OK, I was reading this article at WUWT:
And it links to an interesting place to get snow maps:
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html
Which also has some animations over a period of days, if you like.
Along the way, I got to looking at some of those images of snow and cold and white. Yes, it is winter, but an awful lot of the USA is covered in snow. And snow is simply not warm. This is not a ‘warm snow’.
Snow Depth nsm 2013 02 22 05 National
That’s the depth, but the temperature is not particularly warm either:
Snow Average Temp nsm 24hr 2013 02 22 05 National
They also show where it was falling on that day:
Snow Precipitaion ruc 24hr 2013 02 22 05 National
You can pick particular dates (inside an unknown range) directly in the URL like this:
http://www.nohrsc.noaa.gov/nsa/index.html?region=National&year=2013&month=2&day=22&units=e
All in all, an interesting place to see the snow and poke around in it from the warmth of your living room.
Typically I’ve used these folks for a less precise general snow map:
The nice thing about that one is that it shows the ‘normal’ as a thick line. Lately we’ve been ‘snowing outside the lines’, but it does change from week to week.
Oh, and a h/t to Tim Clark for asking about ‘where to get snow maps’ and getting me thinking about it…
Also a h/t to Crosspatch in T10 who pointed at the cold in Russia and what is likely to come:
crosspatch says:
24 February 2013 at 12:26 amNew all time record low temperature for the Northern Hemisphere. Nearly -100F in Siberia.
crosspatch says:
25 February 2013 at 7:00 amModels are currently calling for the possibility of snow in Florida next Sunday / Monday with snow as far as Gainsville and freeze to Orlando. Some interesting experiences coming up for spring break.
Though there seems to be much confusion about that Russian cold temp, exactly when, and what, and where… it is pretty clear that this snow all over the world is not a “warm snow”. It isn’t caused by warming. It doesn’t bring warming. It’s just darned cold.
IMHO the proper thing to do when someone claims the snow is due to Climate Change / Climate Weirding / Extreme Weather Events / whatever… is just to say “You mean Global Warming is really cold?” and then laugh at them.
We’ve reached the land of “not just wrong, obviously and insanely wrong” for the Global Warmers. This weather is NOT warm. It isn’t even close to warm. It is clearly a very cold turn, much like during the last “Major Solar Minimum” events and it clearly shows that something in the absolutely normal cycles of solar and lunar / tidal processes is in control of our weather. Not CO2.
It’s time for the “Global Warming” crowd to recognize that their Emperors have no clothes and their story is looking very dumb.
We are headed for about 15 to 20 more years of this, and getting worse / colder along the way. The Fat Lady is warming up off stage right, and there’s a cold wind a gonna blow…
It will be particularly interesting to watch how China responds as they tend to food shortages and severe freezes / droughts in such times, and how North Korea reacts; possessing nukes and with near starvation crop yields already, and getting more frozen by the year. We’ve got a ‘race condition’ between North Korea and Iran as to which fool will become a Nuclear Fool first, and who will pound them into dust. Now this weather excursion (and it is weather… 30 year weather cycles and even 180 year solar driven weather cycles are NOT climate, they are weather) is going to be stressing exactly the wrong folks in the most trying way. We will be very lucky if they do not decide to do something very very stupid. I don’t believe in luck…
At the same time, our European and US “leaders” are about as ill equipped to deal with any of this as any ‘leadership’ I’ve seen since Ronald Reagan tossed Jimmy Carter out on his butt. I can only hope that things hold together for 4 more years and we get a change of our political class for someone a bit more wise in the ways of global catastrophe and resource wars. Not having a tin ear to rampant ideologue driven rabble rousing would help too…
BTW, note that on that snow depth map, we’ve got snow in Southern California and in New Mexico / Arizona down to the Mexican border. Also note how the mountains are all getting good snows. IMHO it’s all about the UV for mountain snow. When the UV went ‘way low’ the atmospheric height shortened. We have the same amount of air, but the thing just squashed down. Less UV making it less puffy…
That is, in effect, the same as making all those mountain ranges taller. That ought to lower the ‘snow line’. I expect we will see lots more growing glaciers in the coming years. Mount Hamilton, near me, was covered in snow to a ‘lower than usual’ level just last week. Yes, it melted off. But during the 90s it had become rare to see snow on the mountain at all in some winters. Now we are getting it several times each winter. Like “the old days” of the ’70s. Or perhaps a bit more.
