UW Study: No Evidence Global Warming Affecting Cascades Snowpack

First, Mark Albright. Now this. The PC Police at the University of Washington are not doing a very good job of having their meteorologists drink the Kool-Aid.

Despite previous studies suggesting a warmer climate is already taking a bite out of Washington's snowpack, there's no clear evidence that human-induced climate change has caused a drop in 20th century snow levels, according to a new study by University of Washington scientists.

Predictably, the same people who went after Albright (who is a co-author of this new study) are ranting.

"They're trying to forecast the next 20 years or so, and I don't think they can do it," said Alan Hamlet, a UW hydrologist who has written papers about historic Cascade Mountain snowpacks.

Huh? Isn't that what the Goracle has been doing?

Hamlet also criticizes some of the statistical analysis in the new study, saying it could exaggerate the role of decade-to-decade changes in ocean conditions while understating other potential influences, including global warming.

"I just don't think the science is there," Hamlet said.

And yet global warming alarmists have passed off this year's record cold and snowy winter in the Northwest as being a result of an unusually strong La Nina and not a reversal in planetary warming trends.

"Settled" science? Uh huh. Room for reasonable doubt? You bet.

Tyana Kelley Doesn't Think Your Truck is Sexy

Spokane urban transplant Tyana Kelley and Democratic candidate for the Washington state legislature has a lot to learn about the 9th District. Heck, she's only been here since last August.

For example, Kelley wrote on her blog about the Johnson and Albion 4th of July Parades:

The Republican candidates were out in force at both parades. Each candidate had their own vehicle: either a gas-guzzling truck, or car with an equally big engine. In Albion we were put in the line to walk right in between all these vehicles. It was a bit intimidating. My opponent, Joe Schmick, had the biggest truck, a Ford F-350.

I wonder if Tyana realizes that Joe is a farmer and needs that truck to farm? I wonder if she realizes that many of her potential voters also drive similar rigs for similar reasons?

She stated in an interview with the Moscow-Pullman Daily News that "We need someone in Olympia to work with the Democratic majority." God forbid. Do 9th District voters want a Democrat supermajority to hit us with the 2009 version of SB6900?

You remember SB6900. It was the bill proposed by a Seattle area liberal senator earlier this year that would have engine displacement and emission fees for motor vehicles according to a schedule tied to engine size in liters and CO2 emissions in grams per mile. That's just what area farmers need when the price of diesel is already at record levels.

Just tell Tyana, "No thanks." She can move out of the area when her husband finishes up at WSU. We don't need any more carpetbaggers around here.

Frost on July 11

Palousitics contributor Mattwi finally sent along these pictures of his car on the morning of July 11, 2008.


As you can see, the temperature in Colton that morning was 33 degrees Fahrenheit.


The official low temperature at Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport was 35 degrees, a record low for July 11. The following morning saw record lows as well. The Whitman County Gazette reported that the 33 degrees temperature at the airport was the lowest ever for July 12. The Gazette reported that crops and gradens were damaged by the unprecedented late freeze.

The ravages of global warming continue on the Palouse.

Global Cooling: It's Natural

There can be no doubt that the planet has been cooling lately, Nobel prizes and Academy Awards notwithstanding.

And now, even some of those vaunted authorities have started to take notice.

A number of influential people in Russia, China, India, Indonesia and Vietnam say the planet is now entering a 30-year cooling period, the second half of a normal cycle driven by cyclical changes in the sun's output and currents in the Pacific Ocean. Their theory leaves true believers in carbon catastrophe livid.

And this great closing paragraph:

So does the climate computer have a real audience, or is it really just another bag lady muttering away to herself in a lonely corner of the intellectual park? That the computer is heard in Hollywood, Stockholm, Brussels and even some parts of Washington is quite beside the point--they have far less global power and influence than they vainly imagine. Vinod Dar is right: "Contingency planning should entail strategic responses to a warming globe, a cooling globe and a globe whose climate reverberates with laughter at human hubris."

