Abnormal warmth as far out as they can see . . .

Vortex · Coal Joined: Dec 24, 2006 Posts: 13 Location: Sweden

Normally, where I live in the middle of Sweden, we used to have at least 40-50 inches of snow and about 5 deg. F in December. The place where I live can reach rather cold temperatures, the lowest I have experienced was -43 deg. F. Today, the temperature is 41 deg. F and it is pretty breezy. There is no snow at all. The lawns are greener today in December, Christmas, than in the summer due to the extreme heat and drought back then. The guys running the skiing resort in the vicinity is probably having a very hard time with 5 deg. F and no snow. Our school kids are having a longer winter vacation from school now (I think they have 2.5 week off school). Normally, they would be spending all the day doing some skiing or snowboarding. I guess their TVs are running all day with videogames instead.
One advantage with this strange weather is that the heating bills for many Swedish house owners will be low this winter. A good time to sign up for a long term fixed price on electricity thanks to warm weather and a lot of rain which feeds our hydroelectrics.

One very big disadvantage with increased warming on these latitudes is that the rest of the European countries, who are relying on gas from Russia via Gazprom and German E.ON, could be in a world of hurt if the permafrost in the colder areas of Russia starts to disappear. Then the gas and oil pipelines and related infrastructure could collapse which in turn would learn NG dependent parts of Europe about expensive energy, electricity bills. Sweden would also be affected since our industries draw a lot of electricity and "thanks" to the government sale of Swedish hydropower to foreign companies (Fortum and E.ON), we would also pay. Some things are, IMO, best kept in the interest of the nation. Energy is security. Would someone like to outsource the upkeep and manning of their nuclear missile silos to foreign countries? Smile

Lore

Heineken

Laughs_Last · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jul 26, 2005 Posts: 850

JustinFrankl · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 22, 2005 Posts: 657

As climate change continues across the planet and new weather patterns emerge, this will create opportunities for some species, hazards for others. Some will thrive, some will become extinct. Various populations of predators, competitors, and prey will change. Whole new ecosystems will emerge, and some will vanish. But it all happens in an unpredictable manner, and we humans don't like that, because unpredictability wreaks havoc with "our" world.
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ColossalContrarian · Intermediate Crude Joined: Jun 20, 2006 Posts: 695

Getting slammed by are second major winter storm in the Denver area but the majority of the snow is falling in the plains and not the mountains... Doh!!!

gg3

Re. Justin's point: when ecosystems change slowly, predators, competitors, and prey adapt.

When ecosystems change rapidly, the more complex organisms and those with longer breeding cycles don't have time to adapt in a consistent manner. What happens then, is the "simplification" of the system, a euphemism for evolution running in reverse where the complex organisms die off (slowly or quickly) in a cascading decline of the upper end of the food chain, and the simpler organisms become dominant.

In the ocean we presently see this in terms of the explosion in populations of jellyfish. On the land, small rodents (mice, rats) and small birds will increase, and of greatest concern, insects (e.g. mosquitos, ticks, flies, and suchlike disease vectors) will increase dramatically.

Doly · Expert Joined: Dec 03, 2004 Posts: 4041

DefiledEngine · Heavy Crude Joined: Aug 19, 2004 Posts: 288

Seems to me that the "simple" organisms have always been dominant, and most likely always will be. Insects far outnumber mamals and such. Always have. Bacteria and microorganisms far outnumber insects, mammals, plants etc. put together.

Revi · Fusion Joined: Apr 25, 2005 Posts: 3521 Location: Maine

This is a really strange winter so far, but it was around 10 degrees last night, so maybe we'll be able to get some wood out after all. We need about 2 more weeks of this weather, and then a bit of snow, and it'll be perfect for logging. With all this sunshine we should have some nice hot water from our solar too. It got up to 86 degrees on the shortest day of the year. It's an ill wind that blows no man good. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. We went up to see the new wind towers up in Mars Hill and they had about 6" of new snow up there. It sure felt like winter up there. Maybe it's about to turn into winter again. We'll see...

Heineken

My original headline for this forum continues to hold true, at least here in backwoods Virginia (and the East). At least until January 7 now, daily highs in the 50s and even upper 60s will continue. And not one single freezing temperature is forecast.

And the next 10 days was, in the past, one of the coldest periods of the whole year!
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dohboi · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Dec 05, 2005 Posts: 1469

vision-master noted:
You guy's are pulling at straws. My Momma told me about 70 degree F here in January in the 30's and that's Minnesota.........

Any Minnesotan old timer can tell you that January thaws have long been a part of the winter cycle, and yes they have reached the highs you are talking about. But these used to be one- or two-day freak events. Now we have "winters" with no appreciable snow and weeks on end when the highs are above freezing. This is very, very different than anything that has ever happened in anyones memory or in existing records.

It's been raining in Minneapolis in these days between Christmas and New Years, with more rain predicted. This is truly bizarre and scary.

jdumars

The old timers have a saying: "Climate is what you expect... weather is what you get."

This may be an abnormally warm Winter, but I think it's dangerous to automatically pin it on global climate change. In all complex systems, it's the long-term view that really matters. It's hard not to interpret intermittent blips as signs of something to come. Nature is wildly unpredictable, and that chaos is mirrored in virtually everything. I'm not saying it's NOT GCC, but I'm not saying it IS either.