It is my opinion that if we can keep an eye on snow levels and glaciers, they will pretty much show that the worm has turned. We will likely see that effect most strongly in the Andes in South America. They are very high, and can be very cold. Also the Southern Hemisphere winters are getting longer while their summers are getting shorter due to orbital changes. Combine all that, and I think South America will show us dramatic cold mountains before most other places. ( I really need to find a good source for South America snow maps.)
One thing is very certain, though: I’m really glad to be living in California today: I did an open air BBQ on the patio. Nice spring like day. Shirt sleeve weather. Despite all the “stupids” running our government and driving our economy into the ground, the place does have its charms. February BBQ is one of them ;-)
I hope to get the patio cleaned up and set up enough to do several more, but there is always the risk, up until about mid April, of more storms and rain; potentially even a freeze. (Our official ‘last frost’ date is about then). Still, on any given week it can be a BBQ Weekend, any time of the year. I have a ‘nesting pair’ of doves that have returned to the patio awning. I think we’re into this about 20 generations now (maybe more… they first moved in about the time my kids were born, so ‘over 20 but not more than 25’ years.) There’s something pleasant about having doves cooing in the yard, and doing a BBQ in February… Sometimes we have a very long spring. As a friend’s Minnesota Swedish Dad explained to him, when asked why he moved to California: “Son, you don’t have to shovel rain”. I can only add “or sunshine”…
So to all of you dealing with cold, frozen, and snow: Good luck, and hope you warm up soon. I can assure you there is still a sun in the sky, and spring is on the way. It’s just taking a bit of a visit to California until the snow gets done. ;-)
Stay warm.
Musings from the Chiefio 
Here I’m at around 45°N and around 6km west of the Greenwich meridian, and it’s 1.2°C out there and snowing. When I was first here, around 11 years ago now, having a barbeque in February was quite normal, as was working the vines in a T-shirt in February when it was a sunny day. Air temperature of maybe 5°C according to the thermometer, but feeling warm in the sun, and some days of 18-20°C air temperature as well. It’s still generally better than the UK, but it’s pretty obvious that it’s generally not as pleasant weather here than the locals are used to. Where this really shows is in the design of the houses – meant to keep cool and thus comfortable in summer, and just not insulated well enough for the sort of winters we’re starting to see now. Another pointer is the depth of the water pipes, where the odd foot or so deep has been fine for a long time, but is now looking a bit marginal.
Oh well – at least it’s still better weather in general than the UK, and the radar traps on the roads are very well signposted.
@E.M.: I have found this:
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/index.php/2007/05/21/actual-south-american-snow-cover-data-show-no-climate-change/
http://www.senamhi.gob.pe/site/coes/?p=040
Thank you, E. M. Smith, for the role you play in reminding people of the discrepancy between reality and government propaganda.
Reality is much easier to understand than the pseudo-scientific propaganda that paraded as consensus science after1945: The Standard Solar Model of Hydrogen-filled Stars; The Big Bang Initial Creation of Hydrogen from Nothing; Oscillating Solar Neutrinos, etc., etc., ad infinitum.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10640850/Man_God_and_Sun_(1500-2100).pdf
I regret that it took so long to decipher the puzzle P. K. Kuroda assigned me in 1960.