Of course, Democrats haven't figured it out. Nancy Pelosi is trying to save the planet by starving the US of energy.

[T]he wave of change her party has ridden could come crashing down. The pressures facing the nation — troubled financial markets, falling housing prices and rising energy and food costs — are genuinely historic. The next president will inherit a projected deficit of close to $500 billion, and Democrats admit privately that they were caught off guard by the spike in gasoline prices and the hardship it has imposed on middle-income and working-class voters.

With fewer than 20 legislative days before the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1, the entire appropriations process has largely ground to a halt because of the ham-handed fighting that followed Republican attempts to lift the moratorium on offshore oil and gas exploration. And after promising fairness and open debate, Pelosi has resorted to hard-nosed parliamentary devices that effectively bar any chance for Republicans to offer policy alternatives.

“I’m trying to save the planet; I’m trying to save the planet,” she says impatiently when questioned. “I will not have this debate trivialized by their excuse for their failed policy.”

Mrs. Coggins Goes to Washington

April's mega-post about global warming, "Purposeful Manipulation of Temperature Data or Poor Practice?" is now linked on Senator James Inhofe's (R-Oklahoma) U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works press blog.

Senator Inhofe's blog is a great source of global warming skepticism information and I highly recommend paying a visit there.

Congrats April!

Global Warming My Butt!

Another record low temperature! When I got up this morning, Pullman's official temperature was 35 degrees. I went to the NWS website and found that the temperature had dipped as low as 33 degrees. I did a quick check and learned the record for July 11th was 39 degrees.

I have no doubt that somebody will try to make the case that cold is caused by global warming. They've done it before.

Kill Your Television

For the eco-chic who have been watching the new "Planet Green" channel, I hope you haven't been doing it on a flat-screen TV:

Booming demand for flat-screen televisions could have a greater impact on global warming than the world's largest coal-fired power stations, scientists warn.

A greenhouse gas called nitrogen trifluoride, used to make the TVs, is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide, said Michael Prather, director of the environment institute at the University of California, Irvine.

So does that mean those of us without flat-screen TVs can sell carbon credits? Oh brother.

Energy Guzzled by Al Gore’s Home in Past Year Could Power 232 U.S. Homes for a Month

More news on the Hypocritical lifestyle of the "Goracle"...

“A man’s commitment to his beliefs is best measured by what he does behind the closed doors of his own home,” said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. “Al Gore is a hypocrite and a fraud when it comes to his commitment to the environment, judging by his home energy consumption.”

Consensus on Global Warming at WSU?

Not if you saw the June 10 edition of WSU Today online. The original headline of a photo story by Shelly Hanks and Robert Frank on Tuesday's Pullman snowstorm read "Global Warming? R-i-g-h-t." You can view the Google cache of that version here.

After the story was linked to Tom Nelson's blog (a well-known global warming skeptic site,) and a link to Tom Nelson's blog was surreptiously embedded into the WSU Today headline, the headline was changed to read "Global warming? Not today." See for yourself here.

As April commented on the Tom Nelson blog:

Recheck the headline at the WSU site. It's been politically corrected. I'm not surprised, just sickened. The writer probably has to go through retraining so as to embrace the "empirical evidence" that the morally corrupt leftists at WSU have to offer. We wouldn't want any dissent, now would we?

Global Warming Quote of the Day

Greg Koch, a forecaster at the National Weather Service in Spokane, said Pullman received 1.5 inches of snow [on June 10], which is the latest snowfall on record dating back to 1940, when weather records were first kept. It also was the first time measurable snowfall was recorded in the month of June.

-"'Crazy' snowfall causes problems in Pullman," Moscow-Pullman Daily News, June 11, 2008

Yep, It's The Year Without a Summer

As of 9:00 AM PDT, there is 1/2 inch of snow on the ground in Pullman and it is still falling hard.

Paging Mr. Al Gore, please pick up the white Frosty the Snowman courtesy phone....

