Comments on: What's causing Europe's cold snap?

By: retepslluerb

retepslluerb — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Actually, we haven’t had that much of a winter, at least not here in Central Europe.

Sure, it was cold during the last two weeks, but not unusually cold. I actually expect to get a hefty refund on gas.

But most of December and January was more or less mild and we’ve had barely any snow.

By: liquidstar

liquidstar — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Grounded dextragyre. North pole as singularity; therefore N.A. not as affected.

By: Chrs

Chrs — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:06:00 +0000

And behind the AO/sea ice feedback loop? Another feedback loop. Weather is feedback loops all the way down. (Well, except solar insolation.)

By: VonWatters

VonWatters — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:59:00 +0000

…and they cannot lie.

By: MrsBug

MrsBug — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:51:00 +0000

kthugha, yeah, Michigan’s winter has been pitiful too. I keep crossing my fingers, saying, “It’s only February, it’s only February!” but no luck yet.

By: MrsBug

MrsBug — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:51:00 +0000

Some people like great big buts…

By: wysinwyg

wysinwyg — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:47:00 +0000

The warm North American winter is supposedly being caused by an unusually stable jet stream (IIRC?). I think the idea is that “everything else being equal” the AO would cause a colder winter in North America but as usual, not everything else is equal.

By: t3kna2007

t3kna2007 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:46:00 +0000

Big Boo-TAY

By: t3kna2007

t3kna2007 — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:45:00 +0000

What’s causing Europe’s cold snap? They stole it from America, damn them! Down here the daffodils are already out and the white blooms on the dogwoods have already come and fallen. That’s almost three months ahead of schedule. I want my winter back! (To be fair, I expect many Europeans would be happy to hand it over if they could.)

By: videobored

videobored — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:04:00 +0000

Fascinating article. I will do my best to use the word anthropogenically in a sentence at some point today. I’m also not ashamed to admit that I giggled a little bit when I read the phrase “and, ladies and gentlemen, this is a great big but”.

By: Gordon JC Pearce

Gordon JC Pearce — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:59:00 +0000

Why is it cold in Europe just now? Well, it might be climate change, the AGW magic carbon pixie believers are shouting about being caused by greenhouse gases and the climate change atheists say it’s nothing to do with greenhouse gases at all.

Me? I think it’s cold because it’s February.

By: kthugha

kthugha — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:44:00 +0000

The wording of this article seems to read that if the AO is causing it to be colder in Europe, it should simultaneously be colder in North America. But I live in Minnesota and we basically haven’t had winter in the Midwest! I think we’ve had 5 inches of snow and we’ve only had a low below zero once (usually we spend an entire week with lows at -20 and highs below zero). So what’s that about? Is this weird even by their reckoning or is this explanation just poorly-worded?

By: doug rogers

doug rogers — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:17:00 +0000

Correlation is not necessarily causation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3qLv-l0Cwc

By: Forkboy

Forkboy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:09:00 +0000

As people love to say on Slashdot : “Correlation is not causation.” Of course it’s not very exiting to have an article that says : “Is the recent weather because of global warming ? – We don’t know. Maybe ?”

By: michael b

michael b — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:09:00 +0000

You mean to tell me that “The Day After Tomorrow” wasn’t a documentary? My world is shattered.