cool. This article from the Daily Mail in England outlines how scientists are concerned about less solar wind. The solar wind protects the inner solar system from Cosmic Rays. Weaker solar wind means more danger for astronauts. It also makes sense that a quieter Sun means less solar radiation. It follows that that would cause the Earth to cool!
I’m still hoping that folks would see that light. I believe many of them are. We need to contact our representatives in Washington and stop the plans to tax CO2. What a waste of money, especially when the country is going broke! We really need to be developing our energy resources yesterday so that we can keep warm in the chilly decades to come!
Astronauts returning to the moon could be threatened by cosmic rays as a result of the sun becoming less active, scientists have said.
The sun’s ability to shield the solar system from harmful radiation could falter in the early 2020s, research from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology claimed.
It’s cold in space and it’s getting colder down here too.
Alaska Glaciers Grow
One cool summer after a cold winter does not mean that Global Warming is officially over. However, combined with all of the evidence I have outlined over the past two years on this blog I’d say probably. After all, that’s what the measurements say!
I found another article this morning that supports the claim. It’s very well written and not spun one way or the other politically. It’s just straight science! Thank You! Here’s the link.
Basically, the scientist in the article is saying that a lot of cold and snow last winter combined with a really cool summer this summer has caused glaciers in Alaska to grow since last year. He rightly points out that glaciers shrink and grow over decades.
What the article doesn’t predict is which way they are likely to go from here. I’ve been saying all along that now that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation has switched to a cold phase (after 30 years in a warm phase), and now that the Sun has become much quieter, we can expect an extended cold snap. Especially in Alaska where it’s already begun!
Politically, I would say, PLEASE don’t throw a bunch of money at a Global Warming problem that is no problem at all. This is all natural, cyclical, stuff. Rather, PLEASE plan on helping to feed people and keep them warm as the planet cools!
The Old Farmer’s Almanac – No Warming Here
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The 2009 Edition is out. I had the fun task of interviewing one of the editors. Turns out the Almanac’s famous weather prediction for this Winter is colder for much of the nation. Indeed some of the country is expected to be MUCH colder!
In addition, in this edition, the meteorologist for the Almanac says that we (the whole planet) are in for a LONG TERM cooling period! Why? For the exact reasons I’ve been outlining here. The Sun has already entered a less active period. Solar scientists look at solar cycles and see the Sun being quiet for the next few decades. Historically that has meant colder weather!
Another thing that was really cool (punny) about my interview with The Old Farmer’s Almanac, they are talking about ocean currents too. Specifically, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation! If you have been reading this blog (hi Mom) then you know I have been talking about the Pacific Decadal Oscillation for over a year now. The Old Farmer’s Almanac says it has now flipped to a cold phase. This will contribute to colder, and drier, conditions along the west coast and will contribute to colder temperatures in not just Alaska, but much of the country for the next few decades!
There is a similar current in the Atlantic. I was not aware of the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation, but apparently there is one. It is currently (punny again!) in a warm phase. It’s why Dr. Grey and others have been talking about a 30 year period of high hurricane activity. I guess we are 10 years or so in. What The Old Farmer’s Almanac and others are saying is once the Atlantic Multi-Decadal Oscillation flips to a cold phase, it’s going to get REALLY cold! I’ve heard that one Russian scientist has a bet with a fellow scientist. The Russian says it will be much colder in 2018 than some other previous year (I really should Google this). The other scientist believes in Global warming, so he is expecting warmer.
A side note about the hurricanes. The hurricane activity a few years ago turned out to be quieter than originally predicted. The reason was El Nino. The Atlantic was warm, but because of El Nino in the Pacific, the upper level winds tore tropical systems apart before they could really get going. Now that we have the Pacific Decadal Oscillation flipping to a cold phase, say good bye to El Nino, for the most part. With the Atlantic warm and the Pacific cold, hurricanes are going to be a big problem for the next ten years or more. Look for global warming believers to try to say it’s because of global warming, even as the overall temperatures go down.
UPDATE: The bet by the Russian scientist is that the temps from 2012 and 2017 will be colder then temps between 1998 and 2003. Here’s a great article on why more scientists are bailing on the run away global warming.
The “Truth” About Sarah Palin
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Read more: www.SarahPalinFacts.com
Palin!
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Amazing day as John McCain names Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate! It came as a surprise to almost everyone, including her family, who found out while watching FOX News. As we are starting to find out more about Sarah Palin, it’s becoming clear. She is an amazing woman! She moved to Alaska when she was three months old. She led her high school basketball team to the state championship while her ankle had a stress fracture. She is on tape somewhere shooting a machine gun when she visited Iraq. Why not, she blows away moose and caribou on a regular basis. Hey. A woman’s gotta eat!
Then there are her family values. A strong Christian Conservative she stands strong for life and against corruption. She has five children, including one with child with downs. Her husband is a commercial fisherman and works on the Alaska Pipeline. He’s also a world champion in snow machine racing!
Her knowledge on energy is vast. She doesn’t believe in man-made global warming and she’s all in favor of “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less.”
Judging from the reaction, McCain made a dynamite pick! I can’ wait for the vice-presidential debates!
Summerless
in Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News reports it could be the COLDEST SUMMER EVER in Anchorage! The Weather Service says it’s La Nina’s fault and when it fades temps should return to average or above. We will see. This blog and others have been talking about a cooler Sun. If that’s true, look for a COLD Winter in a lot of places even after La Nina is gone.