UPDATE AT 10:00 AM PDT: Just got a call from home. About one inch of now there now. My daughter, who lives with her mom in South Carolina, is enjoying her "summer" vacation from school here in Pullman.

Welcome To A Paradise Called The Palouse

And to think that Seattle wants to ban campfires because they cause global warming.

Global Warming My (Insert Favorite Body Part Here)

And, Pullman broke the all-time low temperature record this morning.

And, check out the National Weather Service forecast for Pullman:

"Today: Periods of rain and snow showers, becoming all rain after 11am. High near 45. Breezy, with a southwest wind 23 to 26 mph decreasing to between 10 and 13 mph. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. Little or no snow accumulation expected."

Update: As of 6:43 AM, it is snowing at my house

The Year Without a Summer?

My daughter, who recently moved from Virginia to Pullman, asked me the other day, "When is it going to get warm?"

According to an article in Sunday's Seattle Times, not until July...maybe.

Meanwhile, in today's Seattle Times, it is reported that:

Seattle just experienced the coldest first week of June, according to climate records dating to 1891, said Cliff Mass, University of Washington meterologist. Both 1999 and 2008 share the record, with 1917 falling in second place, he said. "Just wait until tomorrow," he said, when temperatures are going to be even colder.

<-snip->

"In 30 years I can only remember two other times when it snowed this late in the season," said Sam Krahenbuhl, Snoqualmie Pass assistant maintenance superintendent. "One time it snowed on a Fourth of July weekend. This is really rare."

While it won't snow in the Puget Sound area, records for the lowest high temperature may be broken today and Tuesday. Forecasters said the high temperature today should be 57 degrees, 1 degree below the record set last year. On Tuesday, under windy and rainy skies, the temperature should only get to 54 degrees, 2 degrees below the record set in 1972.

Mountains in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho are also expected to see snow above 3,500 feet.

Remember, there's only 7 years, 7 months and 19 days until the The Goracle predicts the Earth will melt......

Headed Over to Western Washington This Weekend?

Might want to carry chains.

Summer starts in two weeks.

From the National Weather Service:

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SEATTLE WA
430 AM PDT FRI JUN 6 2008

WAZ513-518-519-062230-
OLYMPICS-WEST SLOPES NORTHERN CASCADES AND PASSES- WEST SLOPES CENTRAL CASCADES AND PASSES- 430 AM PDT FRI JUN 6 2008

...A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL BRING SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL TO THE HIGHER ELEVATIONS OF THE CASCADES AND OLYMPICS TODAY..

RAIN AND SNOW WILL INCREASE OVER THE MOUNTAINS OF WESTERN WASHINGTON THIS MORNING...BECOMING HEAVY AT TIMES THROUGH THE DAY. THE MAIN SNOW LEVEL WILL HOVER NEAR 3500 FEET BUT TEMPERATURES WILL BE MARGINAL FOR ACCUMULATING SNOW BETWEEN 4000 AND 5500 FEET. THE HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED LATER THIS MORNING AND AFTERNOON WHEN UP TO 3 INCHES OF SNOW COULD FALL AT THE HIGHER PASSES. ABOVE 5500 FEET...COLDER TEMPERATURES WILL ALLOW ALL THE FALLING SNOW TO STICK WITH UP TO 2 FEET EXPECTED BY THIS EVENING. THIS WILL RESULT IN A HAZARD FOR MOUNTAINEERING AND TRAVEL IN THE HIGH BACKCOUNTRY WITH POOR VISIBILITY...WINDY CONDITIONS...COLD TEMPERATURES...AND THE POSSIBILITY OF RENEWED AVALANCHE ACTIVITY.

PEOPLE DRIVING OVER THE HIGHER HIGHWAYS INCLUDING STEVENS PASS..CHINOOK PASS...WASHINGTON PASS...THE ROAD TO PARADISE...AND THE ROAD TO HURRICANE RIDGE...WILL LIKELY ENCOUNTER SNOW...POOR VISIBILITY...AND SOME WIND. HOWEVER ACCUMULATIONS ON THE ROADS WILLGENERALLY BE THREE INCHES OR LESS.

