Asteroid Burns Up in Atmospehere in Meteosate Image

Asteroid 2008TC was the first to ever be predicted to hit the Earth, and thus observed by many techniques. I personally saw it streak through the atmosphere on it's way to crashing south of Egypt, while I was in Cyprus. I cam across and amazing little image in the IR from Meteosat. The flash in the image was the IR spike as the asteroid (about 80 tons) blew up high in the atmosphere. Some of the debris has been recovered from the Sahara. - HLG

"Blue Moon" on New Year's Eve!

Blue moon to shine on New Year's EveDecember 30
2009 8:17 a.m. EST

(CNN) -- It happens only once in a blue moon -- and scientists say a blue moon is exactly what we'll see in the skies this New Year's Eve.

Don't expect an azure glow over our lunar satellite, however. The term "blue moon" simply refers to the second full moon in a calendar month, something that hasn't happened on a New Year's Eve for nearly 20 years, NASA says.

"December 1990 ended with a blue moon, and many New Year's Eve parties were themed by the event," said Professor Philip Hiscock of the department of folklore at Memorial University of Newfoundland, in Canada. "It was a lot of fun."

Most months have just one full moon, because the 29.5-day cycle of the moon matches up pretty well with the length of calendar months. Occasionally, there will be two full moons in a month, something that happens about every 2½ years, NASA says.

But a blue moon on December 31 is rare.



Elvis Presley crooned about it when he sang the old Rodgers and Hart song "Blue Moon," in which he stood alone without a dream in his heart or a love of his own.

He struck a more hopeful tone in another tune, singing about his love returning to his arms "When My Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again." He also covered Bill Monroe's bluegrass classic, "Blue Moon of Kentucky."

It is possible for the moon to have a cerulean hue, NASA says, but that's sometimes caused by fine dirt circulating in the Earth's atmosphere or the dark blue tone of the sky.

A blue moon hasn't always meant the second full moon in a month. Hundreds of years ago, it simply meant "never" or "absurd," Hiscock said.

"The phrase 'blue moon' has been around a long time, well over 400 years, but during that time its meaning has shifted," he said. "I have counted six different meanings which have been carried by the term, and at least four of them are still current today. That makes discussion of the term a little complicated."

When the Indonesian volcano Krakatoa erupted in 1883, it put so much dust in the atmosphere that the moon actually appeared blue -- an event so unusual that the term "once in a blue moon" was coined, according to NASA's National Space Science Data Center. The effect lasted for almost two years, Hiscock said.

Full moons used to have 12 names, one for each month, such as "harvest moon," NASA said. The term "blue moon" referred to the 13th full moon in a year.

The term acquired its current meaning in the 1940s, after the Farmer's Almanac of Maine offered an astronomical definition of a blue moon "so convoluted that even professional astronomers struggled to understand it," NASA wrote on its Web site.

A writer at Sky and Telescope magazine in the late 1940s tried to explain the almanac's definition by saying it referred to the second full moon in a month.

"That was not correct, but at least it could be understood," NASA wrote. "And thus the modern blue moon was born."

Because Calvin and Hobbes were Weather Fans!!!

This is a really cool project.  Check it out and watch the video of the planned documentary.    I have pledged to support and will be submitting material for the documentary.

gg

New Technique for using Atmospheric Properties to Estimate Comet Impace Frequency

Nice to have a new technique, since we are mostly guessing on the frequencies with the spotty geologic evidence. - HLG

Incoming Comets
Based on a University of Kansas news release



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary: A new method of detecting past comet strikes on Earth could help scientists understand how frequent large impacts were in the past. The frequency of impacts could be used to determine the likelihood of future, catastrophic impacts.







It's the stuff of a Hollywood disaster epic: A comet plunges from outer space into the Earth's atmosphere, splitting the sky with a devastating shock wave that flattens forests and shakes the countryside.

But this isn't a disaster movie plotline.

"Comet impacts might be much more frequent than we expect," said Adrian Melott, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Kansas (KU). "There's a lot of interest in the rate of impact events upon the Earth. We really don't know the rate very well because most craters end up being destroyed by erosion or the comets go into the ocean and we don't know that they're there. We really don't have a good handle on the rate of impacts on the Earth."

An investigation by Melott and colleagues reveals a promising new method of detecting past comet strikes upon Earth and gauging their frequency. The results were unveiled at the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting, held Dec. 14-18 in San Francisco.

The research shows a potential signature of nitrate and ammonia that can be found in ice cores corresponding to suspected impacts. Although high nitrate levels previously have been tied to space impacts, scientists have never before seen atmospheric ammonia spikes as indicators of space impacts with our planet.


In 1908 when a 20-meter asteroid struck the Tunguska forest in Siberia, trees were incinerated in a 9-mile radius and knocked over in a 25-mile radius. Luckily, the asteroid did not strike a heavily populated area.
Image Credit: Smithsonian Institution
"Now we have a possible new marker for extraterrestrial events in ice," Melott said. "You don't just look for nitrates, you also look for ammonia."

Melott studied two possible cometary airbursts with Brian Thomas, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Washburn University, Gisela Dreschhoff, KU adjunct associate professor of physics and astronomy, and Carey Johnson, KU professor of chemistry.

In June 1908, a puzzling explosion rocked central Siberia in Russia; it came to be known as the "Tunguska event." A later expedition found that 20 miles of trees had been knocked down and set alight by the blast. Today, scientists have coalesced around the idea that Tunguska's devastation was caused by a 100-foot asteroid that had entered Earth's atmosphere, causing an airburst.

Some 13,000 years earlier, an occurrence thought by some researchers to be an extraterrestrial impact set off cooler weather and large-scale extinctions in North America. The "Younger Dryas event," as it is known, coincided with the end of the prehistoric Clovis culture.

Melott and fellow researchers examined data from ice cores extracted in Greenland to compare atmospheric chemistry during the Tunguska and Younger Dryas events. In both instances, Melott's group found evidence that the Haber process — whereby a nitrogen fixation reaction produces ammonia — may have occurred on a large scale.


The painting titled "K/T Hit" by artist Donald E. Davis. This impact occured 65 million years ago, coinciding with the the dinosaur extinctions. Understanding the frequency of impacts on Earth will help determine the likelihood of future, devastating impacts.
Image Credit: Don Davis
"A comet entering the atmosphere makes a big shock wave with high pressure — 6,000 times the pressure of air," said Melott. "It can be shown that under those conditions you can make ammonia. Plus the Tunguska comet, or some fragments of it, landed in a swamp. And any Younger Dryas comet presumably hit an ice sheet, or at least part of it did. So there should have been lots of water around for this Haber process to work. We think the simplest way to explain the signal in both objects is the Haber process. Comets hit the atmosphere in the presence of a lot of water and you get both nitrate and ammonia, which is what both ice cores show."

Melott cautions that the results are inconclusive because the ice cores are sampled at five-year intervals only, not sufficient resolution to pinpoint peaks of atmospheric nitrates and ammonia, which rapidly would have been dissipated by rains following a comet strike.

But the KU researcher contends that ammonia enhancement resulting from the Haber process could serve as a useful marker for detecting possible comet impacts. He encourages more sampling and analysis of ice cores to see where the nitrate-ammonia signal might line up with suspected cometary collisions with the Earth.

Such information could help humankind more accurately gauge the danger of a comet hitting the Earth in the future.

"There's a whole program to watch for near-Earth asteroids as they go around the sun repeatedly, and some of them have close brushes with the Earth," said Melott. "But comets are a whole different ball game. They don't do that circular thing. They come straight in from far, far out — and you don't see them coming until they push out a tail only a few years before they would enter the inner solar system. So we could be hit by a comet and only have a few years' warning — possibly not enough time to do anything about it."

Global Warming Cold Air Kills in Europe

Over a 100 by various counts dies in Europe from the mid-December cold. This map shows departure from the current decades averages for the date. The blues are mostly 10-20 degree C below recent averages. Please reduce your carbon footprint! - HLG

Sunspots Vanishing?

Can you say "Maunder Minimum"? "Little-Ice-Age"? - HLG

Are Sunspots Disappearing?
Based on a science@NASA release




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary: The Sun is in the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Some observers are starting to wonder, are sunspots disappearing? Sunspots can have profound effects on the Earth's climate as well as human and satellite missions in orbit.







Sunspots as darkened knots of magnetic energy and rising hot plasma. Credit: SOHO
The Sun is in the pits of the deepest solar minimum in nearly a century. Weeks and sometimes whole months go by without even a single tiny sunspot. The quiet has dragged out for more than two years, prompting some observers to wonder, are sunspots disappearing?

