One sign was the great Portland snowstorm of April 11th, where several areas around Portland received 2-6 inches of wet snow. Branches were broken around the region, leading to nearly 40,000 people losing power.
A Portland sidestreet. Picture taken by Justin Sharp
A backyard with roughly 6 inches of snow. Courtesy Justin Sharp.
Consider the temperatures at Seattle and Kelso-Longview in western Washington for the past four days (see below-normal highs shown in purple and normal lows are cyan). Temperatures were 10-15 degrees below normal, with some days the HIGHS are near the normal lows. January in April.
The forecasts for the next few weeks are EXTREMELY cool.
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Below is the forecast anomaly (difference from normal) for surface temperature over the region.
Can't believe it. Vast portions of our region are 10 degrees or more below normal (green colors).
The next five days? Still below normal (blue colors).
And expect bountiful snow in the mountains. The latest forecast is going for as much as TWO FEET more snowfall in the Cascades and mountains of BC. Even the northern Sierra Nevada gets a piece of the snow action.
Snowpack is near normal right now around Washington...it will soon be above normal.
Why all the cold and snow? A very persistent trough of low pressure aloft above our region, something illustrated by the anomaly map (difference from normal) of upper-level heights (like pressure). The purple indicates much lower pressure than normal aloft.
You Won't Believe This
It is hard to believe it, but some folks are suggesting our cold, snowy weather of late is due to global warming (climate change).
Completely baseless. Global warming REDUCES cold waves and cold weather. Don't believe that someone can suggest the opposite? Check out the Vancouver Columbian (below).
Talk about irresponsible journalism Heat Wave: Climate Change. Cold Wave: Climate Change. Lack of Snow: Climate Change. Too Much Snow: Climate Change.
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Uh, how can you possibly be taken seriously when you are equating “global warming” with “climate change”? Claims of global warming fit into the topic of climate change but in no way is any serious climate expert saying they are the same thing
ReplyDeleteLove it when an atmospheric scientist doesn't agree with your cult climate change so you question his legitimacy. Who are you? You are a nobody. You only want your agenda pushed no matter the facts.
DeleteThe reason some people prefer the term "climate change" over "global warming" is because, although the tend is towards a warmer average for the planet, it may happen that a few places get cooler as a result of changes in atmospheric and/or ocean circulation patterns.
DeleteIt seems that every weather event of note lately is s record breaker. Hottest, coldest, rainiest, dryest, etc. It was not this way until recently, now it is common. How is that not a change in climate?
ReplyDeleteRecords have always occurred. They occurred in the past as well. We just did not have the media and blogs to call it to folks attention. So you basic assumption is not correct.
DeleteWe have a media that makes money off of sensationalizing everything. If you want truth you have to find independent sources who aren’t getting paid to promote their sponsor’s agenda.
DeleteVinnypol, it was "this way" since you were born, since your father was born, and his father, and his father and h......
DeleteBut Dt Mass, consider the following:
ReplyDeleteHeat wave: not climate change. Cold snap: not climate change. Not enough snow: not climate change. Too much snow: not climate change.
Isn't always ruling something out just as irresponsible as always ruling something in, given everyone is looking at the same data?
Hal...Always ruling something is not good either. But who is doing that? Not the media....cliff
DeleteI don't think that was what Hal here was asking. Why always make the claim that things aren't affected by climate change. Surely one of those things is bound to be affected by it in a significant manner. I understand that the media exaggerates by saying these events are caused by climate change, but groups like the IPCC have shown in their reports that these events (including shifts in the Jet Stream, which lead to these events here in WA) are affected by increases in anthropogenic emissions. They have shown that these events, while not directly caused by climate change, are stronger and are somewhat more likely to occur. Then again, climate extremification is somewhat cutting-edge due to the lack of data. Hal is getting at this point.
DeleteAs you probably know by now and all the damage they've done to you the Climate Change agenda, is ultimately about creating a technocratic socialist state (and to reduce population) and in WA that movement is strong. So, it's no doubt the media is spinning this the best they can. Just like COV1D, they must spin the narrative to fit the plan. I'm seeing through this now, yet I was a staunch environmentalist during my 20s and early 30s, in the 90s and 2000s. Articles from the Columbian just reinforce the radicalized, anti-science journalism. In my opinion, this data tells all: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/slshljtpir Still hoping for Cliff's analysis on the 2020 CO2 dip not being reflected in atmospheric CO2.
ReplyDeleteI would like to add that the planet actually got observably warmer when the CO2 levels dipped. Somehow this information was also suppressed...
DeleteI live 7 miles west of Ellensburg at 1900 feet ASL. A week ago I mowed the lawn. Yesterday April 12 I shoveled 5 inches of snow off the driveway.
ReplyDeleteSadly, I think even if we set a record for the most normal or "average" days in a row it would be tallied as proof of climate change by the media. People aren't given news anymore nor would they even read it if it was offered; we're given expert opinions and click-bait headlines.
ReplyDeleteI remember 2 years in a row, maybe in the 00's, when it snowed on April 13!
ReplyDeleteApril 19 in 2008, I think it was. On the 12th I went kayaking in my swimsuit. On the 19th it snowed 4 inches. Kind of reminiscent of this year, is it not?
