Friday, February 12, 2010

You are here...




After getting battered by snow storms, the East Coast inhabitants are hungry for warmth--and not from their space heaters. Most are looking to the skies and hoping to follow waterfowl south.

How did they get so much snow? Regardless of where you fall with the theory of global warming snow comes this time each year in greater or lesser amounts to climates above the 35th latitude. It doesn't matter if you are in France or Fargo. Snow also falls on mountains at altitudes of 5000m or just above the timberline. Problem is, the amount of snow that fell this year was above the average and broke records in 5 states (Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia). That kind of white stuff strikes fear in the heart of the average snow shoveler.

We can't count on the El Nino & La Nina patterns of air that moves across the globe because they are difficult to predict. And both can bring warming and cooling effects. Weather experts are throwing up their hands (the cautious ones anyway), because they cannot predict 20 years ahead (let alone 20 hours ahead). They can only rely on weather modeling and cannot account for things like solar and volcanic activity which heat and cool the earth's surface regardless of weather patterns.

Best news is that March 20 is officially spring.