Warming temps should end worst cold snap since 2000
Published Monday, February 11, 2008
There is light at the end of the ice fog, and residents in Alaska’s second-largest city should begin seeing it today.
While it was 48 degrees below zero at Fairbanks International Airport on Sunday, the coldest temperature recorded so far in Fairbanks’ worst cold snap in eight years, forecasters were calling for a significant warming trend beginning today.
Temperatures should be above zero by Wednesday, said meteorologist Daniel Robinson at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks.
“The high pressure system that’s been locked in over us is finally starting to retreat toward Siberia and Russia,” Robinson said. “Hopefully we’re going to see an end to these minus 40 temperatures.
The cold air mass will be displaced by a low pressure system from Canada that will bring warmer temperatures and the chance of snow by midweek, he said.
The overnight low on Sunday was still expected to dip to about 35 below, Robinson said, but the high temperature today could climb into the single digits below zero, a marked contrast to the past week when the high temperature barely broke 30 below. Forecasters were calling for a high between 5 and 10 below today.
“That’s a significant improvement over 40 below,” Robinson said. “The difference between 20 below and 40 below feels great to me.”
By Wednesday, the forecast is calling for a high of 5 above and on Thursday it could be 15 above, he said.
The low of minus 48 on Sunday was still four degrees shy of the record low of 52 below in 1932. The normal low is 17 below.
The current cold snap is the worst Fairbanks has seen in eight years. The last time the low temperature at the airport hit 40 below or colder for eight days in a row was Dec. 29, 1999 through Jan. 5, 2000.
It is also the third-longest such cold snap in February, tying February of 1979 on the list, said meteorologist Corey Bogel. The record for the number of 40 below days in February is 14 in 1950.
The all-time record for consecutive 40 below days is 18 set in 1971 from Jan. 14-31.
Temperatures in the hills were much warmer than in town on both Saturday and Sunday, the result of a strong but shallow inversion that produced temperatures which were almost 30 degrees warmer just a few hundred feet above town.
The low temperature at Birch Hill Recreation Area on Sunday morning, for example, was only 18 below and it was 52 below at Fort Wainwright, which sits at the bottom of Birch Hill. At 2 p.m., the temperature at Birch Hill had warmed to minus 7 and it was still 21 below at the airport.
The inversion was low enough that it was visible from the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Sunday morning, Robinson said.
“You could see the top of the fog layer,” he said.
Contact staff writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.
Comments
What happened to global warming?
I sure remember 1971. Misery. Gotta hand it to those hearty souls who don't let the cold weather deter them from enjoying the beauty that is Fairbanks. There is no better place on the whole planet, in the summer. As for global warming, remember that the poles on Mars are melting, too. We should send the tree-huggers there to work out the procedures first, and then maybe bring them back to solve the problem here.
Palin for Vice President!
http://www.adn.com/224/story/311720.html...
You asked what happened to global warming. Global warming is really climate change, and it is happening, and will show more and more as extreme weather events worldwide. Hey, there are even humming birds starting to show up in Fairbanks in the summer now. That is a very profound change! Global warming is alive and well. Are we affecting it? That is the question. I tend to think we are.
To say that this cold snap disproves the overwhelming empirical evidence of global warming is tantamount to seeing a 3 legged dog and concluding that 4 legged dogs do not exist. Your brain has frozen up, camper.
Don't go to the "global warming is really climate change" nonsense. That is a huge cop out because then you can say anything is connected to global warming. Climate change is constant. Always places changing for various reasons.
There is change going on, but it is not catastrophic. That is only political and designed to make some people very rich. Big Al is making a mint.
Palin for Vice President!
este, as much as I like Sarah Palin, we need her here right now. As soon as we get the oil companies straightened out, then maybe she might be really good as President!! If not President, Senator would be good also. I think she is doing a "top notch" job and is by far the best Governor I have seen since I got here, and Jay Hammond was Gov then and doing a great job. She is even better than him, In My Humble Opinion!
PanoMan, FYI... climate change has been going on since the beginning of time. The only thing constant in weather IS CHANGE! I'm a trained meteorologist who used to work for a commercial WX company in CA back in the 80's and I've been to Alaska in the dead of winter and when the sun doesn't set. I know what I'm talking about. It is extremely naive and self-centered for ourselves to believe that we have that much effect on our climate. The whole "climate change" agenda being rammed down our throats is an effort to control us. It's God for the Godless, in my opinion and others like me. This whole Gaia thing is an attempt to control us. Did you know that this has been also the coldest and snowiest winter in China and Siberia in over 100 yrs? The same can be said for Brazil, South Africa and other countries and the this winter has been the roughest in over 20 yrs in the USA.
