Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Genghis Khan

Genghis Khan

Ancient Mariner
Tonight was supposed to be a hang out night.  So is tomorrow.  But neither will come true due to all the snow.  In my city up to 30cm.  In the Niagara region up to 50cm.  This is the coldest winter in the last decade in southern Ontario.  On the weather station, some snow facts have been given that are pretty amazing.  The record for snow in Toronto is 207cm which was during the winter of 1938-1939.  The average is 105cm for southern Ontario and currently 170cm of snow has fallen this winter. 

Is this a case of global changes in temperature?  One of the effects is the extreme distribution of precipitation.

Has anyone else experienced dramatic changes this winter?  Do share.
 
Wow, I'm just about as far north as you (Denmark - no, wait, guess I'm not even remotely as far north as you are), and we've had just about no snow this year compared to other years. Normally, in february, it'd be white as... well, snow, but we've had but a few snow showers, it's been a surprisingly mild winter this year. But now that we're in march, I'd be expecting spring-ish weather, but it's either holding its breath or just taking the piss, 'cause were going from sunny days to hail to bits of snow coming down every now and then. I'm having a hard time deciding if I should put summer tires on my car now or wait, as the weather seems to have a will of its own. I'm not sure if this a result of global warming or a result of me being grumpy over the weather not behaving as I've been expecting it to, but I sure would love some predictability. Can't even hang my clothes out to dry without checking the weather report  :P
 
Where I live, in west central Illinois, we have had far more snow than usual.  Over the last 15 (or more) years, we have had relatively little snow over the winter, however this year, we have had snow all the time!  Once it started snowing, it seems that it will just barely melt off and then another good sized storm will move in.  Many of the older farmers in the area say its more like winter 'used to be', back 25-30 years ago.  Its also been a colder winter here, as well.  I heard something the other day that our avg temp in Feb was the lowest its been in close to a hundered years.
 
Hozz said:
Wow, I'm just about as far north as you (Denmark - no, wait, guess I'm not even remotely as far north as you are), and we've had just about no snow this year compared to other years. Normally, in february, it'd be white as... well, snow, but we've had but a few snow showers, it's been a surprisingly mild winter this year. But now that we're in march, I'd be expecting spring-ish weather, but it's either holding its breath or just taking the piss, 'cause were going from sunny days to hail to bits of snow coming down every now and then. I'm having a hard time deciding if I should put summer tires on my car now or wait, as the weather seems to have a will of its own. I'm not sure if this a result of global warming or a result of me being grumpy over the weather not behaving as I've been expecting it to, but I sure would love some predictability. Can't even hang my clothes out to dry without checking the weather report  :P
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I'm going to have to correct you there Hozz.  Copenhagen's coordinates are 55° 40' N.  My hometown of Hamilton's coordinates are 43° 15' N.  Edmonton, Canada's most northerly large city has the coordinates of 53° 34' N.  Google Earth was used for all data.  It is a common mistake to see Canada's cities "more north than [add many European cities here]" because when people look at Canada they see the immense territories of the Great White North, but fail to realize that most people live within 100 km border of USA.  Coincidently, you are the second Danish party who tried to convince me of this in the last two weeks.

So March is unpredictable for you.  March tends to be the snow melt month in southern Ontario, but this winter it is snowing continually.

I'd like to make it clear again that this winter is the absolutely coldest and snowiest in at least a decade.  Due to global warming, Hamilton had 17 Celcius in January last year.  A record.

Global warming may not be all that defined due to our lack of knowledge, but unpredictability sure seems certain.  :)
 
Over here, we're really feeling global warming as warming, actually.  We didn't have barely any snow in February, and this has been a record-breaking winter in warm temperature.  Now that it's March it's actually snowing, and all is back to normal, but December-February was really messed up.  So basically, the complete opposite here: no snow and warm weather.
 
Genghis Khan said:
Tonight was supposed to be a hang out night.  So is tomorrow.  But neither will come true due to all the snow.  In my city up to 30cm.  In the Niagara region up to 50cm.  This is the coldest winter in the last decade in southern Ontario.  On the weather station, some snow facts have been given that are pretty amazing.  The record for snow in Toronto is 207cm which was during the winter of 1938-1939.  The average is 105cm for southern Ontario and currently 170cm of snow has fallen this winter. 

Is this a case of global changes in temperature?  One of the effects is the extreme distribution of precipitation.

Has anyone else experienced dramatic changes this winter?  Do share.
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OH NO TORONTO HAS SNOW
Call out the fucking army!
 
Genghis Khan said:
I'm going to have to correct you there Hozz.  Copenhagen's coordinates are 55° 40' N.  My hometown of Hamilton's coordinates are 43° 15' N.  Edmonton, Canada's most northerly large city has the coordinates of 53° 34' N.  Google Earth was used for all data.  It is a common mistake to see Canada's cities "more north than [add many European cities here]" because when people look at Canada they see the immense territories of the Great White North, but fail to realize that most people live within 100 km border of USA.  Coincidently, you are the second Danish party who tried to convince me of this in the last two weeks.

So March is unpredictable for you.  March tends to be the snow melt month in southern Ontario, but this winter it is snowing continually.

I'd like to make it clear again that this winter is the absolutely coldest and snowiest in at least a decade.  Due to global warming, Hamilton had 17 Celcius in January last year.  A record.

Global warming may not be all that defined due to our lack of knowledge, but unpredictability sure seems certain.  :)
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First, I'd like to point out that one should be careful stating that particular weather observations are due to global warming. This is because weather will always vary from year to year and climate is only about the long-term average or the "typical" weather if you like.