– Oliver K. Manuel
Correction: This tiny url works: http://tinyurl.com/au23plw
yeah…..another snow day. :<(
I've been to work twice since last Monday, once for only half a day
Now, 32F and another blizzard. About 1/2 of the 14.2 inches had "melted/compacted" from the one that ended Saturday night. They are calling for 6-12 for sure, and we're right on the line for 12-24".
You read that right.
Have two already with wind driven snow.
If wichita, ks gets 5.8" inches out of this, it will break the record for all time snowiest month since………………………………………………………1899.
That was the time of the massive buffalo herd collective farting protest against the Indians releasing GHG methane into the atsmosphere.
/sarc unnecessary
“Global Warming?…..another expression of Hollywood Science” Khabibulo Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory, Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Just took the wife to the airport, returned home and watching to see if her flight is leaving .It is the last one scheduled out or in and as we are in a temproary repreive from a snow thumping, it is currently not cancelled from ICH. If she gets out then this is all I have to do today from the NWS:
* Timing… snowfall will begin this morning and persist through
tonight. The period of the heaviest snow will be late this
morning through this evening.
* Snow accumulations… will range from 7 to 14 inches with the
heaviest snow south of Highway 50. The heaviest snowfall of 10
to 14 inches is expected near Anthony and Kingman with 7 to 10
inches near Hutchinson.
* Winds… northerly winds will be 30 to 35 mph sustained with 40 mph
gusts.
* Impacts… the strong north winds combined with moderate to
heavy snow will cause blowing snow that will frequently reduce
visibilities to less than one half mile in many areas. Drifts
could reach 2 to 3 feet. Travel will be dangerous and is
greatly discouraged! The addition of several more inches of
snow on top of nearly a foot of previous snowfall on roofs
could be a concern for structures.
Precautionary/preparedness actions…
A Blizzard Warning means severe winter weather conditions are
expected or occurring. Falling and blowing snow with strong
winds and poor visibilities are likely. This will lead to
whiteout conditions… making travel extremely dangerous.
Do not travel! Stay inside! Strong winds and blinding snow will
make travel nearly impossible. This is a life threatening storm.
If you must travel… have a winter survival kit with
you. If you get stranded… stay with your vehicle.
Now where is that corkscrew, time for some bioflavonoids.
@Tim Clark:
And caloric fuel with metabolic enhancers! Can’t forget that ethanol directly enters the Krebs / Citric Acid cycle and makes ATP to keep you warm!
My condolences on your weather and I hope the spouse made it out to sunnier climes… Having crossed Kansas a couple of times by car, it can be a very very long day even doing 70 MPH. On one occasion we left the hotel first thing in the morning in Kansas City, Mo. and it was something dark pushing 8 or 9 pm when we made the hotel in Colorado. IIRC we had dinner at the far west edge of Kansas in the area of the last speed trap officer who sits between the two freeway sides (in the nicely provided depression about 1 car deep … only the light bar and radar gun above ground level…) at the last town of any size large enough to have a Burger King…
I can’t imagine that endless snow makes it any more interesting than sunshine and endless grain fields.
@Adolfo:
Nice links! Thanks!
@Oscar:
When a URL has a period in it, wordpress will stop the ‘autoconvert’ to URL at that point. So you need to use the Unicode for the ‘.’ instead. & # 46 ;
Goodland or Colby, probably Goodland.
Just started to hammer us. Visibilty from my house to corner only (300 ft.), Wife about halfway to chicago ohare, on her way to Virginia. Won’t have a problem now. Since my wife is on a no-carb diet, spaghetti sounds good ;<)
Actually, she’s there.
AAL4212 / EGF4212 · “American” (all flights) aa.com
Wichita Mid-Continent (KICT)
Chicago O’Hare Intl (KORD)
12:27PM CST
Duration: 1 hour 22 minutes
Monday, February 25, 2013
Sorry to clog your blog with inane comments. This white AGW is boring me to tears.