Did you know the the Vikings were able to cross the North Atlantic and plant grapes in places like New Foundland and Labrador? Did you know that back in the 1000-1350 AD, the Vikings helped establish Christianity in Greenland? Now, unless the Vikings brought untold thousands of cows that expelled huge amount of methane to cause "climate change", I'm quite sure YOUR climate model of change had little to with the earth getting so warm so that the Vikings could travel and do what they did.
My educated guess is the sun must have something to do with all this climate change going on. Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't try to leave the earth the way we found it as we develop our world using the earth's abundant resources -BUT- when are the fools of this world going to realize that they are being HAD by the always controlling liberal elite?
mdcollier 2/11/2008, 12:18 p.m. WROTE: To say that this cold snap disproves the overwhelming empirical evidence of global warming is tantamount to seeing a 3 legged dog and concluding that 4 legged dogs do not exist. Your brain has frozen up, camper.
I AGREE WITH MDCOLLIER that one extreme cold snap (or one extreme hurricane or spat of tornados) does not prove anything one way or another about global warming. I also agree that, in some areas of the world, there is emprical evidence (even overwhelming evidence) of warming. But is their any emprical evidence that the warming is caused by human activity?
PANOMAN 'tends' to think there is and man induced global warming "will show more and more as extreme weather events worldwide." How convient for the anthopological global warming (AGW) true believer. Any extreme weather event is now, by definition (their definition of course) evidence of their case. Too warm - it's global warming. Too cold - it's gobal warming. Very bad hurricane years - it's global warming. No hurricane years - it's global warming. Drought - it's global warming. Flooding - ... you get the picture.
The TRUTH is the hypothesis that man is the cause, and therefore the solution, of Global Warming isn't proven. Not even one tiny bit. If anything, the theory of AGW is getting weaker and losing more and more scientists' support as new data becomes available.
Intelligent people must see beyond the Gorey-JamesHannsen-UNIPCC hype and not permit a rush to action that may cause far more harm than good.
So, when its extremely cold, like it has been this year in the Midwest, that's global warming, too? That's a pretty good scam - too hot, its global warming, too cold, global warming. What a bunch of nimrods.
Climate or weather change is happening on Mars right now. Are we supposed to keep cows from grazing there as a result? Or reduce the CO2 levels there? And what does that mean about the earth? Probably that the sun is putting out a little more heat. Face it, people have to adapt or they won't survive. End of story. Trying to tell third-world nations that they should eat rotten food because we don't like their use of freon means we value a ball of dirt over people. The whole global warming crowd is a group of religious zealots that want to feel they know better than everybody so they put even more hot air into the atmosphere. They should go adapt by themselves and leave the rest of us alone.
YukonJohn, I agree with you 100%. She is the best. And she's got it all. Integrity, smarts, persuasive ability - the works. I sure wouldn't want to slow her down in anything she tries to accomplish. I think she will be great for Alaska, and the exposure as she ran would give her a great platform. The whole country would benefit if she helped McCain win. And he is an old man, so who knows whether she might become the first woman president. As much as we like her here, it might be best for everyone if she is shared with the rest of the nation for a time.
But before that happens, I sure hope our congressman and senior senator resign before they are indicted, so she can select our next representatives and help them prepare for the upcoming election. She could pull off a trifecta if everyone plays their roles right. We would get a chance to thank Young and Stevens for their selfless act, capping very successful careers. And then they can fight their indictments on their own time.
If man is capable of affecting the temperature of the planet as so many now claim, 3-questions;
What is the ideal temperature?
How do we know?
And,
Who decides?
For all you global warming deciples, ponder these qusestions and be very careful when giving up
your rights to those who would control your future.
Another question. Where did all the carbon that is being released into the atmosphere from the burning
of coal, and oil . . . . . . . come from? Assuming it originally came from the atmosphere, can we further
assume, IT'S OKAY TO RE-RELEASE IT TO THE ATMOSPHERE.
EnergyOne
I lived in Fairbanks from 1965-71 and remember the 71 winter. One morning I looked out from my dorm room in Moore Hall and couldn't see the lower campus for the fog. The radio said -65. They also said -79 at North Pole and -89 at Ft. Greely.
I also remember regular winter temps of -55 while I was there. It sounds like you guys have warmed up in the last 35 years.
Visited this summer. It was my first trip back. My wife wants to move but is afraid of winter. Fairbanks has really grown!!
Richard Smith
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is 90 percent cer¬tain that global warming is manmade, and the panel is 100% certain that it will cost $20 trillion to place the world on a different energy trajectory.
Sixty Canadian scientists wrote their prime minister, seeking na¬tional dialogue. More than 400 promi¬nent scientists petitioned the U.S. government, saying no convincing evidence exists that carbon dioxide causes global warming.
The Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine petition, signed by 19,000 scientists, advises that increased lev¬els of atmospheric carbon dioxide have produced no deleterious effects on the Earth’s weather.
