Another Cold Day in Febuary

You may have heard this refrain a month or so ago "so much for global warming". I heard it more then once, more then twice. A frigid 2 week stretch in January, complete with freezing rivers, and ice boats. Pictures on the internet, showing an Alaskan thermometer reading -65. Now that's cold. Perhaps climate change isn't as bound in fact as some scientists will have us believe. Perhaps global warming is a fraud, just as Rush Limbaugh says. Look there's snow in Vermont, a massive ice storm in Kentucky.

But was it that strange, a cold January week in New Jersey? Isn't it supposed to be cold in winter? Man I hope there's snow in VT, I just had my snowboard tuned. I thought that was what winter was about, even here in NJ, don't we ski here in NJ? Alaska too, is -65 really all that out of the ordinary for a January day way up north there(I don't know, I'm asking)? The land of the eskimo, and polar bears, 4 hours of daylight?

Kentucky, well, that suck's, ice is no fun, week long power outage's are not cool.

But then, just as we have experienced all too often in these parts in recent years, the sun rose one day, and the thermometer started climbing, right past the freezing mark. Left foot on the 40 degree mark, right hand on the 50. Climbing right up that thermometer like an extension ladder. A tall ladder, a 28 footer. 60 degrees. Now that's warm. For January in NJ, that's warm. Abnormal if you will, but unfortuneatly growing less so. This happens every year. Heck the day b4 christmas was near 60. We kind of forgot during that 20 degree day, but it was, Christmas Eve was warm. 2 years ago it was 70 degrees in January, a couple days above 60. Straight up t-shirt weather. This is becoming common place.

Then another cold stretch rolled through, cause global warming or not, it's winter gosh darn it. Heck we even got some snow. Can you believe it. Snow. Real live snow. Dry, light snow too, the kind that only falls when it's cold, the kind that doesn't pack. This time however, the global warming naysayers were a little more cautious, a little more tepid, a little less glib. Perhaps they were thinking "global warming is bull", really thinking it, believing it. Thinking they know it, believing they know it. Waiting for the cold to set in deep enough that others will also start to believe it.

Unfortuneatley the weather would not cooperate. Another freaking 60 degree day. Lips remained buttoned, tongues remained bit. Man I bet Limbaugh was as irretable as can be. Hot under the collar even. A miniature planet in the midst of a major warming trend. Obama probably took a beating that day.

Now this is all weather, it's not climate. Day-in, day-out weather of relatively small portions of the world, is at best evidence, small tiny tidbits of evidence, it's not proof. Certainly nothing concrete either way, but doesn't the evidence seem to be leaning a little further each year towards "yes global warming is real?"

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently announced it's findings(http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2009/20090113_ncdcstats.html) that the average 2008 global temperature tied with 2001 as the 8th warmest on record. NOAA takes into account both land tempatures(which ranked as the 6th highest on record), and sea tempatures(which ranked 10th highest on record) in their rankings. The top 10 warmest years since NOAA began tracking such meters in 1895, have all occured since 1997, each of the last 8 years have made their way onto the list. It's barely news to be top 10 anymore. Big deal. #8? tied for #8? Lame. This is America, #1 or bust.

Even more recently NOAA stated that this January, complete with the Shrewsbury river iceboating here in NJ, and near record cold in Maine, the average land temperatures in the US were warmer then average. While were freezing here in the east, wearing scarves, and layering(on most days), their tanning out west, California had it's 6th warmest Janaury on record, even the chicks in San Francisco were in bikinis.

Again only evidence, evidence which suggests, but does not prove. Though it is bigger evidence A bigger suggestion. A suggestion made by a big dude, a big dude with a bat. A big dude with a glowing red branding iron.