"Personally, I'm betting that sunspots are coming back," says researcher Matt Penn of the National Solar Observatory (NSO) in Tucson, Arizona. But, he allows, "there is some evidence that they won't."

Penn's colleague Bill Livingston of the NSO has been measuring the magnetic fields of sunspots for the past 17 years, and he has found a remarkable trend. Sunspot magnetism is on the decline.

"Sunspot magnetic fields are dropping by about 50 gauss per year," says Penn. "If we extrapolate this trend into the future, sunspots could completely vanish around the year 2015."


Sunspot magnetic fields measured by Livingston and Penn from 1992 - Feb. 2009 using an infrared Zeeman splitting technique.
This disappearing act is possible because sunspots are made of magnetism. The "firmament" of a sunspot is not matter but rather a strong magnetic field that appears dark because it blocks the upflow of heat from the Sun's interior. If Earth lost its magnetic field, the solid planet would remain intact, but if a sunspot loses its magnetism, it ceases to exist.

"According to our measurements, sunspots seem to form only if the magnetic field is stronger than about 1500 gauss," says Livingston. "If the current trend continues, we'll hit that threshold in the near future, and solar magnetic fields would become too weak to form sunspots."

"This work has caused a sensation in the field of solar physics," comments NASA sunspot expert David Hathaway, who is not directly involved in the research. "It's controversial stuff."

The controversy is not about the data. "We know Livingston and Penn are excellent observers," says Hathaway. "The trend that they have discovered appears to be real." The part colleagues have trouble believing is the extrapolation. Hathaway notes that most of their data were taken after the maximum of Solar Cycle 23 (2000-2002) when sunspot activity naturally began to decline. "The drop in magnetic fields could be a normal aspect of the solar cycle and not a sign that sunspots are permanently vanishing."

Penn himself wonders about these points. "Our technique is relatively new and the data stretches back in time only 17 years. We could be observing a temporary downturn that will reverse itself."


Zeeman splitting of spectral lines from a strongly-magnetized sunspot.
The technique they're using was pioneered by Livingston at the McMath-Pierce solar telescope near Tucson. He looks at a spectral line emitted by iron atoms in the Sun's atmosphere. Sunspot magnetic fields cause the line to split in two—an effect called "Zeeman splitting" after Dutch physicist Pieter Zeeman who discovered the phenomenon in the 19th century. The size of the split reveals the intensity of the magnetism.

Astronomers have been measuring sunspot magnetic fields in this general way for nearly a century, but Livingston added a twist. While most researchers measure the splitting of spectral lines in the visible part of the Sun's spectrum, Livingston decided to try an infra-red spectral line. Infrared lines are much more sensitive to the Zeeman effect and provide more accurate answers. Also, he dedicated himself to measuring a large number of sunspots—more than 900 between 1998 and 2005 alone. The combination of accuracy and numbers revealed the downturn.

If sunspots do go away, it wouldn't be the first time. In the 17th century, the Sun plunged into a 70-year period of spotlessness known as the Maunder Minimum that still baffles scientists. The sunspot drought began in 1645 and lasted until 1715; during that time, some of the best astronomers in history (e.g., Cassini) monitored the Sun and failed to count more than a few dozen sunspots per year, compared to the usual thousands.

"Whether [the current downturn] is an omen of long-term sunspot decline, analogous to the Maunder Minimum, remains to be seen," Livingston and Penn caution in a recent issue of EOS. "Other indications of solar activity suggest that sunspots must return in earnest within the next year."


Solar activity tends to peak on roughly an 11-year cycle.
Credit: SOHO

Whatever happens, notes Hathaway, "the Sun is behaving in an interesting way and I believe we're about to learn something new."

Solar activity can have a profound effect on the Earth's climate and biosphere. For instance, some studies indicate that sunspot activity could be linked to weather patterns on Earth. Understanding the behavior of the Sun can help scientists determine what effects the solar cycle will have on Earth in the years to come

NEW WEATHER BABE FOR FWS?

White Xmas over Southern Plains, and Big Chinese Dust-Storm

Happy New Year to all of the loyal (yes, both of you!) FWS readers! - HLG

MORE HOLLYWOOD SPECIAL EFFECTS

CIMMS has a pretty good loop of the storm.

BB

Water Vapor Image or Hollywood Special Effect

as Dr BB pointed out, the models looked like the storm in the movie "The Day After", now the imagery looks the same! - HLG

Accuweather calling fro "mega-bomb" East Coast Blizzard for New Years?

New Year's Day Storm--Snow Yes, but Extreme Event as Euro Has?
EURO SHOWS EXTREME EVENT ALONG THE EAST COAST NEWS YEAR'S DAY... STORM THAT COULD RIVAL BLIZZARD IN THE PLAINS... BACK AND FORTH, BACK AND FORTH WE GO ON STORMS...

Is it me, or is it the weather? It seems we are in a pattern of back-and-forth blizzards this month... We started with the blizzard in the Midwest early this month. Mid-month had a blizzard in the mid-Atlantic, and Christmas we are back in the Plains with a blizzard. Now the Euro is suggesting that a blizzard proportional to the one that just happened in the Plains could hit the East Coast on New Year's Day. The NAO forecast values by Jan. 1 are predicted to be the lowest ever since September, and even lower than the blizzard that hit the mid-Atlantic. That makes me wonder if the Euro is really onto something. I do know that it will snow in the mid-Atlantic, and probably will snow from Texas to New England in any case.

Below is the Euro model at the 168 time step. At the 192 time step, the storm is off the east end of Long Island and a Mega Bomb. At 216 time step, the storm is off Nantucket and winding down. So what the Euro is suggesting is the storm creeps up the coast and bombs out, causing snow to fall for three days in many areas. If that does happen, someone will have 30 inches of snow.


Before we get there, snow will hit areas from the Midwest to New England. As the secondary storm develops, NYC to New England will have 1-4 inches of snow Monday into Monday night. In addition to the New Year's Day storm, we have another big storm possible around the 7th. Wow, what a weather pattern...!

Global Warming Blizzard Shuts Oklahoma Down for Xmas

You must go through either Missouri, or Colorado, but Oklahoma is closed today. Merry Xmas. - HLG (FWS Traffice Reporter)

Winter storm forces interstates, turnpikes closed in Oklahoma
December 24, 2009 7:15 p.m. EST
iReporting in a blizzardSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Oklahoma governor orders state roads, interstates, turnpikes closed after declaring emergency
Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City closes, reports 12 inches of snow
Louisiana man killed when tree falls on house during strong winds
Storm likely will affect travel plans, Weather Service warns
(CNN) -- Oklahoma's governor ordered every state highway, interstate and turnpike closed Thursday night, hours after declaring a statewide emergency because of a major winter storm battering the state and the rest of the central U.S.

"I am urging all Oklahomans to take winter storm precautions and stay off the roads unless travel is absolutely necessary," Gov. Brad Henry said earlier in the day after declaring a state of emergency. "This is a very serious winter storm, and we want Oklahomans to stay safe."

Heavy snow and limited visibility has left treacherous road conditions in Oklahoma on Christmas Eve, snarling holiday travel, according to CNN affiliate KOCO-TV.

In Midwest City, Oklahoma, nearly 50 vehicles were involved in a chain-reaction accident, the station reported. The quickly accumulating snow also caused the roof collapse of a well-known, landmark furniture store in Oklahoma City, officials told KOCO-TV.

One motorist was killed Thursday in the storm on Interstate 44, south of Lawton, Oklahoma, Comanche County Public Information Officer Chris Killmer told CNN. Killmer said there are hundreds of car accidents and stranded motorists in Comanche County. He said officials were still sending out people to find stranded motorists. They had already rescued between 65 and 70 from the conditions Thursday.

A band of extremely heavy snow, capable of producing up to 4 inches of snow per hour, and isolated thunder was moving into northeast Oklahoma Thursday night, according to the National Weather Service.



Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City reported 13 inches of snow and was closed Thursday night. The airport's Web site said it did not expect to re-open Thursday night but should be open Friday morning.

In the past 106 years, residents of Oklahoma City have only awakened to snow six times on Christmas morning, CNN's Sean Morris said.

Blizzard warnings have been issued for central and southwestern Oklahoma, including Oklahoma City, and parts of northwestern Texas. Blizzard warnings also were issued for Nebraska, extreme western Iowa, western Missouri, North Dakota, much of north-central and northeastern South Dakota, and the Duluth area in Minnesota.

