Video - Human Caused Global Warming: The Biggest Deception in History - gloBULLwarming.

Potsdam Institute: “Natural Variability Underestimated”…”WE ARE CURRENTLY FACING A COOLING PERIOD”! http://t.co/QaIi96so2W via @notrickszone

— Joe Bastardi (@BigJoeBastardi) April 16, 2015

Video - GloBULLwarming Icebergs wash ashore along Cape Cod

China ‘outfoxes' Obama’s War on Coal

China ‘outfoxes’ Obama’s War on Coal. (Heritage).

China’s agreement to reduce coal emissions isn’t worth the paper it was printed on, an energy research group says.

Noting that Beijing made no binding promises, the Institute for Energy Research said President Obama “got swindled” during his appearance with Chinese leaders Wednesday.

The swindle ultimately hits the American taxpayer, according to the group.

“The president is making costly promises that will hurt Americans in the long run,” said Chris Warren, communications director for IER in Washington, D.C.

Rules enacted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will shut down 72 coal-fired electric plants across the nation over the next decade. The move will eliminate enough gigawatts to power 44.7 million U.S. homes.

China’s pledge to curb coal contradicts that country’s energy policy, which depends on the black ore for cheap power. Significantly, none of Beijing’s cohorts in the international BRICS alliance — Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa — have joined the anti-coal push.

When Obama attended the U.N. Climate Summit in September, neither China nor India sent their leaders.

“The U.N.’s summit platform included an energy agenda that aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions through the adoption of costly, ineffective renewable technologies and energy efficiency standards,” reported the Economic Times.

“China and India recognize that this agenda will raise electricity and gasoline costs, unfairly stifle their nations’ economic growth and leave their citizens worse off,” the Times concluded.

To prod China — which generates massive amounts of air pollution that drifts daily across the East China Sea to Korea — and to stick his thumb in the eye of the new Republican Congress, Obama ramped up his call for more government funding of renewable energy ventures. That includes taxpayer subsidies for controversial solar and wind projects. Hmmm....Any farmer with some common sense would realize how bad this is for America.

Read more at Watchdog.org


The post China ‘Swindles’ Obama’s War on Coal appeared first on Daily Signal.

Video - North Pole covered in Ice over 8 days time -- South Pole still @ record levels.

Video - North Pole covered in Ice over 8 days time -- South Pole still @ record levels.

8 days ago, I put out a video showing that the North Pole Ice pack was growing rather rapidly. After doing some mileage computations on the spread of the ice, I made the statement that the North Pole would be covered in a couple weeks (or less).

Here we are 8 days later.... and now the ice reaches across to Russia, with just one small open spot yet to freeze.

Sea ice levels can be viewed here:

http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/

See that video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0x0...

Over the past 30 days, there has been a dramatic seasonal cooling of the North pole, producing quick spreading sea ice across the arctic circle.

Also, a dramatic increase in land ice / snow across large portions of the Northern Hemisphere.

This rapid cooling is expected in the fall months across Northern latitudes, however if one observes this rapid cooling in the North along with the record levels of ice at the South Pole (Antarctica), then we can see the reports this past year have been fairly INACCURATE in regards to "warming" around the globe.

Several FALSE reports have been coming out in main stream science regarding the icepack levels. One series of reports this past summer said that GRAVITY was changing due to a lack of ice at the South pole!! In reality, as you see in this video, and read from NASA, the South pole is at record HIGH levels (still at the end of October 2014) as well.

Also, false reports of a diminished North Pole (some saying NO ice at all). Again, you can see the concentrations are thick, and growing daily. In just a few days (or less) the entire North pole will be covered.

NASA confirms South Pole ice at a record maximum thickness and area:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8RkuRh75AY

Video - Walrus beach parties: Walrus Haulouts Are Nothing New - GloBULLWarming.

GWPF paper (PDF) - Susan Crockford: On The Beach



HT: Watts Up With That?

Climate change PROVED to be 'nothing but a lie', claims top meteorologist

Climate change PROVED to be 'nothing but a lie', claims top meteorologist. (Express).

John Coleman, who co-founded the Weather Channel, shocked academics by insisting the theory of man-made climate change was no longer scientifically credible.