Wake Up and Schuss the Powder

From today's Seattle Times:

The last time Seattle-area residents contended with snow this late in the season was more than three decades ago, when Seattle-Tacoma International Airport reported snow on April 17, 1972, said Johnny Burg, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

[...]

"We've had powdery snow practically the whole season," said Duncan Howat, general manager at Mount Baker. "This is a great end for what's already been a record season for us."

[...]

Years ago, Mount Baker used to operate well into May — and even went until July 4 once during the 1970s, Howat said. But now its season concludes in late April, ending this year on April 27.

Eastern Washington will also be faced with snowy conditions this weekend.

It's interesting to note that the last time we had a winter this bad was in the Seventies. It was almost 33 years ago exactly, April 28, 1975, that Newsweek ran a story titled "The Cooling World."

Notice the graph in the Newsweek article of average temperature change from 1880 to 1970. It's a classic sine wave. Since then, the average temperature change swung back up again, peaking in 1998. It has remained stable since then, declining slightly. Could we be at the beginning of another downturn in temperature like in the Seventies? Who knows? The weather and climate are constantly changing. The only thing that is consistent is man's alarm and overreaction at the various trends.


One thing that does not exhibit sinusoid behavior is the amount of global carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fules. It is steadily increasing. The level of atmospheric CO2 is now nearly twice that in the Seventies. But we still have a winter like this one? I'm skeptical that one climatological phenomenon (La Nina) could override all that CO2 if that truly was causing the planet to warm so dramatically.

Snow Job

The Seattle Times does have a way with the words. First, they refer to terrorists as "ecosaboteurs."

Now, in keeping with the precepts of the Holy Gospel of the Boiling Planet, the Slimes calls our recent winter (which is still not over) "unusual" with an "extraordinary amount of snow." In fact,

Because of the unusual winter, the Legislature appropriated another $5.25 million over the $35 million budget. That leaves a $3 million deficit that will be carried into next winter. State officials are hoping a lighter-than-normal winter could make up some of those costs.

Huh.

Meanwhile,

In Washington state, a new climate change law calls for reducing vehicle miles by 18 percent by 2020, 30 percent by 2035 and 50 percent by 2050, starting from a statewide baseline of 75 billion miles per year.

Go figure.

In Case You Were Wondering

That snow yesterday pushed this winter up higher on the all-time snowiest list. From the National Weather Service:

AS OF 1 AM SUNDAY APRIL 6TH...THE WINTER SNOWFALL TOTAL FOR SPOKANE WAS 89.4 INCHES. THIS TOTAL IS THE SECOND SNOWIEST ON RECORD. RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT FOR SPOKANE SINCE 1893.

Not many people alive have seen a winter this snowy, as the last one was in 1949-50. Of course, the NWS was quick to point out:

2007-2008 SEASON NOT YET COMPLETE. MORE SNOW IS POSSIBLE.

Calm Down Ted, Soylent Green Is Movie, Not People

Ted Turner was on Charlie Rose's PBS show the other night discussing not taking drastic action to correct global warming:

Not doing it will be catastrophic. We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals.

Apparently Turner's been watching too many old sci-fi movies on Turner Classic Movies. Is it any wonder people can't take all the global warming hysteria seriously? Celebrity nitwits like Turner couldn't do more damage to the environmental movement if they were paid saboteurs for the oil industry.

Winter 2007-08: Fifth Snowiest Ever

All the snowy weather over the past few days has pushed the winter of 2007-08 to fifth place on the all-time snowfall list for Spokane, with a seasonal total of 82.4 inches.

Here's how this winter stacks up:

93.5" 1949-50
89.0" 1974-75
87.3" 1992-93
83.2" 1955-56
82.4" 2007-08

We were only one or two good storms away from 2007-08 being the snowiest winter ever in the Inland Northwest.