The Minneapolis Department of Transportation urged motorists to stay off the road Thursday night, saying it would be "life-threatening" based on forecasts from the Weather Service. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area had received about 4 to 7 inches of snow Thursday night from the storm, CNN affiliate KARE-TV reported.

Minnesota State Patrol Capt. Matt Langer told CNN that between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Thursday, the department had responded statewide to 630 calls regarding vehicles that went off the roadway, 276 property damage crashes and 60 personal injury crashes. He said there were no fatalities in any of those accidents, though one person was killed in a storm-related accident Wednesday night.

Northwest Texas has already seen between 3 and 7 inches of snow with 4-foot drifts, Morris said.

The Weather Service is forecasting up to 2 inches of snow in northwestern suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro.

"Anyone with travel plans over the Christmas holiday period should keep up to date with the latest weather information," said the Weather Service office in Duluth, Minnesota. "It should be emphasized that dangerous travel conditions will exist across most of the region from late tonight through Christmas."

A Louisiana man was killed Thursday when strong wind caused a tree to fall on his house, police told CNN affiliate KATC in Lafayette.

Police in Scott, just outside Lafayette, identified the victim as Ryan Hebert, 44.

Localized flooding was reported in and around Little Rock, Arkansas, after heavy rain fell throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

An ice storm warning has been lifted for most of the Chicago metro area, but continues in the far southeastern suburbs.

An ice storm warning is also in effect for the mountains of North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. A winter storm watch is in effect for the mountains of western Virginia and northeastern West Virginia.

Over a quarter-inch of ice is expected on trees, power lines, overpasses, bridges and highways. But the freezing rain is expected to change over to rain later Thursday, and road conditions in the area are expected to improve across the region by midafternoon Thursday.

Flood watches, warnings and advisories have been issued for much of Missouri and Illinois, where several inches of rain is causing flooding in streams and rivers.

The inclement weather is the second major storm system to hit the United States in a week. Last weekend, a nor'easter blanketed a swath of the East Coast in snow, forcing the cancellation of hundreds of flights.

Soufriere Hills Giant Ash Cloud

Global Warming Blizzard Shuts Kansas Down for Xmas

But who cares, it's Kansas after all! -HLG

Major Winter Storm Spreads Across Midwest
Thursday, December 24, 2009





Dec. 23: Brent Levander watches as his brother hooks a chain to the bottom of a vehicle as they work to right it after a driver lost control.
TOPEKA, Kan. — A major winter storm lumbering across the nation's midsection promised a white Christmas for some but brought headaches for residents without power and travelers crawling along slick, icy roads and dealing with canceled and delayed flights.

The worst of the storm was heading northeast across the region Thursday, bringing heavy snow, sleet and rain to a large swath of the Plains and the Midwest. A foot or two of snow was possible in some areas by Christmas Day.

The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings early Thursday for Kansas, western North Dakota, northern Minnesota and northwestern Nebraska. It cautioned that travel would be extremely dangerous in those areas through the weekend and that anyone taking to the road should pack a winter survival kit including flashlight and water in case of emergency.

It also warned of strong winds and more snow with poor visibility in South Dakota, particularly in the west. Rain, sleet and snow were forecast in western Iowa and Wisconsin.

Scott Blair, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Topeka, Kan., said the wind was becoming a serious issue in central Kansas, with wind speeds of up to 25 mph and gusts reaching 40 mph.

"We're going to see blowing snow," Blair said. "The big concern comes later when we see snowfall with the wind, causing reduced visibility."

Road conditions were particularly bad in northwest Kansas, where 8 inches of snow had fallen overnight. Interstate 70 was completely ice-packed in western Kansas.

"It's kind of hard to stay on the roads. You've got to go slow," Jason Juhan, a clerk at the Love's truck stop in Goodland, Kan. said Wednesday. "People are just trying to get through and get to where they need to as fast as they can."

Still, he saw an upside: "It's been a few years since we've actually had a white Christmas out this way."

The storm began in the southwest — where blizzard-like conditions shut down roads and caused a pileup involving 20 vehicles in Arizona on Tuesday — and spread east and north, prompting weather advisories from the Rocky Mountains to Lake Michigan. Rain, freezing drizzle and snow that fell in parts of the Plains and Midwest on Wednesday were just a precursor to what was expected later in the week.

Related Stories•Three Killed as Dust Storm, Snow Hit Arizona
Slippery roads were blamed for at least six deaths — three in accidents on Interstate 80 in Nebraska, two in a crash on I-70 in Kansas and one near Albuquerque, N.M. South of Phoenix, a dust storm set off a series of collisions that killed at least three people Tuesday.

Early Thursday, nearly 100 scheduled flights from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport were canceled and dozens more were slated as delayed, according to the airport's Web site. Scheduled flights out of Bismarck Airport did not appear to be significantly disrupted.

On Wednesday, more than 200 flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport were canceled, along with about 60 flights out of Midway International Airport, the city's Aviation Department said.

With temperatures in the low 30s early Thursday, the Iowa Association of Electric Cooperatives said more than 1,300 customers statewide were without power.

The storm forced the closure of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, and prompted that state's governor, Mike Rounds, to cancel travel plans and stay in Pierre for Christmas. Rounds declared a state of emergency Tuesday before the storm even hit.

The winter blast follow a weekend storm that dropped record snowfall and interrupted holiday shopping and travel on the East Coast. Tens of thousands of customers in West Virginia and Virginia remained without power.

TC "David" Lost in the South Indian Ocean

Wandering around aimlessly between Diego and Reunion. Sounds like a vacation! - HLG

SCENE FROM "THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW?"

I think we are seeing the creation of the giant vort maxes that were fantasized about in "The Day After Tomorrow."  Could the earth develop a "Red Spot" like Jupiter?

BB

Air Strike Makes for Happy Xmas!

In a strike of air from Allah, Anwar al Alaki (like that is a real name!) was killed from angels in the air above. Merry Xmas all!

Laurence of Austalia!

Tropical Cyclone "Laurence", that is. Had a very nice, pin-point, eye before landfall, and was weakening rapidly over the Great Western Desert. - HLG

Blizzard of Ought 9 Warm Cored?

The visible images of the Blizzard of Ought 9, as she moved off into the Atlantic looked suspiciously warm-cored. Was this really a Polar Hurricane? The snow was amazing. Over 15 inches/inch of liquid precip. You couldn't even make a snow-ball out of the stuff. Very different than average East-Coast Nor'Easter. - HLG

MODIS Image of Record East Coast US Snowfall

I can't wait until we can STOP WEATHER CHANGE!!!! - HLG

Working on our Second Foot of Snow in DC!

True Story:

I bought tickets to see Avatar in Stunning IMAX3D two days ago (when the forecast was for a little snow after midnight!). The movie was probably the most visually stunning thing I have ever seen on the screen, by the way. By the time the movie let out it was snowing hard, and we had about 6 inches on the ground since the movie started. The movie let out at the same time the President of the USA (POTUS) got home from the Global Warming Party in Copenhagen. It was snowing so hard they couldn't even fly the chopper from Andrews to the White House. The Beltway was backed up for miles for this, and caused several accidents. It took two hours to get home form the movie after midnight! Thanks Mr. President of the World!!! - HLG



Noon (17) Dec 19 26.1 (-3.3) 23.0 (-5.0) 29.68 (1005) NNW 16 heavy snow
11 AM (16) Dec 19 26 (-3) 23 (-5) 29.67 (1004) NNW 18 heavy snow
10 AM (15) Dec 19 26 (-3) 23 (-5) 29.69 (1005) N 18 heavy snow
9 AM (14) Dec 19 26 (-3) 23 (-5) 29.73 (1006) N 14 heavy snow
8 AM (13) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.67 (1004) NNE 18 snow; freezing fog
7 AM (12) Dec 19 28 (-2) 23 (-5) 29.69 (1005) NNE 21 light snow
6 AM (11) Dec 19 28 (-2) 23 (-5) 29.72 (1006) NNE 21 light snow
5 AM (10) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.74 (1007) NNE 20 light snow; mist
4 AM (9) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.78 (1008) N 15 light snow; blowing snow
3 AM (8) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.79 (1008) NNE 15 light snow; blowing snow
2 AM (7) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.83 (1010) NNE 20 light snow; blowing snow
1 AM (6) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.85 (1010) NNE 17 snow; freezing fog
Midnight (5) Dec 19 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.92 (1013) N 15 light snow; mist
11 PM (4) Dec 18 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 29.99 (1015) N 12 light snow; mist
10 PM (3) Dec 18 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 30.01 (1016) NNE 10 light snow; mist
9 PM (2) Dec 18 28 (-2) 24 (-4) 30.02 (1016) NE 7 snow; freezing fog
8 PM (1) Dec 18 32 (0) 15 (-9) 30.05 (1017) ENE 7 light snow

MAJOR WINTER EVENT

The Expert Weather Team at FWS is predicting a MAJOR WEATHER EVENT - SNX5 CAT ZERO 2 - for the Northeast.  This event is in conjunction with the Copenhagen Climate Summit because every climate summit on reducing global warming causes catastrophic winter weather events around the world.  Note Australia's summertime snowfall this week.

