Found at Still Waiting for Greenhouse.

The Iceman Cometh! (9 Jan 2001)

The northern winter can no longer be dismissed as an isolated `cold snap'. Right across the northern hemisphere, the story has been the same - freezing cold, snow blizzards, and record-breaking low temperatures.

In the USA, the Great Lakes have been freezing over, requiring the use of ice breakers to maintain shipping traffic. In December, two ships were stuck in the icy Detroit River causing a two-day traffic jam for shipping. Lakes Huron, Erie and Michigan have extensive areas of surface ice, with the passage between Lakes Michigan and Huron requiring constant icebreaking to keep the channel open.

The cooling was widespread with 43 states recording subnormal temps. All-time state cold records were set in Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. Buffalo received its earliest 100 inch snow total ever at the start of this month. The 13.4 inches of snow that fell in New York City's Central Park in December made it the snowiest December since 1960. This put the year as a whole in New York at 53.8°F, about 1° below normal. Nine of the twelve months of 2000 in New York were below normal, including a streak of 7 straight below normal months so far (apparently continuing into January). It was the coldest December on record for Louisville and Paducha, Kentucky; the second coldest on record for Evansville, Indiana, Akron and Toledo, Ohio, and for Chicago (O'hare), where records go back to 1872. It was also the second coldest at Kansas City, Missouri (since 1886), and at Minneapolis, Minnesota. In "the nation's icebox" of International Falls, Minnesota, it was in the top five coldest Decembers.

November and December in the U.S. was the coldest on record, averaging 33.8°F, breaking the previous record of 34.2°F set in 1898. According to the National Climate Center, "The eastern and western United States will experience additional cold outbreaks at least through March with periods of moderation in between".

In Russia, a severe cold wave settled in over western Siberia and the Far East, sending temperatures down as low as -70°C. The temperature, a 30-year record, was recorded in the Kemerovo region about 1,800 miles east of Moscow, while temperatures in much of the rest of Russia east of the Ural Mountains were around -40°C. The industrial city of Krasnoyarsk endured its fifth consecutive day in which the temperature fell to -50C.The Russian cold wave, which is expected to last several more days, has put a strain on Russia's power plants and heating stations.

Mongolia in central Asia has again been gripped by a `Zud', freezing conditions which are deadly for the livestock upon which much of the population is dependent. In sub-tropical Florida, farmers have found their citrus trees under attack from the cold.

Even in the southern hemisphere, which is having its summer, highland residents in Tasmania awoke on Christmas morning to a deep cover of snow. Meanwhile an Australian Antarctic supply vessel, Polar Bird, found itself trapped in sea ice for over 3 weeks at a time when we were all told that summer sea ice at the poles was thinning.

But all this did not begin in November. The cooling in the USA began as early as June last year when summer temperatures across the eastern half of the US were well below normal, a cooling which extended into the autumn (or `fall').

The NOAA put on a defensive smokescreen of spin in the hope that the cooling would be temporary, constantly pointing to the mild winter and warm spring which preceded the cooling early in 2000. But now, months later, the cooling has persisted, raising the possibility that we may be witnessing a periodic climate `shift', the last one being a warm shift around 1976-77.

This latest shift in the global weather, coupled with an incoming US administration which shows little interest in indulging the interests of the greenhouse industry, leaves the hapless Kyoto Protocol dead in the water. Only the European Union is mourning that document, as its terms, negotiated and consented to by Al Gore, were tailored to suit the economic interests of the Europeans. The party is now over.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), January 10, 2001

Answers

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010105/us/record_cold_1.html

Nov.-Dec. Was Coldest on Record

The report noted that severe conditions hit the Central and Southern Plains particularly hard. It was the coldest November- December on record in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri and the second coldest such two-month period for Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

Heavy snow also accompanied the cold in many areas.

The record cold was a sharp change from most of last year, which began with the warmest winter on record. Above normal temperatures continued through October and made the January through October 2000 period the warmest such ten-month period since national temperature records began in 1895.

Preliminary data indicates that 2000 will wind up the 13th warmest year on record in the U.S., 1.2 F above the long-term average of 52.8, the Center reported.

-- (just@the.facts), January 10, 2001.

Subject: The Iceman cometh.

How bout a new title? The iceman Came?

Damn, it is cold up here in the northeast. But to add insult to injury ask people what their gas bills are like.

I know folks who have received 470.00 bill for ONE MONTH.

Seniors are having it real rough as well, how do they expect them to live on fixed incomes w/the bills being so damn high?

sumer,

who has told mom in law we are there for her if she needs money.

-- sumer (shh@aol.con), January 10, 2001.

sumer

Saw on the news last night that some folks up there received monthly gas bills in excess of $800!!! I can't even imagine.....

BTW - Us beachbums in NE FL are struggling through our coldest winter in years. I'm sure you snowbunnies will laugh, but we had 14 days (I think) in a row with freezing temps. Hey, to us, THAT'S COLD!!!

Plant nurseries will make a killin' this spring.......

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), January 10, 2001.

Those temps in Siberia should be listed as Fahrenheit. -70C is -158F. they are mighty cold, but not that cold.

-- John Littmann (littmannj@aol.com), January 10, 2001.

John:

You might try this site: C to F conversion

You will get a totally different number than the one you posted.

Best Wishes,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 10, 2001.