Greatest thing about this East coast storm.

[TDPerk]

I haven't heard even one idiot who says weather is not climate tell me this Nor'easter is the product of human induced "climate change".

[Skipjack]

Events like these are fairly common, always have been. Nowadays it is just the media making more fuss about it. I guess they have nothing else to bitch about at the moment.

[kurt9]

No, the best thing about the east coast snow storm is that Lieberman went back to Connecticut for Hanukkah with his family and that there can be no cloture vote on the Senate health care bill until he returns.

Here's hoping for continual snow fall everyday until Christmas.

[Josh Cryer]

The Southern Hemisphere is experiencing the hottest heatwave in history. AU is burning. I hope one doesn't have to explain thermodynamics to you to understand how weather is affected by climate.

(And yes I say this when it was -22 wind chill last week here.)

[TDPerk]

And last winter the southern hemisphere was very cold. Australia in particular has had a relative drought for the last 11 years--but that still isn't anything unusual historically.

BTW, is Australia's heatwave before or after the warmers get ahold of the data?

[IntLibber]

The Southern Hemisphere is experiencing the hottest heatwave in history. AU is burning. I hope one doesn't have to explain thermodynamics to you to understand how weather is affected by climate.

(And yes I say this when it was -22 wind chill last week here.)

This is a tremendous lie. AU's temps are being falsified:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/08/t ... rwin-zero/

This is just the start of the scandal.

Here is another:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/09/m ... -stations/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/12/s ... rwin-zero/

[Josh Cryer]

I have friends in AU, one of whom almost died from the bush fires earlier this year, were it not for a capricious wind that moved it away from his place (he was stubborn and refused to evacuate and I couldn't get him to budge).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2009 ... _heat_wave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_2009_ ... _heat_wave

Fairly well sourced, too lazy to go dig for some cherry picked station reading that you'd be more prone to accept (since one station = trend apparently).

[MSimon]

I have friends in AU, one of whom almost died from the bush fires earlier this year, were it not for a capricious wind that moved it away from his place (he was stubborn and refused to evacuate and I couldn't get him to budge).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2009 ... _heat_wave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_2009_ ... _heat_wave

Fairly well sourced, too lazy to go dig for some cherry picked station reading that you'd be more prone to accept (since one station = trend apparently).

I think you are wrong about the trend.

A lot of stations adjusted = the trend.

Hide the decline.

[IntLibber]

I have friends in AU, one of whom almost died from the bush fires earlier this year, were it not for a capricious wind that moved it away from his place (he was stubborn and refused to evacuate and I couldn't get him to budge).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2009 ... _heat_wave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_2009_ ... _heat_wave

Fairly well sourced, too lazy to go dig for some cherry picked station reading that you'd be more prone to accept (since one station = trend apparently).

Wildfires are a function of drought, not heat. Drought is an issue of lack of precipitation. It could easily be a cold drought. As an instance, Antarctica is considered one of the desert areas of the world simply because the air is as dry and lacking in water vapor as the Sahara.

[taniwha]

Josh: my parents live in Australia (Queensland), and they were commenting on the unusually cold winter this year. They've been living there for 22 years and my mom grew up there.

I haven't heard any comments about the summer (ie, now), though.

As for the fires: they are nothing new. I heard plenty of stories about Australian bush fires from my mom. Mostly in how freaking dangerous they are due to the Eucalyptus oil in the air, and how easy they are to start due to the dryness (a broken bottle lying in the sun is enough).

And as for the drought: 11 years? From my understanding, Australia has never not been in drought in all of its recorded history. Floods are what you get when a "rare" torrential rain hits drought stricken land. The rain has just gotten more rare than usual.

And if you want to know what the Australian bush smells like, grab a jar of Vicks VapoRub and take a deep sniff (add the smell of dry rot to your imagination)

[Josh Cryer]

taniwha, Queensland is typically very hot, this weather pattern is very extreme historically for Victoria. Particularly Melbourne where my friend is.

[taniwha]

Yes, Queensland is typically very hot. Its "winter" is summer as far as I'm concerned. However, this winter (Jun-Sep), it was actually cold. Three years ago, there was an extreme cold snap (<10°C) in November or December (I don't remember just when, now). Probably my only summer in Brisbane that I actually enjoyed.

That said, Victoria too has a history of hot, dry summers, possibly more so than Queensland (Queensland is mostly tropical and sub-tropical, Victoria is more temperate).

I grew up in a place that had ~-40°C winters and ~40°C summers... at 50°N (Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada). Brisbane (about 27.5°S) was generally 10°C (winter) to ~35°C (summer, and anything over 33 or so was considered a heatwave). Melbourne is about 37.8°S, but I don't know anything about its weather (other than it can have all four seasons in one day, any day of the year).

[Roger]

that there can be no cloture vote on the Senate health care bill until he returns.

No CLoture vote on the weekend, I'm sure of that.