 Poster: A snowHead
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Just got back from a nice bike ride in Essex. First time in December in maybe 30 years of rides in December where i've worn shorts, fingerless gloves and a t shirt rather than winter wear and overshoes. Now I need to mow the lawn after mowing it only a week or so ago - in December...
We have Geraniums that have lived outside the house for two years now.
Just got back from the 3 vallees where it feels like April.
Was looking at the glacier at the top of the Moraine where it has shrunk back hugely in just the last 5 years to the extent where the col red run has had to be diverted.
I know one or two events cannot be proscribed to climate change but it really feels to me that it is kicking in big time. Was talking last week to one of the people involved in setting up Val Thorens originally (in the 70s) and he was saying that everyone in the valley was saying the idea was mad and that there conditions up there were too extreme for a ski resort and that no-one would be able to drive there.
It does feel to me that we are seeing major changes all around us.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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yep I totally agree and every month the tempreture is above average regardless that the average obviously moves up .
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@emwmarine, I think changes are happening, but you need to look at somewhat more scientific analyses than a slow start to the winter sports season.
In 1956 (or something) there was no snow. More or less at all in the alps.
And the climate is normally changing all the time.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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I was also out riding in shorts yesterday and today, and passed many people cutting their lawns. There are daisy's flowering and yesterday many ladybirds thought it was spring already. Local/regional change is definitely happening, and there can be no argument about that.
Ultimately once Global warming reaches the point where the Gulf Stream is effected, our winters will get a lot colder.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@under a new name, of course you're right to say that climate is normally changing all the time. However, quite clearly things are on the move on a global level at a pace we haven't seen before.
The evidence is all around us, and it's hardly surprising given the rate of human expansion and economic development. As a fully paid up ski lady's front bottom I was emotionally predisposed towards climate-change scepticism, however there have been too many out-of-course weather events in the last ten years alone to permit me to keep believing everything's fine.
Sure, a slow start to a ski season isn't in itself evidence of impending doom similar to us being wedged in a giant toaster, but the causal effects of the current conditions speak for themselves. It's not just a snow drought - it's day after day of seriously warm Alpine December weather being driven by particularly stubborn high pressure combined with what I believe to be the strongest El Nino ever recorded. Arctic sea ice is apparently substantially (about a third?) thinner these days (in depth terms) than 30 years ago, and sea temperatures are notably balmier than I remember them from my not so distant youth (I'm 38 and practically grew up in the Channel).
Some apocryphal examples, which are perhaps a bit misleading if taken in isolation to make the point, but they add up to an overall impression of significant and rapid change, in my view:
Swimming in the Channel at Hythe in mid-October 2011 was like taking a warm bath,
Skiing in Les 2 Alpes in very early March 2012 in 22 degs,
Mid-teens temps this last week in the same place,
Record autumn warmth in successive recent years,
No really decent frost here in East Sussex since God knows when, and daffodil shoots already appearing,
On the flip side, Jan 2012 saw substantial snow here, and a couple of years before that we had a greater accumulation in one night than I've ever seen (14" in my back garden),
Deep and perishing cold for a decent period of time meaning that for a week the milk lorry couldn't get to the farm I was milking on at the time (2010, I think - might have been 09),
Absolutely sensational big snow events in the Alps (Wengen 2007, La Plagne 2008 are two that stick in my mind), both of which followed weeks of high pressure and bare hillsides.
Hence, taking these snapshots together, I am led to believe we are witnessing greater energy in our weather first and foremost, with the extremes becoming more normal - particularly heat-wise, but also in terms of precipitation. When you think about it, it's hardly surprising; heat is energy after all, and more people = more consumption = less natural resource for the Earth to call upon to moderate our effects on it.
The mealy-mouthed pontifications in Paris recently are empty. Until we realise that we can't keep growing exponentially and a radical rethink from "the next generation must have more of everything than we had", nothing will stop our headlong plunge into a very unpleasant future.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@paulmck, what a well worded and insightful post. Something that rarely happens here.
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| under a new name wrote: |
@emwmarine, I think changes are happening, but you need to look at somewhat more scientific analyses than a slow start to the winter sports season.
In 1956 (or something) there was no snow. More or less at all in the alps.
And the climate is normally changing all the time. |
The facts for global warming are 100% indisputable.
Long-term: The world was 30% ice 15k years ago. Now it is 10% ice.
Mid-term: The Argentiere (France) glacier reached the village and valley floor in 1895. It had retreated -1000m up the hill by 2015.
Short-term: There were roughly 10 skiable-all-year glaciers in the European Alps circa 1985. Now there are just 2 genuine ones left.
The world heats up. The ice melts down.
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@paulmck, it is very late and I have a very early start. i think you make fine points. i will endeavour to add opinion (!) later in the wek when I can 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Mid term the whole,of,the UK was under ice.
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@under a new name and @emwmarine, thanks very much. Mind you, I love how the Snowheads language fairies can seamlessly change a word only very slightly different to "twit" into "lady's front bottom" overnight. I suspect it's automatic, but similar to our four year old (Snowheads-triggered, by the way) daughter's current view of Father Christmas, I'd really like to believe that a secret army of Admin's serfs stalk the forum while we sleep.
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