The Washington Post says D.C. is having the worst winter in recorded local history. So, my question is this. Is the worst winter ever caused by global warming or global cooling? Al? Anybody?

TEMPERATURE STATS FROM OUR OWN U.S. GOVERNMENT

CONTIGUOUS UNITED STATES
Climate Summary
December 2009

The average temperature in December 2009 was 30.2 F. This was -3.2 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average, the 14th coolest December in 115 years. The temperature trend for the period of record (1895 to present) is 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit per decade.

If you thought it was cold in December, you are so right!

Where is that Global Warming when you need it?

It is about 25 degrees and I am freezing. Yesterday was warm and balmy, but by late evening a cold front roared through and now it is cold and windy. I have not had my overcoat out of the closet in 3 winters, and have already worn it almost 10 times in December alone. Now they say we may have some freezing rain.

Al? Al Gore are you there? I need some warm air, Al.

However cold it feels here, though, our northern neighbors really are seeing you know what freeze over. For example, Denver reported -18 on Sunday. I don't think I've ever experienced that. This, by the way, is a new record low for Denver for December 14. Obama better get on into office and fulfill his global warming pledges before long, or a record cold year could put a damper on things. The next coldest year for this date in Denver was 1901.

Monday was worse. It was -19 degrees, another new record low. The next closest was in 1951, when it was only -6.

But Montana was even colder. White Sulphur Springs, Montan, reported -29 degrees. Yikes! That breaks the record set in 1922 of -17.

I'm going to have to get re-acclimated to winter. I used to not mind being cold, but I'm not feeling the love at present.

GLOBAL, UH, WARMING

It snowed in Houston Wednesday.

It does not snow there often.

The last time it snowed this early in winter in Houston was in, duh duh DUH, 1944.

TROPICAL STORMS

Centurion does the math and finds "we have had 36.36% fewer tropical depressions this year" so far.

Earth Day in Canada had to be moved inside tents because it was too cold.

GORE ADMITS FAILURE

After producing a moving and traveling all over the world speaking about global warming, what is Al Gore's take on the effect? He admits little has changed. IN fact, some recent polls found that some people ranked it lower than clearing up dog mess as a priority. When you ask people to rank 25 or 30 issues, climate change comes at the bottom.

Just as with his movie, he will not let facts stop him. He wants to lead ten million people to advocate change in the US (of course, it could not be China or India for an American Liberal, it has to be America's fault.)

I would be more impressed if he down sized from his multi-thousand square foot house with the huge air conditioning bill, and quit taking private jets all over the world. Not much, but some.

The good news is, we will likely end the warming cycle in a few years and start global cooling, so he can claim to have ended global warming. That would make a good resume along with inventing the Internet and getting donations from Buddists monks from the White House without being investigated or prosecuted.

Of course, if things get really cool, he can start a new crusade.

GLOBAL COOLING

Gateway Pundit records record cold winters all over the globe, starting in China.

THIS COULD PUT A DAMPER ON GLOBAL WARMING

"The Canadian Space Agency’s radio telescope has been reporting Flux Density Values so low they will mean a mini ice age if they continue."

GLOBAL WARMING FLATLINES

If you read this blog, you know that I think Al Gore is full of hot air and a lot of misleading information. Global Warming has become a hobby horse, making money for many and creating a climate of political correctness that even scientists won’t often contradict.

The fact is, despite the grand meeting in Bali, global warming has flat lined. It is not a matter now of assuming what is causing global warming and can we blame humans, notably Americans ones, but, in fact, is the earth warming? And the answer is no. (at least for now)

There has been no global warming this year, even with Al Gore talking so much, and flying everywhere in his private jet, and air conditioning his huge home. The global temperature is statistically the same as it was in 2006. Not only that, there has been no global warming this decade. Since 1998, the temperature has remained flat. It has not gotten hotter. This is science. It is an observable fact.