Instead, what 'little evidence' there is for rising global temperatures points to a 'natural phenomenon' within a developing eco-system.

In an open letter attacking the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he wrote:

"The ocean is not rising significantly.

"The polar ice is increasing, not melting away. Polar Bears are increasing in number.

"Heat waves have actually diminished, not increased. There is not an uptick in the number or strength of storms (in fact storms are diminishing).

"I have studied this topic seriously for years. It has become a political and environment agenda item, but the science is not valid."

He added: "There is no significant man-made global warming at this time, there has been none in the past and there is no reason to fear any in the future."

"Efforts to prove the theory that carbon dioxide is a significant greenhouse gas and pollutant causing significant warming or weather effects have failed."

"There has been no warming over 18 years."

Climate expert William Happer, from Princeton University, supported Mr Coleman's claims.

He added: "No chemical compound in the atmosphere has a worse reputation than CO2, thanks to the single-minded demonisation of this natural and essential atmospheric gas by advocates of government control and energy production.

"The incredible list of supposed horrors that increasing carbon dioxide will bring the world is pure belief disguised as science."

In 2010 a high-level inquiry by the InterAcademy Council found there was "little evidence" to support the IPCC's claims about global warming.

It also said the panel had purposely emphasised the negative impacts of climate change and made "substantive findings" based on little proof. Read the full story here.

FEMA edict to U.S. states: ‘Provide a Climate Plan or Lose Funding’

FEMA edict to U.S. states: ‘Provide a Climate Plan or Lose Funding’.HT: WUWT

FEMA, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency, has issued draft guidance which demands that states include an assessment of climate risk in their 5 year disaster plan, or risk losing federal funding.

According to the FEMA draft guidance; “Key concepts under consideration include strengthening specific requirements for:

…assessing future risk in light of a changing climate and changes in land use and development. This will ensure that the mitigation strategy addresses risks and takes into consideration possible future conditions in order to identify, prioritize, and implement actions to increase statewide resilience;

supporting states in fulfilling mitigation commitments, including FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance grants management performance, throughout the five-year plan approval period. FEMA seeks opportunities to build and maintain mitigation capabilities and advance hazard mitigation proactively during plan implementation, and not solely at plan update and review; clarifying that “formally adopted by the state” means plan adoption by the highest elected official to reflect the importance of plan implementation as a means to demonstrate risk reduction as a statewide priority;

and

coordinating and integrating the mitigation planning process with the whole community, including agencies and stakeholders with mitigation capabilities that are responsible for economic development; land use and development; housing; infrastructure; natural and cultural resource management; and health and human services. Engaging agencies and stakeholders with data and authority early in the planning process facilitates both successful plan development and implementation.”

http://www.fema.gov/media-library-data/1410365092470-4dcaea71807b36f564f8e7841be4ff6b/State%20Mitigation%20Plan%20Review%20Guide_Key%20Concepts.pdf

The section on hazard assessment contains the following injunction;

“The risk assessment must provide a summary of the probability of future hazard events that includes projected changes in occurrences for each natural hazard in terms of location, extent, intensity, frequency, and/or duration. Probability must include considerations of changing future conditions, including the effects of climate change on the identified hazards.”

There is a threat of funding sanction against states which fail to fulfill the key requirements, the first of which is an assessment of the risk of “future climate change”;

“If FEMA determines that the State is not maintaining the mitigation plan and, therefore, not meeting mitigation commitments, FEMA may take corrective action, such as revoking or suspending the plan approval status. Corrective action may impact eligibility for certain FEMA assistance until such time as FEMA determines that the plan meets the requirements and restores plan approval status.”

With the threat of a lethal global Ebola pandemic looming, and an elevated risk of a repeat this year of last year’s brutal winter, if Great Lakes temperatures are any guide http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/10/14/water-temperature-of-the-great-lakes-is-over-6-degrees-colder-than-normal/ , it’s a comfort to know that Federal agencies have prioritised states devoting time and resources, to determining what they will do if the world warms a little.

The normal high in Atlanta in winter is about 11c. Brazilian meteogram has it cold, snowy, for that site pic.twitter.com/simdsWoQqT

— Joe Bastardi (@BigJoeBastardi) October 20, 2014

Austrian daily: "Huge ice growth surprises climate scientists" ... "Like one not seen in decades"!