My wife turned on the A/C this afternoon to cool the house down. It’s in the 80s and sunny though it’s supposed to start working it’s way back down to the mid-seventies tomorrow. Greetings from sunny Cocoa, FL. BikeWeek is in a week and a half. Polishing up the Wing as it’s dirty from all the riding. We’re just now in the prime riding season. Now just stop all the talking about that white stuff. I just don’t want to hear about it. I don’t want to see any of it. Just stop it. And get that Tim guy to whine about his weather someplace else :-)
@Tim Clark:
Not a problem. Your spouse and my son are now in the same city. I find that kind of curious parallel interesting. Neither one of them even remotely aware of the other, yet connected by ‘one link’…
@Larry Geiger:
What have you got against Chablis and Chardonnay? Nothing wrong with ‘white stuff’ at all, IMHO!!
;-)
It does give an odd perspective on things to be in California or Florida (or sometimes South Texas…) while the rest of the country is doing winter disaster drills I’m trying to decide if BBQ two days in a row is a bad thing, and you are prepping for a bike run…
Ah well, enjoy it while you can. We’ll have a few more drenching downpours of ‘liquid sunshine’ before the winter is over. But at least we have ‘respite’ days of a bit of sun and warm in between.
Come to think of it, BBQ two days in a row isn’t bad at all… and I need to use up the old charcoal anyway, before serious grilling season arrives… I think I need to run to the store for some chicken and “white stuff’… All I have at the moment is Pinot, and that’s just wrong with chicken ;-)
“First, do no wrong”… it’s not just for Doctors ;-)
Looking at those maps above reminded me of this UN-IPCC piece of failed junk science:
March 2008-
Hotter & Drier: The west’s changing climate.
By the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization & The National Resources Defence Council.(pdf)
❝ Already, decreases in snowpack, less snowfall, earlier snow melt, more winter rain events, increased peak winter flows, and reduced summer flows have been documented. Scientists have recently attributed more than half of these changes in the West between 1950 and 1999 to the effects of heat-trapping pollutants. ❞
[ http://www.rockymountainclimate.org/website%20pictures/Hotter%20and%20Drier.pdf ]
Of course, all UN-IPCC failed computer climate models are because of incomplete data:
❝ Scientists have found a new source of the coldest, deepest waters, and they have done it with the help of seals.
The new discovery will now have to be factored in to climate change models. ❞
[ http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-25/important-clue-in-ocean-circulation/4538010 ]
Warm snow? no! The concept is silly, one of my earliest memories is of playing in snow, was the impression I got from that experience that snow was warm? no! my tiny frozen fingers felt the pain.
There is another myth going about, it’s that Ice doesn’t form on windows anymore, I have a skylight, it’s a double glazed window built into the roof to shed light on a staircase, it is currently frozen over, I spotted it glimmering in the moon light, so as the inquisitive type I am, I fetched a set of step ladders, climbed up and scraped my fingernails through the ice, the adjacent room facing the skylight (south easterly facing) the thermometer on the window-sill read 6C. BTW the view of the full moon tonight from that window was amazing, large moon halo too.
@Tim Clark,
Our snow moved out last night, which is what you are getting now. The skies have cleared, and it got up to about 32 F today, but the temperature has dropped to 12 F tonight (Monday) at about 8:30 pm Mountain Time. The moonrise was gorgeous and the moonlight is reflecting off the snow and it is really bright out tonight. If it has to be cold and snowy, it might as well be pretty. We hardly had any wind ( for us, anyway ) with the last two snowstorms, so the snow hasn’t drifted too badly. I didn’t know that snow could fall mostly straight down, I’ve only seen it fall sideways. :) I hope you don’t have to shovel too much of that warm snow, as I am sure it is worse than the cold snow we usually have.
A few years back, I looked at the “snow depth” map and wondered how accurate it was. I found a spot about 150 feet from the house and what appeared to be neither blown out by the wind nor piled up. I measured the depth in several places and they were all about 11 inches (I think). That category on the map goes from 25 to 50 cm (9.8 to 20 inches). As best I could plot the location with that map – my snow depth did fall in the category. I did notice it was cold snow, by the way!
