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I'm looking at 3"+ of snow that has fallen since 9:00AM- looks like it'll be 6" before it stops. Tomorrow we're due for 12-18", on top of January's numerous dumps. Yesterday's paper had an "explanation" of how all this fits into Global Warming- more snow will fall due to disrupted weather patterns and more open ocean surface area exposed by melting polar ice packs.
Sounds like quite a stretch to me. Ever since the end of the Eocene Period, Earth has had alternate periods of Warmth and Ice- the Warmth lasts between 9-15,000 years, followed by Ice for an average of 50,000 years. The further you are from the last Ice Age, the closer you are to the next one, so far we've had 50 of them. The present Interglacial Period has lasted about 15,000 years- one of the longer ones.
During the last Ice Age, glaciers 5000 ft thick covered the U.S. as far south as Texas. Once an Ice Age starts, it develops a lot more rapidly than people think. Ice is highly reflective, so as more land area is covered, solar absorption drops, and so do surface temps and air temps, leading to more snow, etc, etc. It's interesting to note at the end of an InterGlacial, you see conditions very much like todays- retreating glaciers, reduced polar ice, unstable climate- then very abruptly- a change to lots of rain during shorter summers, and lots of snow during longer winters. But Not to Worry- Once Global Cooling gets underway,the environmental crowd will insure it's all "our" fault!
Sounds like quite a stretch to me. Ever since the end of the Eocene Period, Earth has had alternate periods of Warmth and Ice- the Warmth lasts between 9-15,000 years, followed by Ice for an average of 50,000 years. The further you are from the last Ice Age, the closer you are to the next one, so far we've had 50 of them. The present Interglacial Period has lasted about 15,000 years- one of the longer ones.
During the last Ice Age, glaciers 5000 ft thick covered the U.S. as far south as Texas. Once an Ice Age starts, it develops a lot more rapidly than people think. Ice is highly reflective, so as more land area is covered, solar absorption drops, and so do surface temps and air temps, leading to more snow, etc, etc. It's interesting to note at the end of an InterGlacial, you see conditions very much like todays- retreating glaciers, reduced polar ice, unstable climate- then very abruptly- a change to lots of rain during shorter summers, and lots of snow during longer winters. But Not to Worry- Once Global Cooling gets underway,the environmental crowd will insure it's all "our" fault!
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