Stay with FWS - we will keep you informed!

BB

Europe Freezes in Global Warming Winter Storm!

Winter cold snap jolts Europe, worse to comeDecember 19, 2009 .


PARIS: Early winter snows forced French authorities to close the Eiffel Tower and disrupted transport as north-west Europe braced for a pre-Christmas cold snap.

Paris and much of the north of the country awoke to find a seven-centimetre blanket of snow on Thursday, which delayed flights from the capital's Charles de Gaulle airport by up to two hours.

Train and bus services were delayed in many areas, as daytime temperatures dropped below zero for the first time this year, and black ice coated northern roads.

Snow also fell in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain.

A light dusting across south-east England was expected to be followed by a fall of up to 20 centimetres in the east and south-east by dawn yesterday.

There were predictions temperatures in Britain could plunge as low as minus 9C yesterday in the Scottish Highlands.

Forecasters predicted high winds could combine with the snowfall to bring blizzard conditions to Norfolk and Cambridgeshire, in the country's east.

The BBC said conditions were expected to be worst during peak hour and travellers were likely to face transport disruption.

The Government issued safety warnings as preparations were made for the snowfall.

The chance of a white Christmas continued to ''hang in the balance'', weather forecasters said, and bookmakers have recently slashed the odds on it happening. One British gambler stands to collect more than £14,000 ($25,500) if it snows on Christmas Day.

As temperatures continue to plunge, Andrew Harrop, of Age Concern and Help the Aged, spoke of his concern for the elderly.

"For older people, protection against the cold is vital,'' Mr Harrop said. ''Last winter's cold snap sent excess winter mortality to a 10-year high, with around three-quarters of excess winter deaths recorded among people aged 75 or over."

The rail operator Southeastern said it was "working hard" to ensure a normal service would run during the forecast snow, but advised conditions might cause some disruption to services.

The Automobile Association warned of the travel chaos equal to that experienced when a storm hit Britain last winter because only half of the country's local councils had enough road salt to de-ice surfaces during a freeze lasting six days.

Transport networks were almost shut down on February 2, keeping about 20 per cent of workers from their jobs at a cost to the British economy of £1.2 billion , the Federation of Small Businesses estimated

Global Warming Irony 2

The Dear Leader is flying to Copenhagen Global Warming Summit (don't calculate that carbon footpint!) today, and the Metro Washington DC area is expecting the biggest snow storm of the decade, with blizzard conditions expected, and over a foot of accumulation! - HLG

Global Warming Irony1

Climate-gate Spreads to Russia (pamanyatna!)

Climategate goes SERIAL: now the Russians confirm that UK climate scientists manipulated data to exaggerate global warming

By James Delingpole December 16th, 2009



Climategate just got much, much bigger. And all thanks to the Russians who, with perfect timing, dropped this bombshell just as the world’s leaders are gathering in Copenhagen to discuss ways of carbon-taxing us all back to the dark ages.

Feast your eyes on this news release from Rionovosta, via the Ria Novosti agency, posted on Icecap. (Hat Tip: Richard North)

A discussion of the November 2009 Climatic Research Unit e-mail hacking incident, referred to by some sources as “Climategate,” continues against the backdrop of the abortive UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) discussing alternative agreements to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that aimed to combat global warming.

The incident involved an e-mail server used by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, East England. Unknown persons stole and anonymously disseminated thousands of e-mails and other documents dealing with the global-warming issue made over the course of 13 years.

Controversy arose after various allegations were made including that climate scientists colluded to withhold scientific evidence and manipulated data to make the case for global warming appear stronger than it is.

Climategate has already affected Russia. On Tuesday, the Moscow-based Institute of Economic Analysis (IEA) issued a report claiming that the Hadley Center for Climate Change based at the headquarters of the British Meteorological Office in Exeter (Devon, England) had probably tampered with Russian-climate data.

The IEA believes that Russian meteorological-station data did not substantiate the anthropogenic global-warming theory. Analysts say Russian meteorological stations cover most of the country’s territory, and that the Hadley Center had used data submitted by only 25% of such stations in its reports. Over 40% of Russian territory was not included in global-temperature calculations for some other reasons, rather than the lack of meteorological stations and observations.

The data of stations located in areas not listed in the Hadley Climate Research Unit Temperature UK (HadCRUT) survey often does not show any substantial warming in the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

The HadCRUT database includes specific stations providing incomplete data and highlighting the global-warming process, rather than stations facilitating uninterrupted observations.

On the whole, climatologists use the incomplete findings of meteorological stations far more often than those providing complete observations.

IEA analysts say climatologists use the data of stations located in large populated centers that are influenced by the urban-warming effect more frequently than the correct data of remote stations.

The scale of global warming was exaggerated due to temperature distortions for Russia accounting for 12.5% of the world’s land mass. The IEA said it was necessary to recalculate all global-temperature data in order to assess the scale of such exaggeration.

Global-temperature data will have to be modified if similar climate-date procedures have been used from other national data because the calculations used by COP15 analysts, including financial calculations, are based on HadCRUT research.

What the Russians are suggesting here, in other words, is that the entire global temperature record used by the IPCC to inform world government policy is a crock.

As Richard North says: This is serial.

UPDATE: As Steve McIntyre reports at ClimateAudit, it has long been suspected that the CRU had been playing especially fast and loose with Russian – more particularly Siberian – temperature records. Here from March 2004, is an email from Phil Jones to Michael Mann.

Recently rejected two papers (one for JGR and for GRL) from people saying CRU has it
wrong over Siberia. Went to town in both reviews, hopefully successfully. If either
appears
I will be very surprised, but you never know with GRL.
Cheers
Phil

And here at Watts Up With That is a guest post by Jeff Id of the Air Vent

And here is what one of the commenters has to say about the way the data has been cherry-picked and skewed for political ends:

The crux of the argument is that the CRU cherry picked data following the same methods that have been done everywhere else. They ignored data covering 40% of Russia and chose data that showed a warming trend over statistically preferable alternatives when available. They ignored completeness of data, preferred urban data, strongly preferred data from stations that relocated, ignored length of data set.

One the final page, there is a chart that shows that CRU’s selective use of 25% of the data created 0.64C more warming than simply using all of the raw data would have done. The complete set of data show 1.4C rise since 1860, the CRU set shows 2.06C rise over the same period.

Not, of course, dear readers that I’m in any way tempted to crow about these latest revelations. After all, so many of my colleagues, junior and senior, have been backing me on this one to the hilt….

Oh, if anyone speaks Russian, here’s the full report.

TRMM and SE Rainfalls

Torrential rains dumped more than a foot of water on parts of southern Alabama while heavy rains caused flash floods and set a new record in New Orleans in mid-December 2009. This color-coded image shows rainfall amounts for the southeastern United States December 9–15, 2009. Lightest rainfall amounts appear in pale green and heaviest rainfall amounts (more than 600 milliimeters) appear in deep blue. Although rain is heaviest in south-central Alabama, rainfall extends northward over Tennessee, eastward over Georgia and South Carolina, and westward over Louisiana.
Flash floods inundated downtown Brewton, Alabama, where more than 12 inches (30 centimeters) of rain fell in just a few hours. A day later, businesses and schools were closed during the cleanup effort, Al.com reported.
Although rainfall amounts in this image appear lighter in Louisiana, the New Orleans metropolitan area experienced record-setting rainfall December 1–15, according to news reports. The Times-Picayune reported that average rainfall for the month of December is 5.07 inches (12.9 centimeters) and the previous record for December was 10.77 inches (27.4 centimeters) set in 1967. On December 15, 2009, total rainfall measured at Louis Armstrong International Airport was 22.54 inches (57.25 centimeters).
This analysis is based on data from the Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis, which estimates rainfall by combining measurements from many satellites and calibrating them using rainfall measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. - From NASA via HLG

Weight of the Atmosphere, and "Tons' of CO2 "Pollution"

I have been listening to the reports from Copenhagen, and have noticed in general how the reporters love to estimate how many tons of CO2 "pollution" have been generated by certain activities. One estimate had the CO2 footprint of the Copenhagen meetin at 40,000 tons of CO2. What I have never heard is anyone put that in context. I did some conversions, and estimate the total weight of Earth's atmosphere at around 5 quadrillion (or billion billion if you like) tons. Thus the "natural" weight of the total CO2, at 0.038 percent is around? Fifty trillion tons, by my reckoning! - HLG

TC "LAURENECE" In NW Australia

Convenient Lies about Arctic Ice

Inconvenient Truth for Gore as Arctic Ice Claims Don't Add Up





Dec. 14: Former Vice President Al Gore speaks at the U.N. Climate summit in Copenhagen. (AP)

There are many kinds of truth. Al Gore was hit by an inconvenient one yesterday.