This morning (Mon. 2/25) we woke to a thin while blanket of snow. By about 10 AM it had all gone away – sublimated, neither the concrete patio or the ground got wet. The wind went from about 9 mph to 24, then 30 (averages), while the gusts hit 39 mph. The strong winds lasted 6+ ours, then dropped again – now at 10 mph. These changes happen very rapidly, as though a switch is thrown. This is “burn the fields and ditches” season in the valley and sometimes the burners get caught by this action. I’ve been out when wind speed went from near zero to 35 in under a minute.
It’s too cold and windy to be experimenting with the outdoor stoves but I’ve been reading the posts. Much appreciated your comment on grilling versus BBQ. My wife is from Atlanta and we would frequently visit the Old Hickory House in Atlanta and the Hickory Pit in Savannah.
John, I think you live 100 miles east of me. I can vouch for there being some wind in your area, like ten months of the year. I am a little surprised it drops below 20 mph, ever. Well, not ever, I have been there looking for wind and it didn’t blow.
Judy, you paint a pretty picture of the moonlight. Something I miss living here around Seattle. The gray does seem to settle here.
Oh, it can be pretty here, but the time between can pull you down. Great exercise keeping up.
On the matter of the chattering classes resistance to reality, we who dare to question are evil deluded fools, they know we are wrong, and nothing will shake their warm fuzzy group think.
Hell is gonna freeze over and still it will be the talking point of the day.
Have been avoiding the computer and this topic , as I am intolerant of idiocy over weather just now.
But over at American Thinker Feb 24.
3 reasons conservatives are losing the battle for America.
Well worth a read.
Nails the sense of mission impossible I feel when arguing against the group think of combatting CO2 emissions.
I need to think on this, but it reinforces my inclination to go fully underground work wise, as if true the only way to return society to reality is let the brainwashed run out of money.
Maybe I should get a government job and hasten the collapse.
Hell even my wife has bought the weather BS, on seeing snowfall in Texas on TV, its unusual weather, never snows in Texas.
Where I live now we have “warm snow” also called Sierra Cement as it is very wet, melts into floods and freezes rock solid. Where I used to live in Surprise Valley we had COLD snow , light and fluffy and generally evaporated directly without wetting the ground. Just two of many forms of liquid sunshine we receive in warm, sunny California. 8-) pg
Thanks, E.M., for the comment and for fixing the link above.
Here’s an updated summary of events that gave hope for democracy in 1776 and then started to destroy those hopes in 1945:
http://tinyurl.com/ac2h396
Tomorrow I will try to find how to make hyperlinks work on the pdf file.
@John Robertson:
Odd you would say that… At about 20 years old, maybe ’73? I saw that Social Security and pensions were a Ponzi Scheme and would not be there for me. I’ve planned much of my ‘life plan’ around that understanding. Right now, frankly, I have too much ‘assets’ and the government is trying to find ways to take them. From my POV I was just preparing for the inevitable. From their POV I’m ripe for plucking.
So I’ve actively considered just becoming a burden on the system. Go ahead and spend and consume to poverty. IF I do that, not only do they leave me alone, but I get free medical, dental, and food. Hard to argue with that when all I really need to be happy is food, medical, and a communications feed. (Well, and my garden, but I can get a community garden plot, worst case…)
So, despite never having taken a dime in unemployment or any other sort of help or aid since the one time I got an unemployment check for about $18 is about 1971; I’m looking at things and thinking that the “highest and best use” for me is simply to become a burden on the system. I have all of something like 5 or 7 years until that happens anyway… so I’m thinking that “go ahead and do it now” makes a lot of sense.
If offends every aspect of my morality and being. Yet it seems to be what “The System” is advocating. So why not “help things along”?…
Sad, but true.