Austrian daily: "Huge ice growth surprises climate scientists" ... "Like one not seen in decades"! (Scottnet).

The Kronen Zeitung opens with: A huge growth in ice at the poles has surprised scientists and is casting questions. Is global warming taking a break? [...] For the prophets of climate change the new figures pose questions:

At the poles of Mother Earth, in complete contradiction to prognoses of a complete polar melt, there is an ice growth like one not seen in decades." Almost the entire mainstream media has been quiet about this development. So it is refreshing to see that some media are reporting the "good" news that the planet is not warming alarmingly.

Antarctic ice growth "problem for penguins"

The Kronen Zeitung reports that Antarctic sea ice is growing at an average annual rate of 16,500 square kilometers since 2007. The case is pretty much the same for Arctic sea ice, the online Austrian daily reports.

The Kronen Zeitung also writes that the rapidly growing sea ice surrounding Antarctica is a "huge problem" for penguins, who need open water.

"Climate science turned on its head"

Moreover, the Kronen Zeitung mentions the surprise of the National Snow and Ice data Centre (NSIDC) in Colorado concerning the growth in the Arctic:

Scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Boulder (Colorado) in any case have to admit that instead of a global warming, a global cooling is taking place. [...]

At the moment this development appears to have turned climate science on its head globally." The Kronen Zeitung then explains how the climate models have failed in that they predicted the very opposite to happen and that some scientists even desperately claimed that the measurements were wrong.

At the end of its article, Kronen Zeitung explains how the recent slowdown in overall solar activity may be playing a major role on the climate.

For years few sunspots could be observed. Colder winters and cooler summers could once again be the consequences, Max-Planck scientists say." Reported or not, the polar sea ice is there, and it cannot be ignored.

Video - 2015-2035 Mini Ice Age | Agricultural Losses 2014 from Cold Temperatures .

File under Globull Warming.

New scientific data backs coming ‘ice age’ prediction.

New scientific data backs coming ‘ice age’ prediction. (WND).

Abdussamatov directs the space station’s Russian-Ukrainian project Astrometria.

“The observed global warming of the climate of the Earth is not caused by the anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, but by extraordinarily high solar intensity that extended over virtually the entire past century,” Abdussamatov wrote. “Future decrease in global temperature will occur even if anthropogenic ejection of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere rises to record levels.

“Over the past decade, global temperature on the Earth has not increased; global warming has ceased, and already there are signs of the future deep temperature drop.”

Abdussamatov concluded the Earth is no longer threatened by the catastrophic global warming forecast of some scientists since warming passed its peak in 1998-2005.

“The global temperature of the Earth has begun its decrease without limits on the volume of greenhouse gas emissions by industrial developed countries,” he wrote. “Therefore, the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol aimed to rescue the planet from the greenhouse effect should be put off at least 150 years.”

“Observations of the sun show that as for the increase in temperature, carbon dioxide is ‘not guilty,’” Abdussamatov wrote in 2009, as reported by WND. “As for what lies ahead in the coming decades, it is not catastrophic warming, but a global, and very prolonged temperature drop.”

The comment was drawn from a paper Abdussamatov wrote that was featured on Page 140 of a 2009 report issued by the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. It documented more than 700 scientists who disagree over the proposition that global warming is a man-made, or anthropogenic, phenomenon.

As historical support for his theory, Abdussamatov cited the observations in 1893 of the English astronomer Walter Maunder, who came to the conclusion that from 1645 to 1715, sunspots had been generally absent. Maunder found that coincided with the middle and coldest part of the severe temperature dip known as the “Little Ice Age” that stretched from the 14th to the 19th centuries.

Abdussamatov also observed “the most significant solar event in the 20th century was the extraordinarily high level and the prolonged (virtually over the entire century) increase in the energy radiated by the sun,” resulting in the global warming that today climate alarmists believe is a man-made phenomenon.”

“The intense solar energy flow radiated since the beginning of the 1990s is slowly decreasing and, in spite of conventional opinion, there is now an unavoidable advance toward a global decrease, a deep temperature drop comparable to the Maunder minimum.”

