Record Snowfall In Harrisonburg: Is Global Warming Dead?

With our added snowfall yesterday here in Harrisonburg, Virginia, apparently this winter has set an all time record for snowfall of 53.26 inches, with winter not even over yet. In Washington, where they are also apparently setting a record, we have numerous politicians ridiculing Al Gore and declaring that cap and trade legislation is dead. The online London Times reports that "World May Not Be Warming Say Scientists," with most of these being usual suspects, although now with the addition of John Christy of the University of Alabama-Huntsville, a former lead author of the IPCC reports, now emphasizing the already well-known "urban heating" effect on long term surface recordging sites, on top of the revelations of errors by the IPCC on Himalayan glaciers and other matters.

Well, as those noticing the too-warm weather affecting the Winter Olympics in Vancouver might suspect, all this may be premature. There may be record snowfall in the mid-Atlantic states of the US, with its disproportionate effect on the political climate, but according to http://www.droyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures, the average global temperature in January 2010 was 0.72 above average, the highest monthly such anomaly since the El Nino year of 1998. Oooops! Also, Arctic sea ice seems to continue to be decreasing. It reached a low point for a January reading in 2006, which was followed by increases in the succeeding three Januaries, but this January is back down below the 2007 level, with only 2006 lower by about 69,000 square kilometers. The recent reading has the total at 13.76 square kilometers, which is about 1.06 million below the average for January of the 1979-2000 period, and as noted, the second lowest on record, http://hside.org/arcticseaicenews. So, it may be cold and snowy in Washington (and Harrisonburg), but it is plenty warm in many other places. Global warming appears to be on track still.