About a decade ago I had a business that was booking / turning about $50,000 / month. Had 12 guys working for me at peak. What “The System” told me was that this behaviour was not appreciated. So I stopped. Just let it run down and go to nothing. Sad, and “wrong” in one morality play… yet that was what “The System” told me to do.
Now I’m being told “Just be a burden on others, it pays best”.
If offends me and so far I’ve resisted. Yet… How long can a person do what is a dead weight loss in the face of ‘easy living’?
So I’m still “holding out”, yet looking for a job is just not very high on my ‘to do list’ when it means picking up a 50% Monkey on my back, minimum… and I can get Zero Monkey money just by asking… So “Who’s your Monkey?” is a growing question…
@OManuel:
It’s an odd thing, learning the various levels of language, meta-language, characters, meta-characters. etc. So 2 years ago I couldn’t say squat about “unicode characters” and now I can not only use them, but do the peculiar thing of typing them in such that they display instead of being translated. (Hint: It is a recursive thing and subbing the middle bits is an easy bypass…)
So just pick a moment and spend some time on it. & shows and an amperand, as does & but to get that last one to print out, well, that takes a bit of magic ;-) … (Hint: put amp; after the ampersand codes…) So it goes…
Good Morning America,
Well, it seems like that. My electricity was just reconnected. Went off about 9 pm. I wasn’t really prepared, I guess. It hadn’t happened since I’ve lived here. Oh, I had flashlights, candles, vino. ;<) But it was strange. Absolutely nothing to do but crosswords and such. The biggest inconvenience was my wi-fi didn't work of course. well doh. It just never occurred to me. I'm sure I still have the cables around here to make it happen, but thought they would have the problem resolved by morning. I had the gas look lthrough yuppie fireplace on when the power went off, so no worries there. Kept the house about 62F, as of this morning. I'm debating whether to start shoveling so i can get my pickup out, but I'm still sore from last week. I'll probably let the main driveway melt since my wife is gone. Three car garage and i have to park outside, guess i'm a hoarder of future useful items, mostly tools and such. There should be no questions regarding the snowiest month since 1899. As of 1 a.m. Tuesday, the Wichita area received 5.6 inches of snow. We'll see if that makes headlines.
A few years back we got 3 feet of Sierra Cement and lost power for 5 days. Snowed in for 7, Kind of dismal. I did have a wood stove, so warm in the dark with little to do. After that I created a UPS system to protect the electronics and supply power for lights and communications. 12 – group 27 batteries on an old 1200 watt UPS, works great even in lightning storms and no blown electronics. Won’t run the refrigerator but will drive the coffee maker in a pinch. ;-) pg
@P.G. Have to try those old refrigerators running with kerosene.
Same problem I have, morally I object to acting in a manner I know to be damaging to myself.
Or destructive to society.
Government work would kill me quickly.
I have wondered if the practical solution would be, to do an end run around the media and the uninformed voter.
The distaste for politicians is pretty much common in all english speaking countries, if none of the above, was an option on the ballet I believe that choice would win in most elections.
So if I change my name to None Of The Above or Zzz1 None of the Above, to ensure bottom of ballot position, collect the required number of nominees, pay the fee and then do nothing.
I get elected.
With a small effort one could arrange likeminded persons in each riding,( Zzzz # 1 to X) and probably form a majority. Now this is a low budget practical solution, if troubled by media coverage, I can insist this is a legitimate protest, if None of the Above is the voters choice, law will be passed to permanently add NOTA to ballots and those politicians who lose to NOTA in future elections, must retire from politics.
Banishment by ballot box.
But the hang up is my self delusion, I have not wanted to acknowledge how lazy and stupid we have become,my sense of sanity has required a belief we are capable of intelligent behaviour.
That people will chose productive choices over destructive if given an informed choice, but the 3 reasons conservatives are losing the battle for America, makes the case that we can talk all we want, liberally indoctrinated people are not going to listen unless we are perceived as friends of group think.
Honesty is not a valid policy??