The often repeated claim that 1998 was the hottest year on record and the 1990s were the hottest decade in the United States, for example, is simply not true. The hottest year on record is 1934 and the hottest decade was the 1930s. The ten hottest years since we began keeping records in 1880 are: 1934, 1998, 1921, 2006, 1931, 1999, 1953, 1990, 1938, and 1939. And, as we approach 2008, only one year in this decade has made it into the top 10. If we were constantly warming, we would see the most recent years dominating the top 10, yet we have one in the ‘20s, four in the ‘30s, none in the ‘40s, one in the ‘50s, three in the ‘90s and one in the ‘00s. The ‘90s had some hot years, but the trend has not continued. Since 1880, no significant period long trend occurs.

We also know the predicted increase in hurricane activity due to heat has not occurred. This last hurricane season was the mildest of recent memory. No hurricanes hit the U.S. during the season. High profile predictions of numerous and massive hurricanes for the last two years have been totally wrong.

We also know, through measurement, that the carbon dioxide level of the atmosphere has risen. Since the hothouse gas theory relates increased CO2 levels to global temperature, the lack of temperature increases in 10 years is a scientific problem that needs to be solved.

This blog previously quoted scientists who attributed global warming to increased solar activity and predicted a cooling period within a few years. It would be interesting to see that prediction now coming true.

So, while the politicians and fear mongers and lap dog scientists seeking grants continue to wail about global warming, someone needs to figure out why it has actually stopped. The political movement for Global Warming continues in the face of science, however. Al Gore is certainly at the forefront of this wave of political hysteria. He has now won a peace prize for his “work”, which seems to me to be largely self promotion and certainly has nothing to do with peace.

But there are more and more scientists speaking out. More than 400 prominent scientists from two dozen countries recently objected to the claims of man-made global warming that are supposedly the consensus among scientists and politicians, at least according to Gore. Many of these scientists are either current or former participants in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Obviously, much is still in flux and our samples of data are time restricted. However, the data does not suggest the need for mass hysteria. Preachers who are no embracing this issue should be forewarned. You may end up with egg on your face as did those who touted Y2K as the End Of All Things.

GOOD THOUGHTS ON GLOBAL WARMING

A NASA administrator makes good sense of global warning. Michael Griffin says ""I have no doubt that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change," Griffin said. "I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take." (Note to Al Gore)

Hat tip to Centurion.

CO2: The Greatest ScientificScandal of Our Timeby Zbigniew Jaworowski, M.D., Ph.D., D.Sc.

We thus find ourselves in the situation that the entire theory of man-made global warming—with its repercussions in science, and its important consequences for politics and the global economy—is based on ice core studies that provided a false picture of the atmospheric CO2 levels. Meanwhile, more than 90,000 direct measurements of CO2 in the atmosphere, carried out in America, Asia, and Europe between 1812 and 1961, with excellent chemical methods (accuracy better than 3%), were arbitrarily rejected. These measurements had been published in 175 technical papers. For the past three decades, these well-known direct CO2 measurements, recently compiled and analyzed by Ernst-Georg Beck (Beck 2006a, Beck 2006b, Beck 2007), were completely ignored by climatologists—and not because they were wrong. Indeed, these measurements were made by several Nobel Prize winners, using the techniques that are standard textbook procedures in chemistry, biochemistry, botany, hygiene, medicine,nutrition, and ecology.

The only reason for rejection was that these measurements did not fit the hypothesis of anthropogenic climatic warming. I regard this as perhaps the greatest scientific scandal of our time. From among this treasure of excellent data (ranging up to 550 ppmv of measured CO2 levels), the founders of the anthropogenic global warming hypothesis (Callendar 1949, Callendar 1958, and Keeling 1986) selected only a tiny fraction of the data and doctored it, to select out the low concentraions and reject the high values—all in order to set a falsely low pre-industrial average CO2 concentration of 280 ppmv as in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century. This manipulation has been discussed several times since the 1950s (Fonsel et al. 1956, Jaworowski et al. 1992b, and Slocum 1955), and more recently and in-depth by Beck 2007.

GLOBAL WARMING

"There are ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production--with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food production could begin quite soon. ... The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it." Newsweek 1975.

Since Jerry Falwell preached against evangelicals getting on the global warming bandwagon this weekend, I thought I'd do my part.

It turns out science is just as fad driven as theology and politics.

You gotta love this: Congress canceled a hearing on global warming today due to snow.