Abdussamatov warned that more precise determination of the date of the onset of the upcoming deep temperature drop and the depth of the decrease in the global temperature of the Earth may not be available for another eight years. His assessment awaits measurements of the form and diameter of the sun currently being made from the Russian segment of the International Space Station. Read the full story here.


Related: Is John Kerry mentally ill? ‘Scriptures Commands America To Protect Muslims From Global Warming ‘

The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false face for the urge to rule it." Hl Mencken describes AGW movement perfectly

— Joe Bastardi (@BigJoeBastardi) September 5, 2014

Glo BULL Warming myth - Arctic ice cap has expanded for second year in row.

Glo BULL Warming myth - Arctic ice cap has expanded for second year in row.(DM).

The speech by former US Vice-President Al Gore was apocalyptic. ‘The North Polar ice cap is falling off a cliff,’ he said. ‘It could be completely gone in summer in as little as seven years. Seven years from now.’

Those comments came in 2007 as Mr Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning on climate change.

But seven years after his warning, The Mail on Sunday can reveal that, far from vanishing, the Arctic ice cap has expanded for the second year in succession – with a surge, depending on how you measure it, of between 43 and 63 per cent since 2012.

To put it another way, an area the size of Alaska, America’s biggest state, was open water two years ago, but is again now covered by ice.

The most widely used measurements of Arctic ice extent are the daily satellite readings issued by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center, which is co-funded by Nasa. These reveal that – while the long-term trend still shows a decline – last Monday, August 25, the area of the Arctic Ocean with at least 15 per cent ice cover was 5.62 million square kilometres.

This was the highest level recorded on that date since 2006 (see graph, right), and represents an increase of 1.71 million square kilometres over the past two years – an impressive 43 per cent.

Other figures from the Danish Meteorological Institute suggest that the growth has been even more dramatic. Using a different measure, the area with at least 30 per cent ice cover, these reveal a 63 per cent rise – from 2.7 million to 4.4 million square kilometres.

The satellite images published here are taken from a further authoritative source, the University of Illinois’s Cryosphere project.

They show that as well as becoming more extensive, the ice has grown more concentrated, with the purple areas – denoting regions where the ice pack is most dense – increasing markedly.

Crucially, the ice is also thicker, and therefore more resilient to future melting. Professor Andrew Shepherd, of Leeds University, an expert in climate satellite monitoring, said yesterday: ‘It is clear from the measurements we have collected that the Arctic sea ice has experienced a significant recovery in thickness over the past year.

‘It seems that an unusually cool summer in 2013 allowed more ice to survive through to last winter. This means that the Arctic sea ice pack is thicker and stronger than usual, and this should be taken into account when making predictions of its future extent.’

Yet for years, many have been claiming that the Arctic is in an ‘irrevocable death spiral’, with imminent ice-free summers bound to trigger further disasters. These include gigantic releases of methane into the atmosphere from frozen Arctic deposits, and accelerated global warming caused by the fact that heat from the sun will no longer be reflected back by the ice into space.

Judith Curry, professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, said last night: ‘The Arctic sea ice spiral of death seems to have reversed.’

Those who just a few years ago were warning of ice-free summers by 2014 included US Secretary of State John Kerry, who made the same bogus prediction in 2009, while Mr Gore has repeated it numerous times – notably in a speech to world leaders at the UN climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, in an effort to persuade them to agree a new emissions treaty.

Mr Gore – whose office yesterday failed to respond to a request for comment – insisted then: ‘There is a 75 per cent chance that the entire polar ice cap during some of the summer months could be completely ice-free within five to seven years.’Read the full story here.

Video - Global warming being blasted away by lowest solar activity in four centuries?

We appear to be headed for conditions similar to the Maunder Minimum, says this video from Suspicious0bservers. This low in solar activity comes after what was likely the highest solar activity in the last 3,000 years. HT: NewIceAge.

Here are a few observations from the video:

The primary concern is famine.

In the 1630s, two million people died due to famine in India. At about the same time, huge portions of Europe developed famines, including Poland, Ireland, England, France. In the early 1660s, India went two years without a single drop of rain. In 1680, famine killed 80,000 people in Sardinia. A famine in the 1690s killed 15 percent of the Scottish population. Two million dead in France during that same period. During the same decade, more than 100,000 peopole died in Sweden and Estonia. At the turn of the century, two million more people died of famine in India. Just a few years later, Eastern Prussia lost 40 percent of its population to famine. Look at the chart in this video to see how quickly the climate changed. We are currently experiencing changes even faster than those.

