(Barely) Winter '06: Buttercups Are in Bloom
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS February 3, 2006
Let's put it this way: People played golf this winter in Maine. In shorts.
Buttercups have been blooming in Montana. In Ohio, an ice-free Lake Erie allowed an early start to seasonal ferry service. And the sap started running early in Vermont.
While January plunged much of Europe and Russia into the deep freeze, it was remarkably mild across the United States. Government scientists have not yet calculated whether it ranks as the warmest January on record, but "it's certainly going to be right up there," said Michael Halpert, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It was the warmest month on record in Oklahoma and South Dakota, and barely missed tying the record for Iowa.
It was the second-warmest in Maine and Milwaukee; third-warmest in Memphis and Detroit; and fourth-warmest in New York City.
Minneapolis and St. Paul had the warmest January in 160 years. Ice sculptures at the St. Paul Winter Carnival melted and broke up nearly as quickly as they were carved, and several big ice-fishing contests in Minnesota were canceled or moved because of thin ice.
For much of the nation, however, Mr. Halpert said, the warm weather is on its way out.
"Probably by next week we will be seeing much colder weather over the eastern half to two-thirds of the country," he said.
The current warmth is caused by the unusual position of the jet stream, the high-altitude river of air that flows west to east across North America. It divides warm air from cold, with colder temperatures to its north and warmer temperatures to its south.
Usually in the winter, it follows a lazy zigzag across the United States and Canada, allowing cold air into the United States, where it dips south, Mr. Halpert said. But for the past month or so, it has flowed east in almost a straight line across the northern part of the country, basically forming a fence that has kept cold air out and allowed in milder air masses from the Pacific Ocean instead.
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(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Comments
Milder winters are not unusual.
Is there 'compelling evidence' for this being 'the warmest period in the past 1000 years', the warmest its been for 5000 years with the highest rate of 'warming' for the past 10000 years with all this related to 'greenhouse concepts'?
No not really, let us all think, ICE AGE, and consider when and why the ice retreated.
Are we at or near a peak in the NATURAL climate oscillation? If you look AT the numerous temperature plots about, you might note the 'symmetry' of the 'wobble' exhibited.
The commonly quoted 'average temperature increase' is also of the planetary surface, and this represents ONLY that kinetic energy NOT as yet conducted to the atmosphere to then produce the effects of Turbulence, including Convection, which is displayed also in the motions of Oceanic currents.
To save time retyping, please look at
http://www.climateimc.org/?q=node/312
where you will see that it is infact the alterations to the planetary surface that are inducing alterations to the induction rate of, and to the redistribution of kinetic energy induction, and so is leading weather patterning away from what some would call the 'normal'.
Climate is presenting 'persistence' and NEVER permanence.
It should be realised that the climate is progressing out of a glaciation. In the glacial period, there was permanent snow, with dependant fauna (and I assume flora) somewhere just north of today's Texas, as example, at around 15,000 years ago. 'Texas' itself would have been grassed heavily with ample water from melt as the glaciation reverted to the present warming period.
Now, we have much marginal terrain (desert like) within the planetary 'equatorial region'. The 'temperate region' is heavily covered in photosynthetic mass (if you imagine the forests removed by Humanity to be present, for illustrative purpose). The 'Polar Regions' are now just warming.
This indicates to the MAJORITY (many of the other ~500 Million tertiary educated members of the public, and also those interested in looking at what is taught pre-tertiary level) in regard to natural climate alterations, that what we are seeing as effect is primarily the NATURAL progressions of the primary CLIMATE oscillation; again see http://www.climateimc.org/?q=node/312 for more detail.
It is infact that the climate is coming away from an glaciation, and so the Polar regions are infact the LAST place to react, it is just NOW that they are reacting and winters will be in general more mild for a period of time, with increases in turbulence seeing large precipitations as 'events'.
Your's, Peter K. Anderson a.k.a. Hartlod(tm)
From the PC of Peter K Anderson
E-Mail: Hartlod@bigpond.com
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