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Edmonton's winter freak-show paradise, which got a bit of a hit in January when the temperature hit -33 or there abouts, was officially put to rest yesterday when the snow started to fall. As I look out my window there's now a good four inches of the stuff, with more coming down. The weather report says about 15cm has fallen, but packing and melting and the like has probably brought it down. My neighbourhood might be a little less than average too, its hard to say. Its not a particularly large amount of snow, mind you, but its pretty much our entire snowfall this winter (since the October snow which melted just after Halloween). Its also a very thick wet snow, so the moisture content is a little more than the "10 to 1" formula would seem to indicate.
The best part of any snow like this, of course, is that it temporarily shuts up the global warming nutbars. The same people who argue impassionately that the world is warming up based on our mild winter will deny vehemently that any cold snap or heavy snow, even one that occurs in June as we had 2 years ago, might just indicate that this global warming is a load of horse hockey. That doesn't even begin to cover the true source of the hypocrisy... global warming advocates just gloss over the fact that as North America got a free pass in the snow and ice department, Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, has been suffering cold weather all winter long. Currently they are enjoying a reprieve: Kiev, Helsinki, and Minsk are both around Edmonton temperature, but still experiencing snowfall. Earlier in February however Kiev wasn't faring so well. The coldest winter in 20 years, the article says. The fact that I just linked to killer storms from early February, early January, and early December gives you the hint that maybe just maybe its a rough winter over there. I'm sure those people can't wait for global warming! (Sadly though, it will be quite the wait... the World Wildlife fund in the article goes on to actually blame "global warming", which is so much like the South Park episode "Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow" that it makes me want to cry.
Scientist #1: Listen. Listen! We finished running the tests.
Scientist #2: Global warming is going to strike two days before the day after tomorrow.
Randy Marsh: Oh my god. That's today
Scientist #2: Global warming is going to strike two days before the day after tomorrow.
Randy Marsh: Oh my god. That's today
It really is quite the episode. You can download it here (ZIP password:www_southparkstuff_com) and watch the inane hilarity for yourself.
So does the CBC manage to cover the snowfall without blaming global warming? Oddly, yes.
This of course pales in comparison to Alberta's great snowstorms. You can read a synopsis of the May 14th 1986 storm at this page, though it doesn't do the storm proper justice. It was a warm spring in central Alberta. Things were looking up. On the night of May 13th, we ate supper as a cool spring rain had started to fall. In what was seemingly hilarious at the time, by about 10 o'clock the rain had turned into light flakes of snow. Snow in May! Hilarious! (Disclosure: I was perhaps a little younger in '86 than I am today.) We were in bed by midnight back then [Five hours earlier than usual, we'd say now. -ed] and were spared the agony that many adults faced as they noticed the snow getting a little thicker. The snow finally tapered off around 6-6:30am. When we woke up, there was a little bit of snow... "knee deep" is the description given now. The obvious question is who's knee? In west-central Alberta, our farm received over three feet of snow... some areas actually reported hitting the four-foot mark. That's one hell of a knee, seeing how at the time I think I was around four feet tall! The very next year (1987) we got another 13 inches of snow overnight on May 20th or thereabouts. No wonder everybody got excited about global warming in the 90s...it had to be warmer weather than we had in the late 80s!
Side note: Apparently in the northeastern United States, the Alberta Clipper is a famous term in weather forecasting. It's no Idaho High or Siberian Low (third article from the top...good luck figuring out when the fourth article begins) but its still interesting.