The harsh winters like 2010 in Europe, or 2013 in North America, will become more prevalent, the video continues.

This brings up some important questions.

How long before travel and commerce are interrupted? How long before agriculture suffers like it did 400 years ago? How long before the plagues and disease that come with famine rise again?

“If Toronto’s Pearson International Airport weather station doesn’t hit 30.0ºC before the end of August — and it’s not looking like it will — this will be the first consecutive July and August that Pearson has not hit 30.0ºC+ since records began at Pearson in 1938 — that’s 76 years of data,” says Weather Network meteorologist Dayna Vettese.

Hmmmm....On a personal note , for the last 24 months temp where i live have been about 4-5 degrees BELOW normal average, so much for global warming..... Google the term 'De Vries cycle'.

Video - You did not see this one coming! Mini Ice age 2018.

US Supreme Court swallows EPA's faked global warming data.

US Supreme Court swallows EPA's faked global warming data. HT: WashingtonTimes.

A fractured Supreme Court on Monday largely upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s radical rule designed to shut down the power plants that produce the most affordable electricity. The justices continue to accept the EPA’s labeling of carbon dioxide as a “pollutant.” This harmless gas, the agency insists, is melting the planet.

Only the brave deny man’s responsibility for super-heating the globe in precincts where the wise and wonderful (just ask them) gather to reassure each other than they know best. “We know the trends,” President Obama told the graduates at the University of California at Irvine the other day. “The 18 warmest years on record have all happened since you graduates were born.”

The charts and graphs devised by NASA and the government’s other science agencies back up the president’s words. And well they should, because the charts, like the “science,” were faked.

The “Steven Goddard Real Science” blog compares the raw U.S. temperature records from the Energy Department’s United States Historical Climatology Network to the “final” processed figures, to demonstrate how the historical data have been “corrected,” using computer modeling.

The modifications made to the past temperature record had the effect of cooling the 20th century, which makes temperatures over the last 14 years appear much warmer by comparison.

Such changes don’t square with history, which shows the decade of the 1930s the hottest on record. The Dust Bowl storms were so severe they sent clouds of debris from Texas and Oklahoma to the East Coast, even darkening the skies over the U.S. Capitol one day in 1934.

In an inconvenient article from 1999, written before the data had been “corrected,” 

James Hansen, then a NASA;scientist, acknowledged that the climate had held steady after the Dust Bowl storms. 

“In the U.S.,” wrote Mr. Hansen, “there has been little temperature change in the past 50 years, the time of rapidly increasing greenhouse gases — in fact, there was a slight cooling throughout much of the country.”

With the global warming scam unraveling before his very eyes, President Obama and his administration want action now. “The question is not whether we need to act,” says Mr. Obama. “The overwhelming judgment of science, accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades, has put that question to rest. The question is whether we have the will to act before it’s too late.” 

Too late for what? The planetary thermometer hasn’t budged in 15 years. Wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes and other “extreme” weather events are at normal or below-normal levels. Pacific islands aren’t submerged. There’s so much ice the polar bears are celebrating. Read the full story here.

New solar theory predicts imminent global cooling.

New solar theory predicts imminent global cooling. HT: joannenova

“Sharp cooling” to hit in the next five years, says new solar theory.

“If the Sun mainly controls the temperature on Earth, a turning point is almost upon us,” says Dr David Evans.

 “The reason for the cooling is the dramatic fall in solar radiation that started around 2004.” There is a delay — probably of around 11 years —  between changes in sunlight and temperatures on Earth, says Evans.

Because of that delay, and the sudden drop in solar irradiance about 10 years ago, Evans expects a sharp cooling to hit in the next five years.

Evans provides a graph of solar radiation since 1610, when sunspots were first recorded. The brown line shows solar radiation, which peaks about every 11 years due to the sunspot cycle. The red line is an 11-year smoother.

“There have been three big, steep falls in solar radiation in the last 400 years,” says Evans.