DeleteI appreciate your continued belief in science. Global warming allows a scientific hypothesis to be made while climate change is a religion, allowing the"all things are possible through climate change" mentality. You do a good job of staying on science and it makes you respectable.
ReplyDeleteTen to one odds this guy still wears a mask
DeleteThis comment have any bearing on the conversation? Seems like you insulted that person and Cliff let you.
DeleteSo what do the non-mask wearers believe in then if not science?
Politicians? Social Media? QAnon?
Must be a tough rap for Cliff to be a man of science while navigating through all the political extremism from BOTH sides of the peanut gallery.
I'll take your money, no chain link fence to keep mosquitoes out either.
DeleteThe only thing to do is hammer home the difference between weather and climate. Seems like the general public and journalists do not understand the relationship between the two. The best simple visual I've seen to show this is walking a dog down the beach. The dog goes back and forth, but the person with the leash is heading one direction, either toward the water or away from it.
ReplyDeleteOK, so please tell us WHEN the warmth will return? Even in a "normal" year, those of us who are not certified Polar Bears are starved for it, when you consider that we've put up with ratty weather for six months!
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the grind that is Western Washington fall/winter/spring!!
DeleteWould love to see an article not talk about global warming or climate change.
ReplyDeleteJust know this summer will be very hot so injoy the cold now, I'm buying fans and ac units this week to prepare.
ReplyDeleteInductive reasoning doesn't work with weather- in either the positive direction or in the negative direction.
Deletehttps://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2022/02/is-northwest-experiencing-and.html
ReplyDeletedid you post this? around the time that my cherry blossoms were budding a couple months earlier than usual, and before the hard freezes killed them all leaving almost no blossoms this year? i keep getting confused about weather conditions you describe as describe as “record-breaking” or “extremely unusual” but then if the seattle times attributes it to climate change, your response seems to always be that the weather is perfectly normal (while also unprecedented?) please help explain i am not a scientist
DeleteCliff, I am a bit confused as to your position on climate change, global warnming, whatever term we want to use. I recognize that the media exaggerates and sensationalizes just about every issue. That is not helpful. But are you saying that you do not believe the burning of fossil fuels at the rates we are seeing in the last few decades is having any influence on our climate patterns?
ReplyDeleteI never said that. Global warming is slowly warming the planet. It is NOT causing cold waves..that is clear.
Delete"Unknown"...how in the world did you come to THAT conclusion?
DeleteI’m anxious to get my veggies going outside, but maybe it’s best to wait past the average frost date this year before planting out?
ReplyDeleteIt's always the same with the Party of Fear. The issue with Climate is that there is no emergency. Emergency is something in the immediate. Warming by the end of the century? Not alarming or emergent. We are adaptable. But that won't stop the Party of Fear from never letting a crisis or an improvised crisis go to waste. So a little snow in April? Armageddon!
ReplyDeleteIt's always the same with the Party of Fear. The issue with Climate is that there is no emergency. Emergency is something in the immediate. Warming by the end of the century? Not alarming or emergent. We are adaptable. But that won't stop the Party of Fear from never letting a crisis or an improvised crisis go to waste. So a little snow in April? Armageddon!
ReplyDeleteNot necessarily true if the things we are doing today result in something that is irreversible.
DeleteHi Cliff,
ReplyDeleteI've been following volcanism as it pertains to weather for some time now, and after the violent eruption in Tonga I even went as far as hypothesize a cool spring this year due to ash in the atmosphere. This theory has a major flaw in my opinion - Tonga is in the southern hemisphere. However, given the cool spring we have had so far, it's made me wonder. I percieve the low pressure trough you show as a very unusal weather event. Is there any possibility it is related to the recent eruption or is that mereley coincidence?
The MSM got their talking points down, and since inflation is currently eating away at most middle class denizen's incomes and stagflation is right around the corner and their COVID panic porn has finally run out of steam...they've quickly pivoted back to climate doomsdaying. Anything to distract the poor plebes from what's happening right in front oftheir eyes.
ReplyDeleteCurrently it's raining 'ice pellets' in Mount Vernon. Melt within seconds of touching the ground.
ReplyDeleteThe weather doesn't care about your politics. It doesn't care any more or less than Covid does or catching a case of VD. A shockingly (or perhaps not shockingly) significant amount of Americans are also very tired of both sides. Please. Just stop. Burnt out on the bickering. Perhaps in 2024, we can elect a goldfish for President. At least we might have cleaner water.
ReplyDeleteOne explanation I've heard for 'cold events' is that stability of air flows are reduced near the poles and results in blobs of 'uncontained' colder air to drift south. I'm using laymans terms of course.
ReplyDeleteJust recently both poles experienced record breaking warming events simultaneously. One pole was 50° warmer than normal, the other 70° warmer than normal - at the same time.
I suggest that this may hint at instabilities that can affect 'normal' atmospheric flows. Not that anything not'normal'is a proof of abnormal. But cold polar air had to go somewhere if very warm pushed in to supplant it. In that sense warm air can cause colder events somewhere else. That warm air in the polar region did not warm in place. It displaced cold air.