The former vice president, who became an unlikely figurehead for the green movement after narrating the Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," became entangled in a new climate change row.

Gore, speaking at the Copenhagen climate change summit, stated the latest research showed that the Arctic could be completely ice-free in five years.

In his speech, Gore told the conference: "These figures are fresh. Some of the models suggest to Dr. [Wieslav] Maslowski that there is a 75 percent chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years."

However, the climatologist whose work Gore was relying upon dropped the former vice president in the water with an icy blast.

"It's unclear to me how this figure was arrived at," Dr. Maslowski said. "I would never try to estimate likelihood at anything as exact as this."

Gore's office later admitted that the 75 percent figure was one used by Dr. Maslowski as a "ballpark figure" several years ago in a conversation with Gore.

The embarrassing error cast another shadow over the conference after the controversy over the hacked e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, which appeared to suggest that scientists had manipulated data to strengthen their argument that human activities were causing global warming

New Orleans sets All-Time December Precipitation Record!

Not even half-way through the month, with a lot of rain the radar-scope, NOLA has recorded over 21 inches of rain in December! Holy Global Warming Batman! - HLG

Navy's "The Sky This Week"

Nice blog on the Navy Oceanography Portal website featuring observational astronomy highlights of the week. - HLG


http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/sky-this-week/the-sky-this-week-2009-december-8-15


The Sky This Week, 2009 December 8 - 15
The year's best meteor shower (that nobody ever sees)





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Moon wanes in the morning sky this week, diving southward along the ecliptic into the realm of the summer constellations, which are beginning to give us a peek just before dawn. New Moon occurs on the 16th at 7:02 am Eastern Standard Time. Luna starts the week off in the company of golden Saturn, whom she courts on the mornings of the 9th and 10th. On the 11th the Moon may be found just four degrees southwest of the bright star Spica as morning twilight begins to gather.

The year’s earliest sunsets continue for the first half of the week, gradually moving later by the week’s end. By the 13th Old Sol sets a minute later than on the previous nights, but sunrise is still occurring progressively later each day. Thus, the year’s longest night is still to come, falling on the solstice on the 21st.

Most of us tend to spend these long, chilly December nights preparing our homes for the upcoming holidays, but you should try to make an effort to spend some time outdoors on the clearest evenings surrounding the night of December 13 – 14. This is the peak of the annual Geminid meteor shower, which is probably the most consistent display of its kind year in and year out. This shower was made for casual skywatchers. Its radiant is just west of the bright star Castor in Gemini, which is 40 degrees above the northeastern horizon by 10:00 pm. The meteors themselves are half the speed of summer’s Perseids or November’s fickle Leonids, and they are consistently numerous, with hourly rates exceeding 100 for observers in dark locations. Even city-bound and suburban viewers can expect to see a bright meteor every minute or two, and this year the waning Moon is not a factor to further brighten urban skies. You should start looking for Geminids around 10:00 pm, but the best time to view will be around 1:00 to 2:00 am, when the radiant lies almost directly overhead. Ideally you’ll be in a location with an unobstructed view of the entire sky, lots of warm clothes, and a thermos full of hot cocoa. If it’s cloudy on the night of the 13th, the activity should be almost as strong on the preceding and following nights, and the shower continues with reasonable strength until the 16th. The Geminids have long been my favorite annual meteor shower, but for some reason it’s hard to convince friends and family to lie down on a lawn chair in an open field for a few hours at this time of year. At least there are no mosquitoes!

Jupiter still commands our attention as evening twilight fades. The giant planet is now settling in the southwest sky as darkness descends, but he still presents a pleasing view in the telescope. On the first few nights of the week use a low-power eyepiece to sweep east of Old Jove across a vertical line of three 5th magnitude stars. An imaginary line drawn from Jupiter through the center star will point you toward 7th magnitude Neptune. Jupiter moves across the line of stars early next week, then passes half a degree south of the solar system’s most distant major planet.

Ruddy Mars is now becoming quite prominent in the eastern sky as the midnight hour approaches. He is now the brightest object in the eastern sky except for Sirius, which provides a wonderful, ice-blue color contrast to Mars’ pink hue. His telescopic disc is steadily growing as Earth heads toward its rendezvous with the red planet in late January.

Saturn is high in the east as morning twilight begins to brighten the sky. He gets a visit from the Moon on the mornings of the 9th and 10th. Look for the stiletto extensions of his nearly edge-on rings, whose northern face is now brightening under the increasing illumination of the Sun

Navy's

NOT A WEATHER MAP?

http://cohort11.americanobserver.net/latoyaegwuekwe/multimediafinal.html

Amazingly Low Dew Points in DC Today

Feels like a mid-January kind of air-mass.It was even MINUS -0.0 at one point! Gotta be Global Warming! - HLG

3 PM (20) Dec 11 39.0 (3.9) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.29 (1025) W 17
2 PM (19) Dec 11 39.0 (3.9) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.27 (1025) W 17
1 PM (18) Dec 11 37.0 (2.8) 5.0 (-15.0) 30.26 (1024) SW 16
Noon (17) Dec 11 35.1 (1.7) 3.9 (-15.6) 30.28 (1025) W 15
11 AM (16) Dec 11 33.1 (0.6) 3.0 (-16.1) 30.31 (1026) W 9
10 AM (15) Dec 11 30.9 (-0.6) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.31 (1026) SW 14
9 AM (14) Dec 11 27.0 (-2.8) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.3 (1026) WSW 6
8 AM (13) Dec 11 25.0 (-3.9) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.3 (1026) WSW 3
7 AM (12) Dec 11 25.0 (-3.9) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.28 (1025) WNW 9
6 AM (11) Dec 11 25.0 (-3.9) 1.0 (-17.2) 30.26 (1024) WNW 7
5 AM (10) Dec 11 26.1 (-3.3) -0.0 (-17.8) 30.24 (1024) W 10
4 AM (9) Dec 11 26.1 (-3.3) 1.9 (-16.7) 30.22 (1023) WNW 14
3 AM (8) Dec 11 27.0 (-2.8) 3.0 (-16.1) 30.19 (1022) NW 8
2 AM (7) Dec 11 28.0 (-2.2) 3.0 (-16.1) 30.15 (1020) WNW 14
1 AM (6) Dec 11 28.9 (-1.7) 3.0 (-16.1) 30.12 (1019) WNW 13
Midnight (5) Dec 11 30.0 (-1.1) 6.1 (-14.4) 30.09 (1018) WNW 14

"Vog" Over Paradise, and TC "CLEO"

Just another voggy day in the Sandwhich Islands, and TC "Cleo" in the deep, South Indian Ocean. - HLG

Now THIS is Global Warming Proof!

One of the most wide-spread snow events I have seen from MODIS. This side of Antarctica, anyway! - HLG

Global Warming Kills Again in USA

At Least 16 Die as Huge Snowstorm Batters U.S.
Thursday, December 10, 2009


DES MOINES, Iowa — A gigantic storm dumped more than a foot of snow across much of the Midwest and New England as it marched eastward Wednesday, creating blizzard conditions, burying cars under huge drifts and providing ammunition for a massive campus snowball fight in Wisconsin.

Even more snow fell in some areas, with 16 inches reported in Des Moines and nearly 19 inches just south of Madison, Wis. Gusts of up to 50 mph created snow drifts between 8 and 15 feet tall and even knocked down a two-story Christmas tree in downtown Champaign, Ill.

The storm was blamed for at least 16 deaths, most in traffic accidents. Hundreds of schools canceled classes, power was knocked out to thousands of people from Missouri to New York and hundreds of flights were canceled.