When you state that a hot temperature at a specific point is due to global warming, you might also see skeptics stating that a cold temperature somewhere is an indication that there is no global warming. And that is something I see often here in Norway. Narrow-minded people who state this or the other - using suitable weather observations to say that there is or is not global warming.

Therefore one should be careful about linking the local weather a particular winter or year with the global climate too much. It might very quickly turn the debate into a "trench war"-style debate where one part is claiming there is no problem at all, and the other part claims we're all going to die soon unless we ban cars, planes and industry.

As to the topic title; I'd say Amen to that. I live in Trondheim, here the last week gave us some snow and the skiing conditions are now very good - something many Norwegians including myself enjoy very much. The combination of plenty of snow in the hills around the city, sunny weather and temperatures just about 0 degrees Celsius is turning this weekend into one of the best this winter :)

And by the way - there are also many people here who think that cities like Montreal and Toronto are almost as far north as ourselves. Considering that New York is at approximately the same latitude as Paris, that is a bit off the mark ... how many people in Canada live north of 62 degrees? (Which is approximately the latitude at which Trondheim is located).

(Hey, I just realized Trondheim might actually be the northernmost city Maiden will play on this tour!)
 
Eddies Wingman said:
First, I'd like to point out that one should be careful stating that particular weather observations are due to global warming. This is because weather will always vary from year to year and climate is only about the long-term average or the "typical" weather if you like.
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My statement was not meant to be scientific, only an educated guess. 
 
I should stop posting when I get back from the pub and start getting my facts straight instead :innocent:
 
Weird, Canad sees it's coldest winter in a long time and here in the south of Sweden we have the warmest winter in over 100 years - hardly a night with sub-zero temperatures and not even one millimeter of snow. What the H is going on the world? (Maybe H has the answer to this?)
 
Snow has become rarer in the Netherlands. Ice seems to be an extinguished species. That's sad because our country has a long tradition of skating on natural ice.

A 20th century example of this (still existing) huge event is called the Elfstedentocht ("Eleven-cities Tour"):
a speed skating competition and leisure skating tour held irregularly in the province of Friesland, Netherlands.

The tour, almost 200 km in length, is conducted on frozen canals, rivers and lakes between the eleven Frisian cities: Leeuwarden, Sneek, IJlst, Sloten, Stavoren, Hindeloopen, Workum, Bolsward, Harlingen, Franeker, Dokkum and finally again Leeuwarden. The tour is not held each year, mostly due to the fact that the Dutch winters do not permit skating on natural ice every year. Adding to that, the tour currently features about 15,000 amateur skaters taking part, putting high requirements on the quality of the ice. There is a stated regulatory requirement for the race to take place that the ice must be (and remain at) a minimum thickness of 15 centimetres along the entirety of the course.

I remember these Elfstedentochten as huge exciting events (also on TV!) and it's sad to see how less it happened over the last years:

1909
1912
1917
1929
1933
1940
1941 
1942
1947
1954
1956
1963
1985
1986
1997.....
 
Has it really not been arranged since 1997? I was well aware that the last 10 years had seen many mild winters, but not a single one cold enough to freeze your canals?

When talking about snow: Today is a special day in Norwegian skiing history. Todays ski jumping competition in Holmenkollen, Oslo, was the last competition in the old hill. It is now to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch - and right now I see they are having some celebration of the hill's history on NRK (the national broadcaster of Norway). Of course it is necessary, the hill is old and doesn't meet the demands of modern ski jumping. The current tower was built in 1939 and has been modified several times since (mostly because of the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Holmenkollen_ski_jump.jpg
 
Eddies Wingman said:
Has it really not been arranged since 1997?
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Indeed.

Eddies Wingman said:
I was well aware that the last 10 years had seen many mild winters, but not a single one cold enough to freeze your canals?
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The canals surely did not freeze hard enough I'm afraid. There were alternative Elfstedentochten like e.g. in Austria (Weissensee) and Finland, but it's surely not as "cool" as in the province Friesland (Freezeland!) ;)
 
In Washington DC, it has snowed a total of 3 inches this winter. It is truly amazing since just slightly to the north and west, record breaking amounts of snow are being recorded. Of course a lot of that has to do with "lake effect" and really nothing at all do do with global warming or the lack thereof. So Finland is especially mild this winter too, and Sweden? How is this going to affect the ice hotel?
 
Berlin's had snow twice this winter. Once in November and once last week (for the morning).
 
Forostar said:
Snow has become rarer in the Netherlands...
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Uhh, this Easter weekend, in the Netherlands it was the coldest Easter weekend since 1964! Also snow and hail! Average temperature of 5 degrees.

The warmest Easter ever recorded was in 1949, when Easter fell on April 17 and the temperatures soared to nearly 25 degrees. This Easter is abnormally early. Last time so early was in 1913, and there will not be another Easter Sunday as early as March 23 until 2160, the KNMI said.

The snow was probably the most ever (locally more than 10 cm).
 
Anomica said:
Weird, Canad sees it's coldest winter in a long time and here in the south of Sweden we have the warmest winter in over 100 years - hardly a night with sub-zero temperatures and not even one millimeter of snow. What the H is going on the world? (Maybe H has the answer to this?)
Click to expand...
Two weeks later we have had lots of snow all through easter. Go figure :S? Too little, too late. I want warm winds, sun and birds...
 
It is snowing like crazy today and will snow later this week.  This was actually predicted two weeks ago.  Hopefully this is March going out like a lion and than that's it. <*Fingers crossed>
 
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