Snow in Washington Has Climate Alarmists Showing Ignorance of Climate Science

Stunning Illogic
Snow in Washington Has Climate Alarmists Showing Ignorance of Climate Science
By Dr. Tim Ball Saturday, February 13, 2010
The Earth is warming, which is changing weather patterns and often causing localized weather volatility as opposed to localized warming. Extreme storms, droughts, intense rains, unusual amounts of snow or lack of snow are all signs of global warming. People know the weather is getting less predictable. They call it “weird weather.”

This quote from Jonathan Rose, who is on the Natural Resources Defense Council, is utter scientific and factual rubbish. Consider his comment that, “People know the weather is getting less predictable.” No they don’t, however, they are confused because they know weather forecasts beyond 72 hours never were reliable yet they are told with certainty that the world will be warmer in 20, 50 or 100 years. It is people like Rose and other climate alarmists who present normal weather patterns as abnormal to deceive them.

Every time they try to defend the indefensible claim that CO2 is causing warming and climate change alarmists expose their ignorance of the science. Claims the snowstorms that buried Washington DC are evidence of global warming are ludicrous. You might as well say they are part of a Tea Party plot. They also claim increased storm activity was part of the predicted effect of warming. On the other side of the continent lack of snow for the Olympics in Vancouver is also attributed to global warming.

Major Hemispheric Mechanisms
My January 14, 2010 article anticipated the changes in weather with an explanation of the general atmospheric circulation of the atmosphere.

The cold air that extended over western North America before Christmas shifted so now the western side has average temperatures with cold air extending down on the eastern side of the continent. This perfectly natural and predictable shift and its accompanying weather patterns triggered more scientifically incorrect claims made by promoters of the anthropogenic global warming (AGW) hypothesis.

Figure (left) shows the pattern of air masses for the Northern Hemisphere. A dome of cold air over the polar region meets warmer tropical air along the Polar Front. Large waves called Rossby or Planetary Waves develop along the Front and move from west to east creating the general pattern of weather. Average rate of movement means if you are in the warm segment of the Wave and pass into the cold segment then you can expect that pattern of weather to last 4 to 6 weeks on average.

Major Mid-latitude Storms
Different mechanisms can trigger smaller wave patterns to form intense Low Pressure centers that migrate along the Polar Front. Trigger mechanisms include changes in the Earth’s surface, such as the Rocky Mountains or the transition from land to water along the Atlantic coast. As they intensify these Low Pressures form mid-latitude cyclones that are the intense storms that in winter are called blizzards. They track along the Front swooping down from Canada often labeled Alberta Clippers, or move from Colorado to the northeast and are called Colorado Lows. When they move up the east coast they are the infamous Nor’easters that bring severe weather to the entire eastern seaboard. The recent pair of storms that hit Washington and other regions giving record snows to Baltimore was one of each. The first was a Nor’easter the second a Colorado Low. Since the Polar Front was dipping so far south the western and southern reaches of these storms touched areas from Texas through the Carolinas.

Storm systems develop along the Front and their intensity is a function of the temperature contrast across the Front. A claim that frequency and intensity of storms would increase with warming is simply false. Global warming theory says the Polar air would warm more than the tropical air thus reducing the temperature contrast across the Front with reduced frequency and intensity of storms.

The dome expands in the winter and shrinks in the summer. The mean position of the Front is a function of temperature within the dome. From 1940 to 1975 when cooling was occurring, the Front was further south and the Snow Belt extended across the northern US. During the warmer winters of the 1990s the mean winter position of the Front moved north and was through southern Canada and this region saw an increase in storms and snowfall. Now with the cooling since 2002 the Front is further south and the Snow Belt has moved south. Of course, the further south the Front moves the greater the temperature contrast and therefore the more intense the storms. In other words cooling will intensify the storms not warming. If you want to get an idea of how normal the storms of this winter are in US history take a look at the marvelous work of meteorological historian David Ludlum.


On the western side of the continent the lack of snow at the Olympics in Vancouver are attributed to global warming. It is due to the Wave pattern that has cold air pushing south in the east and warm pushing north in the west. Then we hear that increased snowfalls in Baltimore and Washington are due to increased water vapor in the atmosphere due to warming. But if there is less snow in the west then there is no net change. While the central and eastern part of the US is getting more snowfall other regions across the continent are receiving less.

Education and Illogic
The most common comment I get after a presentation explaining what is wrong with the CO2 global warming theory is “I had my suspicions but didn’t know enough to know.” Illogic of the claims that heavy snow and cold temperatures are due to warming is not lost on people who may not understand climate science. However, they need to understand why they are illogical otherwise they can only harbor a suspicion. This quiet emboldens the alarmists and especially the mainstream media who generally continue to push the fallacies. Exposure of these outrageous claims will eventually silence those who mislead for their own political or economic advantage.