In the Twin Cities, where about 6 inches of snow fell and the wind chill dipped to minus 9 degrees, Kent Barnard eased a massive orange snowplow into traffic in the suburb of Arden Hills on Wednesday morning. He dropped the right wing of the plow down onto the shoulder, making a grinding sound as the wing sent out a spray of snow.

"You gotta watch it because some people try to sneak up around you," Barnard said. "They'll see that big orange flashing truck coming and go, 'I don't want to get caught behind that thing."'

The storm felt like a rude surprise after an unseasonably warm and dry November in parts of the region. The massive system is the first major blast of wintry weather for many parts of the Midwest.

"I've been dreading this day," said Kim Brust, shoveling the sidewalk in front of his Minneapolis home before sunrise Wednesday. "I was starting to enjoy the global warming."

While an inconvenience for many, others took an opportunity to play.

At least 3,000 University of Wisconsin-Madison students took advantage of an unplanned day off and hurled snowballs at each other in a massive melee. Classes had been canceled for the first time in 19 years due to more than a foot of snow and blizzard-like conditions.

Some came holding trays as shields. Others were bundled up to protect themselves from the below-freezing temperatures and winds that gusted to more than 20 mph. Several went shirtless, though, while at least one had on pajamas.

"I figured with the day off, there was no better way to spend it than with a snowball fight," said Matt Moerel, 19, of Vadnais Heights, Minn.

Many New England residents braced for bone-chilling winds after digging out from a foot or more of snow. But Gavin Graham, 8, of Concord, N.H., spent two hours sledding.

"It was really good sledding. The snow was puffy, and that was really good because we had little jumps already made," he said. "It was awesome having the day off from school."

Up to 7 inches of snow fell in northeast Pennsylvania and 50 mph winds were recorded near Pittsburgh. High winds knocked down part of an abandoned four-story brick building in New Castle.

By the time the storm moves off the Maine coast Thursday night, it may have affected as much as two-thirds of the country, said Jim Lee, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Des Moines. The storm also brought heavy rain and flooding to parts of the South.

In the West, pounded by the storm's rain and snow earlier this week, wind chills as low as minus 40 degrees swept across portions of southern Montana. The biting wind also moved across Wyoming and South Dakota, according to the National Weather Service.

Winds were expected to diminish Wednesday evening across the Midwest and blizzard warnings were nearly over. But dangerously cold conditions were to follow with temperatures falling to near or below zero overnight.

In northern New York, up to a foot fell on Wednesday and more than 3 feet was expected by the week's end. Areas in Maine and New Hampshire received up to a foot of snow, and warnings about winds of 40 mph to 50 mph were issued for coastal areas of Maine for Wednesday night, said Dan St. Jean, a National Weather Service Forecaster in Maine

Met-Office in Britain Pressured Scientists to Sign Global Warming "Data Integrity" Pledge

And only promoted high-priests of the temple of Global-Warming. But is that wrong? Is that frowned-upon? - HLG

Scientist 'Pressured' to Defend Climate Research

London Times

More than 1,700 scientists in Britain agree to sign a statement defending the "integrity and honesty" of global warming research, but at least one alleges he felt pressured to do so.

Britain's Met Office has embarked on an urgent exercise to bolster the reputation of climate-change science after the furor over leaked e-mails, referred to as "Climate-gate."

More than 1,700 scientists have agreed to sign a statement defending the "professional integrity" of global warming research. They were responding to a round-robin request from the Met Office, which has spent four days collecting signatures. The initiative is a sign of how worried it is that e-mails stolen from the University of East Anglia are fueling skepticism about man-made global warming at a critical moment in talks on carbon emissions.

One scientist said that he felt under pressure to sign the circular or risk losing work. The Met Office admitted that many of the signatories did not work on climate change.

John Hirst, the Met Office chief executive, and Julia Slingo, its chief scientist, wrote to 70 colleagues on Sunday asking them to sign "to defend our profession against this unprecedented attack to discredit us and the science of climate change." They asked them to forward the petition to colleagues to generate support "for a simple statement that we ... have the utmost confidence in the science base that underpins the evidence for global warming."

Met Office reports on temperature changes draw on the work of the University of East Anglia’s Climatic Research Unit, from which the e-mails were hacked. Phil Jones, unit director, has agreed to stand down while an investigation takes place into claims that he manipulated data to exaggerate the warming trend and tried to block publication of alternative views.

One scientist told The Times of London he felt pressure to sign. "The Met Office is a major employer of scientists and has long had a policy of only appointing and working with those who subscribe to their views on man-made global warming," he said.

Professor Slingo denied that the Met Office had put anyone under pressure. "The response has been absolutely spontaneous. As a scientist you sign things you agree with, not because you are worried about what the Met Office might think of you," she said.

Mediterranean Sea filled in less than two years: study

Wow!!! That would have been quite a sight!

Mediterranean Sea filled in less than two years: study

BB

The Guardian's Editorial

The things that make me scream... Quotes taken from the Guardian's Editorial today

1. "Unless we combine to take decisive action, climate change will ravage our planet, and with it our prosperity and security." - climate change has always occurred and will always "ravage" our planet...

2. "Climate change has been caused over centuries, has consequences that will endure for all time and our prospects of taming it will be determined in the next 14 days. - climate changes has always occurred, not just over the past few centuries, and how in the hell will humans tame the climate??? Really????

3. "Overcoming climate change will take a triumph of optimism over pessimism,..." - overcoming climate change??? Really? That is absolutely absurd!!!

Let's say I have a magic wand - and with the wand, I can keep the earth's climate stationed on one climate value. All I ask the nation's is to tell me what year they want the climate set to, and it will be like that forever. Could 5% of the nations agree to the year the climate should be set to? 1940? 1955? 1970? 1820? Tell me the year, I'll make it happen. Unfortunately, it will never happen because nations would never agree to the year. There is no magic wand.

If the predictions are true, the earth will warm substantially, causing humans to drastically change they way they cope in the environment. Cutting carbon dioxide now will not change anything now. Fortunately, the earth will survive, the climate will change in the future, it will get cooler (maybe 1000 years from now) and humans will be forgotten.

BB

Ugliest Weather Map Ever?

Or is it a giant octopus from space?! - HLG

Carbonhagen!

Too funny to believe!

Carbonhagen: World Leaders Drive to Climate Summit in Gas-Guzzling Luxury Fleet
Monday, December 07, 2009




World leaders and VIPs began pouring into Copenhagen Monday morning for the city's long-awaited climate summit, arriving in style in a fleet of gas-guzzling limos and luxury cars.

Most delegates to the climate change conference haven't exactly been hoofing their way to Denmark's capital, swarming the city's airport with 140 private jets, 1,200 hired limousines and a carbon footprint the size of a small country.

Video shot on the scene Monday shows squads of new arrivals at the green gathering pulling up in BMWs, Mercedes Benzes, sleek Volvos and plush Jaguars. A bus reserved for the delegates rode along empty outside the conference center.

Click here to see the video from Americans for Prosperity.

The head of Copenhagen's biggest limo company says her business usually has a dozen cars on the road. But during the conference — which has been billed as the last best chance to save the environment — she'll have 200 vehicles churning out fumes, the Daily Telegraph reported.

"We thought they were not going to have many cars, due to it being a climate convention," Majken Friss Jorgensen told the newspaper. "But it seems that somebody last week looked at the weather report."

France alone has ordered 42 vehicles, she said, and the auto supply in Denmark is very quickly drying up. To make up for shortages, Jorgensen and her competitors are bringing in lines of limos from as far away as Germany and Sweden.

"We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfill the demand," she said, adding that just five cars in her fleet will be environmentally friendly hybrid vehicles, which are almost impossible to procure in tax-heavy Denmark.

Once the estimated 30,000 delegates, activists, protesters and members of the press arrive this week and next, they'll find a sumptuous and steeply priced spread awaiting them.

Expensive hotels are sold out, and the conference organizers have been busy laying 560 miles of computer cable and 50,000 square miles of carpet, according to the Times of London.

The conference center hosting the meetings has set up four "climate kitchens" to cook healthy, organic meals for attendees, but they aren't coming cheap.

Visitors ordering the regular meal will get finger sandwiches, a quiche, some cheese and dessert, but those going "deluxe" get a mini croissant, canape with smoked salmon, mini pizzas, fancy cheese and some pineapple in chocolate — all for an estimated $40 a person.