When environmental alarmists were unable to scientifically docu¬ment that carbon dioxide causes global warming, they redefined their position by claiming carbon dioxide is responsible for all climate change.
A number of lead scientists on the IPCC resigned claiming the IPCC refused to consider any climate science studies that failed to support greenhouse gas theory. This is the grandest hoax in the history of the human race. It is a ploy by the UN to establish a global tax and seperate all of us from our hard earned money. They tried taxing the use of the sea, and have succeeded in getting Europe to pay a tax on the use of the air. Everyone that flies in Europe has a tax added to his/her ticket.
U.S. citizens must demand a national debate, including scientific data before it is too late. The people are the loosers. The winners are government, scientists in academia who seek funding for pet projects, the Al Gores of the world who head up the enviornemtntal industries, and environmental news reporters.
Thank God the UN is not in charge here, or they would be skimming our oil profits, too! So, I suppose they think the poles melting on Mars is because of man, too?
the earth has had climate change since it formed. natural forces make our contribution pale in comparison - we are not humble enough. we do not control nature, we can only get out of its way and adapt. global warming solutions are a political solution to a problem we cannot solve. good husbandry is sensible, but using "the sky is falling" to destroy our economy is not good stewardship.
wed
This isn't the 'latest news'. This is old news in Fairbanks- the weather. Surely there is actual NEWS to report....
I agree with an earlier comment...whatever happened to so-called Global Warming?!? All I hear about now are record LOW temperatures from Fairbanks to the plains states to the northeast...not to mention the massive ice storm that crippled Oklahoma late last year. According to an earlier article, the warmest year on record was 1998 so if we are undergoing global warming, why hasn't it been warmer since 1998? I suspect we have leveled off and I read a recent article where some scientists are starting to claim we are about to undergo a period of global COOLING?!? Can these eggheads ever make up their mind?
Hey all of you Kool Aide drinking liberal Global warming nuts, you think you can end the discussion by telling us to just shut up and go away because you are right. Well that doesn't work and has never worked. The Constitution has this thing called freedom of speech. Now I know you liberals hate that part of the Constitution, but you can't do nothing about it. So get this. Global warming is a fraud, it is a lie, it is being perpetrated on America and the world for one reason, to make money for people like AlGore. Anyone that wants to see how they are declaring Global warming is real, just go to Google, type in "nationwide weather department thermometers" or anything similar, and just see where the thermometers are located that they use to gather their information for their bogus Globnal warming.
Hey Mdcollier,
Attributing global climate change to human CO2 production is akin to trying to diagnose an automotive problem by ignoring the engine (analogous to the Sun in the climate system) and the transmission (water vapour) and instead focusing entirely, not on one nut on a rear wheel, which would be analogous to total CO2, but on one thread on that nut, which represents the human contribution.
What happened to all of the destructive hurricanes that were predicted last year? what a joke. The truth will set you free.
To 'MDCOLLIER'
Global Warming/Climate Change is no crisis as the 'heat' goes on and off...and has for millions of years and will continue to do so. We have some hairbrained politicians preaching global warming as a means of gaining control...and apparently they have snared you. They are boneheads. Read this link and read up no climate history. Stop following the sheep.
http://ibdeditorial.com/IBDArticles.aspx...
global warming isn't just manifested in extreme temperatures. In the southwest where I live wild fires are a huge concern and they are getting worse. Is this cyclical? I don't know I'm not a professional. In New Mexico where I live water is a serious issue. It doesn't rain here. We depend on snow in the winter to fill reservoirs and the few lakes and rivers we have here. The lack of adequate winter snowpack, which is becoming the norm around here, and population growth causing forests to be cleared for homes really helps the destructiveness of these fires. New Mexico is small potatoes compared to states like Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and their rapid growth, you get the picture. Watch out Alaska you are on the radar. Then add in third world countries near the equator being mined for timber and medicinal plants along with the industrialization of countries like China and India and their drain on the Earth's resources and we all have some issues about climate change in the future. Will it happen in ten years, fifty years, 200 years, who knows? But I truly believe it will happen.
Global warming, global cooling, who cares? The earth will do what it has done for billions of years. Puny man is irrelevant in the big picture. Worrying about this only shows how spoiled western civilization has become. We have nothing better to spend our time and money on.
Worry about your family and friends. Worry about your health. Worry about your retirement plans. Worry about the U.S. starting World War III. Worry about running out of potable water and edible food. We take this stuff for granted, but nothing is forever. Not much may change in our lifetimes, but someday it will change -- history proves it. These are things we can do something about, controlling the global temperature isn't.
Or so it seems.
I agree global warming is a total farce! In Oklahoma we have had two of the most severe ice storms in OK history the past 2 years. There were over 250,000 people without power this year alone. If you believe in global warming then you probably believe there is a santa claus. Have an awesome global warming free day. I love Fairbanks!
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