THE NORTHERN U.S. AND NORTHERN EUROPE ARE COOLING
By Climatologist Cliff Harris
According to recent studies by the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature team of scientists at the University of California at Berkeley, our current global temperatures "are all over the map."
The scientist’s graphs following an exhaustive two-year study show that temperatures since the last cycle of global warming ended in the late 1990s have been "relatively stable."
While wide fluctuations in both land and sea-surface water temperatures have occurred on a global scale in the past 13-plus years since 1998, both northern Europe and much of the U.S. north of I-80 have seen "substantial cooling and a huge increase in winter snowfall that has led to widespread spring flooding." The spring seasons have been "unusually chilly and wet" with a record number of tornadoes sighted last spring along the violent ‘clashline’ points between I-80 and I-70 in the south-central U.S.
Stephen McIntyre, a Canadian mathematician who frequently writes articles on climate, stated recently that "satellite data shows only half the amounts of predicted global warming in the past three decades."
Such disputes demonstrate the uncertain nature of tracking global temperatures, whether by land, water or space.
Even with tens of thousands of weather stations worldwide, most of the Earth’s surface is not being monitored. And, some stations are more reliable than others, especially during these lean times of economic recession.
Calculating a specific global temperature for our planet is a difficult task indeed. One must adjust for data losses and suspect stations, plus existing temperature trends.
Climate researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle were recently asked about future climate patterns of the Pacific Northwest.
They said that their climate models are predicting "increasing precipitation in the next decade in the northern latitudes." This should mean more snowy winter seasons across the Inland Empire and other regions of the U.S. near the Canadian border.
As far as temperatures are concerned, the University of Washington scientists say, "there’s a tremendous amount of uncertainty" in their models, both locally and globally.
European, Russian and Japanese climate scientists are each predicting "an increase in global cooling and expanding glaciers worldwide by 2014."
My climatological opinion is that we’re entering a much cooler cycle with snowy winters already becoming commonplace. The spring seasons will continue to be chilly and wet. The shorter summers will be warm, but not hot, and very dry with little precipitation and high fire danger levels.