The whole conference rings up at just under $215 million, according to a report from the U.K.-based Taxpayers' Alliance, which argued that even though delegates to the climate conference don't expect to emerge with any signed commitments, they're still doing potential damage by making their two-week visit.

Conference organizers have gone the whole nine yards seeking to offset the Copenhagen carbon crunch (the U.N. estimates an output of 41,000 tons of gas), using energy-efficient lights, powering the proceedings with a giant wind turbine, and offering visitors recycled materials instead of wasteful plastic water bottles. They've also purchased carbon offsets to help manage the output from their 12-day affair.

But Matthew Sinclair, the research director for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said their presence means that "a huge amount of money is going to be spent on the summit, and thousands of tons of carbon dioxide emitted to get there, just to give the delegates a good photo opportunity." - FNC

Dr Michael Mann of PSU Explains the Meaning of "Trick"

A follow on interview promises to discuss the meaning of the word "is", with Bill Clinton! - HLG

FWSAAB Cares About Valid Science

and the health and well-being of our loyal readers (both of you!). So, in the spirit of good science, it has been found that Mr Squiggles, the popular robot rodent is a toxic hazard, and the EPA will soon get around to that, and find that it also causes Global Warming! - HLG

Top selling Mr Squiggles Go Go Hamster linked to toxic chemical
(Mark Lennihan/AP)


Parents desperate to secure this year’s must-have Christmas present – the battery-powered robotic Go Go Hamsters – have been warned that the toy may contain excessive levels of a chemical linked to cancer.

British distributors and US manufacturers both rejected allegations that the popular toy, which is being rationed by retailers, could be dangerous to children.

The fur and nose of Mr Squiggles, a life-sized imitation rodent, could contain the potentially harmful substance antimony, according to GoodGuide, an American consumer group.

Antimony, a metalloid, was measured by GoodGuide at 93 parts per million in the hamster’s fur and at 106 parts per million in its nose.


Dara O’Rourke, the ceo of the consumer website, said both readings exceeded the allowable level of 60 parts per million. He claimed that antimony "has potential health hazards related to it which, if ingested in high enough levels can lead to cancer, reproductive health and other human health hazards".

The United States Environmental Protection Agency said that short-term exposure to the metal-like substance could cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. The government watchdog says the chemical is thought to be a potential human carcinogen.

Go Go Hamsters, aimed at three to ten-year-olds, have been this year’s Christmas gift craze with toy shops implementing one toy per customer rationing in a bid to keep them in stock.

The hamsters have now sold out in many shops after around 600,000 play sets, accessories and toys were purchased in Britain.

Mr Squiggles is one of four faux rodents in the range that are sold for around £10 each. The promotional literature says “Mr Squiggles is a true Hamster ‘Prankster’,” and the British distributor insists that he is also entirely safe.

Jon Diver, managing director for Character Options, said: "[We are] confident that Mr Squiggles and all the toys in the Go Go Pets collection are completely safe.

"The pets are tested in independent accredited laboratories during the manufacture and again before shipment through our own internal diligence programme. Their safety has always been ratified."

GoodGuide admits that it did not use officially-approved methodology for testing the toys.

A spokesman said: “We did not test these toys using the new government standard for toy companies to determine the “soluble” level of contaminants in a toy.

“While GoodGuide considers the presence of any antimony on the surface of a toy to be a concern, we want to clarify that we used a testing methodology to evaluate the toys that is different from the testing methodology incorporated into the federal standards.”

Cepia LLC, the toy’s maker, insisted in a statement that its product is safe and has passed rigorous testing. The company said it was contacting GoodGuide to share its testing data and determine how the report was founded.

Russ Hornsby, the chief executive officer of Cepia said: "We are disputing the findings of GoodGuide and we are 100 per cent confident that Mr Squiggles and all other Zhu Zhu Toys are safe and compliant with all US and European standards for consumer health and safety in toys.

“I have been in the toy industry for more than 35 years, and being a father of children myself, I would never allow any substandard or unsafe product to hit the shelves."

The accepted safe level of antimony, as well as arsenic and mercury, in toys and leisure equipment sold in Britain is set at 60 parts per million by the European standard EN71-3 enshrined in 1995.

TIGER WOODS CAUSES GLOBAL WARMING

FWSAAB Climate Expert - Dr. BB - has reviewed historical surface air temperature readings and correlated the data to Tiger Woods professional golf career (found at http://web.tigerwoods.com/aboutTiger/chronology) - the analysis clearly shows that global air surface temperatures have increased since Tiger Woods became a professional - both on and off the course. A scientific paper will be submitted to Climate Journals and the National Enquirer in the next few weeks.

FWSAAB - An unpronounceable acronym but one you can trust

BB

Oh the Irony of the Weather

On the very day that the EPA decided the very air we exhale is a "public health hazard", and our Dear Leader heads to Copenhagen to plead for the Olympics a second time, his hometown will be bracing for the "Great Blizzard of Ought 9" - HLG

PS: Cancel those flights throught O'Hare on Wednesday.

Global Warming Sends Earliest Snow Storm Ever to Houston, TX

Beating last year's record-earliest snow by over 5 days! -HLG

Houston Braces for Earliest Snow as Storm Heads for Louisiana Share Business
By Brian K. Sullivan

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Houston residents are bracing for the earliest snowfall ever today as a storm bears down on Texas and Louisiana, threatening to disrupt travel and holiday shopping.

The country’s fourth-largest metropolitan area is expected to receive about 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow with isolated accumulations of 4 inches, according to Paul Lewis, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Dickinson, Texas.

“This will be the earliest snow ever in the city of Houston,” Lewis said by telephone. “And the first time ever we have had measurable snow two years in a row.”

Last year, the area’s 2.24 million residents received about 1.4 inches on Dec. 10, he said.

The weather service has issued the winter storm watch, which means snowy and icy conditions are imminent, until 8 p.m. Houston time. The watch extends into Louisiana.

Galveston, Texas, may also see trace amounts of snow dusting grassy areas, Lewis said.

The overnight temperature will fall to about 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-3.9 Celsius), freezing roads and creating hazardous driving conditions for a city that doesn’t have much experience with winter weather.

Harris County, which includes Houston, issued winter driving tips and urged motorists to be careful on the roads.

“Never break while driving on ice,” the statement said. “If you are approaching a patch of ice, brake during your approach.”

By tomorrow, all the snow should be gone because the temperature is expected to rise to 47 degrees. The normal high for Houston is 67 degrees at this time of year.

“So it is not going to last very long,” Lewis said.

Snow won’t be a problem for the city’s electrical grid, said Leticia Lowe, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy Inc. Ice may weigh down power lines and cause disruptions, she said by telephone.

Should Uncle Al Give the Oscar Back?

Or at least get it nominated for Fiction category, and taken out of Dramumentary! At least he canceled his Copenhagen speach, I am sure at the request of the White House. Don't want to embarrss our other Nobel Laureate! - HLG

Hollywood Conservatives Say Gore Should Lose Oscar Over Climate-Gate



Just days ahead of an international climate change conference, global warming guru and former Vice President Al Gore has been hit by an inconvenient scandal -- one that's reverberated all the way back to Hollywood.

Two conservative screenwriters say Gore should be stripped of his Oscar in light of the global warming questions raised by leaked e-mails out of a British research center.

The former vice president earned the Oscar in 2007 for his climate change manifesto "An Inconvenient Truth." He later went on to earn a Nobel Peace Prize and become one of the world's leading authorities on global warming.

But Roger Simon and Lionel Chetwynd, both members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, put out a statement Thursday calling for the Academy to take it all back in light of the controversy skeptics have dubbed Climate-Gate.

"I personally call for the Academy to rescind this Oscar," Simon said. "In the history of the Academy ... not to my knowledge has an Oscar ever been rescinded. ... I think they should rescind this one."

Though their demand will almost certainly not be met, it marks the latest effort by conservatives to draw attention to the controversy in the run-up to an international climate change conference next week in Copenhagen -- where Gore just canceled a lecture he was supposed to deliver.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are demanding hearings on the topic, after leaked e-mails from the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit showed scientists appearing to discuss manipulating climate change data.

Simon is the founder of Pajamas Media, whose Web site posted the Gore criticism Thursday. Chetwynd is a screenwriter.

The former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner had been scheduled to speak to more than 3,000 people at a Dec. 16 event hosted by the Berlingske Tidende newspaper group. The group says Gore canceled the lecture Thursday, citing unforeseen changes in his schedule.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider says the decision was made because of "all the events going on with the summit." Dec. 16 is a key date for the meeting because that's when the ministerial segment starts.

