The New Ice Age

[kiwi]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... 52d6f4.611

Australia swaps summer for Christmas snow
(AFP) – 22 hours ago

SYDNEY — Snow fell in Australia on Monday, as the usual hot and summery December weather was replaced in parts by icy gusts sweeping up from the Southern Ocean, giving the country a taste of a white Christmas.

Snow has fallen in parts of east coast states New South Wales and Victoria, leaving ski resorts -- some of which are usually snow-free at this time of year -- with dumps of up to 10 centimetres (four inches).

"It's white, everything is white," Michelle Lovius, the general manager of the Kosciuszko Chalet Hotel at Charlotte Pass told AFP.

"First thing this morning everything was just very still, very peaceful and every single thing was just blanketed in a thick cover of white."

Lovius said such an amount of snow was unusual for early December, normally the peak of the wildflower season in the New South Wales mountain region.

"We're hoping that it (the cold) stays in for five days and we get a white Christmas," she said.

Further south in Victoria state, Mt Hotham had 10 centimetres of snow on Sunday and Mt Buller up to five centimetres, Victorian Snow Report spokeswoman Maureen Gearon said.

"It is a blanket of white, which is beautiful at this time of year. People are out in their Santa hats taking photos in the snow," Gearon told Australian news agency AAP.

The cold blasts carried through to Sydney, where the temperature fell to 13 degrees Celsius (55 degrees Fahrenheit) early Monday, and dipped to 9.8 Celsius in the city's west while winds of up to 100 kilometres (62 miles) an hour are forecast for much of the state's coastline.

It was a different story on Australia's west coast, where the worst flooding in 50 years isolated the town of Carnarvon, 900 kilometres north of Perth.

Weather experts said it was not unusual for Australia to experience chilly weather in eastern states in early December, as cold winds from deep in the Southern Oceans sweep upwards.

"It's not uncommon to get a dusting of snow along the higher peaks of New South Wales and Victoria every couple of years (at this time)," Bureau of Meteorology climatologist Grant Beard told AFP.

Gearon agreed, saying that in previous years, those on the Victorian snowfields had been "having cocktails in the sun one day and skiing the next".

[Tim Leech]

Remember though the worlds warming up due to climate change.......yeh right

Can the climate change campaigners REALLY expect anyone to believe them now when we've had the coldest weather for YEARS as of late?

[kiwi]

Speak for yourself we just had a mild winter and the the hottest and November on record plus the driest spring after the wetest september for many years. December was shaping up to be a continuation of low rainfall although Since last Friday it has not stopped raining with temps not dropping below the upper teens at night and 90-100% humidity its getting a bit much now.
Meanwhile down in the South Island the east coast is roasting with a north west airflow that crosses the southern alps and climbs into the mid 30s temps but dry.

They say it is a result of La Nina weather patterns which explains why Aussie has had its worst floods in several years on the east coast.

Easy to dismiss the warming theory when your freezing your nuts off but remeber the UK is on the same latitude as Canada and Siberia, the gulf stream is what keeps he winters mild and wet.

I dont know what to believe because our memory can so easily be distorted to suit what others want to believe.

It is quite amusing to see Aussies in snow though everyone thinks of Australia as such a hot arid country

[scarecrow]

Remember though the worlds warming up due to climate change.......yeh right

Can the climate change campaigners REALLY expect anyone to believe them now when we've had the coldest weather for YEARS as of late?

I might have mentioned before that 'blips' in the long-term weather data do not affect the overall trend shown by the data. I agree it is counter-intuitive, but the UK's current seasonable weather may well be influenced by the effects of climate change on global weather patterns.

I think it's also been mentioned that the El Ninja effect is at it's cyclical peak off of the Pacific coast of South America at the moment... This is altering the normal flow of warm currents in the Atlantic, allowing cold air to seep down from the Artic. Brrrr.


EDIT: Kiwi's right - La Nina, not el ninja

[kiwi]

EDIT: Kiwi's right - La Nina, not el ninja

I was going to correct you

La Nina El Nino whatever its called it stuuffed up the weather this year

[electrokid]

I think you'll find it's El Niña - 'n' and 'ñ' are completely separate letters in Hispanic languages to the extent that they have separate sections in their dictionaries.

The ñ is pronounced 'ny' as in 'Enya' and so is the 'j' on some occasions and since spelling is supposed to be an exact reflection of pronunciation and vice versa there are going to be a variety of spellings of Niña in texts where accents are ignored. This slight difference in pronunciation can make a big difference - a mistake I made while in Barcelona and mentioned before - 'anos' = years, 'años' = anus.