Chief editor Lisbeth Knudsen says it's a "great disappointment" that Gore canceled and that all tickets will be refunded.

Thanksgiving Fun With Flying

Nightmare in the Skies: Two Planes Just Miss Collision
A United Express and Frontier Airlines Plane Came Disturbingly Close to Colliding
By LISA STARK, MATT HOSFORD and SCOTT MAYEROWITZ
Dec. 3, 2009

Days before Thanksgiving, a United Express and Frontier Airlines plane came disturbing close to colliding midair, the Federal Aviation Administration says. The FAA is now investigating the incident during which the two jets were apparently so close to each other that they had to take evasive action to head off a crash.

Days before Thanksgiving, a United Express and Frontier Airlines plane came disturbingly close to colliding midair.

The incident happened on Nov. 23 around 7 a.m. as the two jets were approaching Denver International Airport.

One of the planes, United Express flight 6764 from Lincoln, Neb., operated by regional airline Skywest, was in a string of planes following a set path heading to the airport.

The other plane, Frontier flight 1539 from Omaha, operated by parent airline Republic, was flying along a parallel path. Controllers needed to put the Frontier jet into the same route as the United Express plane to line them up for landing.


That's when the mistake happened, an aviation source told ABC's Denver affiliate KMGH, which first reported the story.

Controllers gave the Frontier pilots an incorrect heading -- forcing them to make a U-turn, the source told KMGH. That put the jet right in the path of the United Express plane -- which was just 200 feet above it and only a little more than a mile-and-a-half away, closing quickly, just seconds apart.

"When you've got airplanes coming within 200 feet of each other or aimed at each other, it's a very dangerous situation," said ABC News aviation consultant John Nance.

On board the two regional jets, collision avoidance systems sounded in the cockpits, forcing the jets to take evasive action to avoid a collision, an FAA spokesman told KMGH.

"You need to follow that command right now," Nance said. "So your heart rate goes up and you're immediately involved."

Climategate Hits NASA Now. Are NOAA & CNMOC Paying Attention?

If so, BURN THE TAPES!!! And yes, the edgy reporting from the Comedy Channel should be up for an Emmy. Very funny, AND informative! - HLG (Your crumudgeonly climate sceptic)



Global warming controversy hits NASA climate data
By Stephen Dinan

The fight over climate science is about to cross the Atlantic with a U.S. researcher poised to sue NASA, demanding the release of the same kind of information that landed a leading British center in hot water over charges that it skewed its data.

Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said NASA has refused for two years to provide information under the Freedom of Information Act that would show how the agency has shaped its climate data and explain why the agency has repeatedly had to correct its data dating as far back as the 1930s.

"I assume that what is there is highly damaging," Mr. Horner said. "These guys are quite clearly bound and determined not to reveal their internal discussions about this."

The numbers matter. Under pressure in 2007, NASA recalculated its data and found that 1934, not 1998, was the hottest year in its records for the contiguous 48 states. NASA later changed its data again, and now 1998 and 2006 are tied for the hottest years, with 1934 listed as slightly cooler.



Mr. Horner, a noted skeptic of global warming and author of "The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism," wants a look at the data and the discussions that went into those changes. He said he's given the agency until the end of the year to comply or else he'll sue to compel the information's release.

Mark Hess, public affairs director for the Goddard Space Flight Center, which runs the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) laboratory, said officials are working on Mr. Horner's request, though he couldn't say why they have taken so long.

"We're collecting the information and will respond with all the responsive relevant information to all of his requests," Mr. Hess said. "It's just a process you have to go through where you have to collect data that's responsive."

Mr. Horner's fight mirrors one that has sprung up in Britain since the release of thousands of e-mails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit, which appear to show researchers shaving their data to conform to their expectations. They also note efforts to try to drive global warming skeptics out of the conversation.

The center's chief has stepped down pending an investigation into the e-mails

Global Warming and the Rise of the New Orleans Saints?

I bring this up because surely if the Saints make it to a Super Bowl, and possibly WIN a Super Bowl, the end is surely near, which much be because of run-away greenhouse warming, melting poles, shifting axis of the Earth, raining catsanddogs, etc., etc., etc. So, buy lots of canned food and batteries! - HLG

WSJ Says to "Follow the Climate Money"!

Climategate: Follow the Money Climate change researchers must believe in the reality of global warming just as a priest must believe in the existence of God. By BRET STEPHENS


Last year, ExxonMobil donated $7 million to a grab-bag of public policy institutes, including the Aspen Institute, the Asia Society and Transparency International. It also gave a combined $125,000 to the Heritage Institute and the National Center for Policy Analysis, two conservative think tanks that have offered dissenting views on what until recently was called—without irony—the climate change "consensus."

To read some of the press accounts of these gifts—amounting to about 0.0027% of Exxon's 2008 profits of $45 billion—you might think you'd hit upon the scandal of the age. But thanks to what now goes by the name of climategate, it turns out the real scandal lies elsewhere.

Climategate, as readers of these pages know, concerns some of the world's leading climate scientists working in tandem to block freedom of information requests, blackball dissenting scientists, manipulate the peer-review process, and obscure, destroy or massage inconvenient temperature data—facts that were laid bare by last week's disclosure of thousands of emails from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit, or CRU.

But the deeper question is why the scientists behaved this way to begin with, especially since the science behind man-made global warming is said to be firmly settled. To answer the question, it helps to turn the alarmists' follow-the-money methods right back at them.

Consider the case of Phil Jones, the director of the CRU and the man at the heart of climategate. According to one of the documents hacked from his center, between 2000 and 2006 Mr. Jones was the recipient (or co-recipient) of some $19 million worth of research grants, a sixfold increase over what he'd been awarded in the 1990s.



Al Gore wins the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize: Doing well by doing good?
Why did the money pour in so quickly? Because the climate alarm kept ringing so loudly: The louder the alarm, the greater the sums. And who better to ring it than people like Mr. Jones, one of its likeliest beneficiaries?

Thus, the European Commission's most recent appropriation for climate research comes to nearly $3 billion, and that's not counting funds from the EU's member governments. In the U.S., the House intends to spend $1.3 billion on NASA's climate efforts, $400 million on NOAA's, and another $300 million for the National Science Foundation. The states also have a piece of the action, with California—apparently not feeling bankrupt enough—devoting $600 million to their own climate initiative. In Australia, alarmists have their own Department of Climate Change at their funding disposal.

And all this is only a fraction of the $94 billion that HSBC Bank estimates has been spent globally this year on what it calls "green stimulus"—largely ethanol and other alternative energy schemes—of the kind from which Al Gore and his partners at Kleiner Perkins hope to profit handsomely.

Supply, as we know, creates its own demand. So for every additional billion in government-funded grants (or the tens of millions supplied by foundations like the Pew Charitable Trusts), universities, research institutes, advocacy groups and their various spin-offs and dependents have emerged from the woodwork to receive them.


Today these groups form a kind of ecosystem of their own. They include not just old standbys like the Sierra Club or Greenpeace, but also Ozone Action, Clean Air Cool Planet, Americans for Equitable Climate Change Solutions, the Alternative Energy Resources Association, the California Climate Action Registry and so on and on. All of them have been on the receiving end of climate change-related funding, so all of them must believe in the reality (and catastrophic imminence) of global warming just as a priest must believe in the existence of God.

None of these outfits are per se corrupt, in the sense that the monies they get are spent on something other than their intended purposes. But they depend on an inherently corrupting premise, namely that the hypothesis on which their livelihood depends has in fact been proved. Absent that proof, everything they represent—including the thousands of jobs they provide—vanishes. This is what's known as a vested interest, and vested interests are an enemy of sound science.

Which brings us back to the climategate scientists, the keepers of the keys to the global warming cathedral. In one of the more telling disclosures from last week, a computer programmer writes of the CRU's temperature database: "I am very sorry to report that the rest of the databases seems to be in nearly as poor a state as Australia was. . . . Aarrggghhh! There truly is no end in sight. . . . We can have a proper result, but only by including a load of garbage!"

This is not the sound of settled science, but of a cracking empirical foundation. And however many billion-dollar edifices may be built on it, sooner or later it is bound to crumble.

East Coast Snow Storm?

Very little input from the FWSAAB crew on the evolving winter storm. Will there be any measureable snow on the East Coast? We are all very proud of Dr BB's Hurricane Season 2009 forecast, but how does he do with snow?? Much trickier to forecast! - HLG