Easy to dismiss the warming theory when your freezing your nuts off but remeber the UK is on the same latitude as Canada and Siberia, the gulf stream is what keeps he winters mild and wet.

Exactly -and if the gulf stream changes course away from the UK then we're stuffed with Siberian weather.

The bottom line is - it takes more effort and planning to be prepared for freezing weather than it does for warmer weather -the only sure way is to be prepared for either scenario.

Remember though the worlds warming up due to climate change.......yeh right

Totally agree - and the sad thing is the more life there is on the planet the more plant food is needed and more carbon dioxide is needed by the plants. There are plenty of greenhouse gasses with a much greater effect than carbon dioxide and legislation is almost ignoring them - because carbon emissions are easier to TAX

I recommend 'Global Warming and Other Bollocks' by Profs Feldman and Marks ISBN: 978-1-84454-718-0

[scarecrow]

I think you'll find it's El Niña - 'n' and 'ñ' are completely separate letters in Hispanic languages to the extent that they have separate sections in their dictionaries.

The ñ is pronounced 'ny' as in 'Enya' and so is the 'j' on some occasions and since spelling is supposed to be an exact reflection of pronunciation and vice versa there are going to be a variety of spellings of Niña in texts where accents are ignored. This slight difference in pronunciation can make a big difference - a mistake I made while in Barcelona and mentioned before - 'anos' = years, 'años' = anus.

Easy to dismiss the warming theory when your freezing your nuts off but remeber the UK is on the same latitude as Canada and Siberia, the gulf stream is what keeps he winters mild and wet.

Exactly -and if the gulf stream changes course away from the UK then we're stuffed with Siberian weather.

The bottom line is - it takes more effort and planning to be prepared for freezing weather than it does for warmer weather -the only sure way is to be prepared for either scenario.

Remember though the worlds warming up due to climate change.......yeh right

Totally agree - and the sad thing is the more life there is on the planet the more plant food is needed and more carbon dioxide is needed by the plants. There are plenty of greenhouse gasses with a much greater effect than carbon dioxide and legislation is almost ignoring them - because carbon emissions are easier to TAX

I recommend 'Global Warming and Other Bollocks' by Profs Feldman and Marks ISBN: 978-1-84454-718-0

Has the snow trapped you indoors, Brian?

[kiwi]

I think you'll find it's El Niña - 'n' and 'ñ' are completely separate letters in Hispanic languages to the extent that they have separate sections in their dictionaries.

Nope its La Niña and El Niño we (down under) get that shoved down our throats by NIWA and the weather gurus all the time.

Wiki explains it quite well

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Ni%C3%B ... scillation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Ni%C3%B1a

Yea I got to much time on my hands as well with day 6 of the tropical rainy season thats followed our 10 week drought in our part of the islands.

[electrokid]

La Niña and El Niño

Yeah I wondered if it was an 'a' or an 'o'. Definitely a 'ñ' not a 'n' though

Has the snow trapped you indoors, Brian?

I might have given that impression eh actually I refuse to be grounded by a bit of snow - in fact even by a lot of snow - hence the snow shovel, snow shoes, snow boots (and note to self to put a garden hoe in the car because the plastic snow shovel breaks when you try to break ice with it - now how do I know that ) and of course snow tyres - which had proper test on Saturday - apart from most of the journey where I was held up by the tippy-toe brigade - found a couple of stretches clear of traffic with snow covered ice where I could rag it a bit - now that was excellent fun [/quote]

[scarecrow]

Haha - I broke the neighbour's snow shovel using it as an ice-breaker. In hindsight a couple of glasses of sherry might have worked better.

It's all melting now, so a grey, wet, slushy Christmas beckons appropriately

[citroen7]

it is 8.33am and i have just checked the boiler house and it is -11
so far there is myself the school principal and 2 pupils! i cannot see a big attendance today,thank goodness today is the last day i can then go and hibernate in front of my new woodburner

[Defender110]

It's all melting now, so a grey, wet, slushy Christmas beckons appropriately

There's a fresh severe weather warning with more snow on the way Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Might be a white Christmas

[Kitch]

Remember though the worlds warming up due to climate change.......yeh right

Can the climate change campaigners REALLY expect anyone to believe them now when we've had the coldest weather for YEARS as of late?

Think you're getting global warming and climate change confused there mate!

[electrokid]

In hindsight a couple of glasses of sherry might have worked better.

Sherry goes straight to my little grey cells - if I drive after one small glass, lamposts are an endangered species

my new woodburner

Excellent a woodburning boiler is on my shopping list - but I need to re-arrange the kitchen first.