“The first was in the 1600s. It led to the depths of the Little Ice Age, and the Maunder Minimum. This was the coldest period during the last 400 years. There used to be fairs on the ice in the Thames River in London, because it would freeze over for weeks at a time.

“The second fall is around the time of Napoleon and it preceded the second coldest period in the last 400 years, called the Dalton Minimum.

“The third fall occurred recently, starting in about 2004. This recent fall is as big as the fall in Napoleon’s time, almost as large as the fall in the 1600s, and it seems to be steeper than either of those falls. But the temperature hasn’t fallen … yet.

“Around the world a billion dollars a day is invested in renewable energy, largely with the hope of changing the weather,” says the joannenova.com.au website.

Given that 20% of the world does not even have access to electricity, history books may marvel at how screwed priorities were, and how bureaucratized science cost so much more than the price of the grants.

And yet, says joannenova, our five-star politicians are preparing only for global warming.Read the full story here.

NASA image shows extensive 'record level' ice coverage of the Great Lakes

NASA image shows extensive 'record level' ice coverage of the Great Lakes.HT :Weathernetwork.

Last year, ice covered about 38 per cent of the Great Lakes, which was a dramatic jump from 13 per cent in 2011-2012.

"The extreme freezing of the lakes is an unusual sight for residents, and has brought tourists flocking to certain locations, such as the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, where Lake Superior’s thick ice has thousands trekking about one mile across the lake to visit spectacular frozen ice caves," NASA says.

The extensive ice coverage however, interferes with marine commerce, boating and fishing, all of which depend on navigable waterways.

"It also closes the lakes to migratory birds which flock here in the winter time," adds NASA.

Related:  Great Lakes ice cover reaches 20-year high.

Great Lakes ice cover reaches 20-year high.

Great Lakes ice cover reaches 20-year high. HT: SunNews.


The Great Lakes are more iced over than any time in the past 20 years.

Registering at 88.4% ice coverage Friday -- up from 60% on Jan. 29 -- the world's largest cluster of freshwater lakes is almost entirely frozen over.

The all-time record is 94.8% in 1979. The last time they came this close to being fully frozen was 1994, when ice cover hit 90.7%.

Last year's ice cover maxed out at about 38%.

Lake Ontario remains mostly unfrozen, however. The lowest of all five, it was at 41.4% ice cover Friday.

Lake Superior was 94%, Michigan 80.8%, Huron 95% and Erie 95.6%. The increased ice cover may slow the spring thaw in nearby regions, keeping farm crops dormant longer. It also poses challenges to the shipping industry.

The data is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor, Mich.More detail can be found here

"Global Warming on Steroids" - The Great Lakes are now 79% ice covered.

"Global Warming on Steroids" - The Great Lakes are now 79% ice covered.HT: Anthony Farnell.

Combine all the open water left and it's less than the size of Lake Michigan.

Do the Great Lakes freeze in the winter?

The Great Lakes do freeze, but not completely. According to Ray Assel of the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory, ice cover on the Great Lakes varies from lake to lake and year to year. For example, in a year with normal temperatures, 25 percent of Lake Ontario will be frozen over, while up to 90 percent of Lake Erie will be frozen. However, wind and water movement over bodies of water as large and deep as the Great Lakes make it unlikely the lakes have ever frozen over completely for any significant length of time.

The Great Lakes have come close to freezing over completely during the extremely cold winters of 1976-77, 1977-78 and 1978-79, with up to 90 percent ice coverage. However, Assel says that severe winter air temperatures are not necessary for large ice cover on the lakes. A cool summer and fall can result in below normal water temperatures by late fall. Extensive ice cover can then form with only average winter temperatures.

As for the Niagara Falls, the volume and speed of the water flowing over the falls prevents them from freezing, as does the ice-boom at the mouth of Lake Erie. The ice-boom is a series of floating steel pontoons extending across the river from Buffalo, New York to Fort Erie, Ontario. It prevents ice from clogging the river and hydroelectric intakes by helping an "ice bridge" (a stable ice cover) to form at the mouth of Lake Erie. Before the installation of the ice-boom in 1964, the American side of the falls froze over in 1909, 1938 and 1949 because ice jams upstream reduced the water flow. Ice bridges can also form below the falls when ice goes over the falls and freezes to the edges of the gorge, resulting in a buildup of ice (as thick as fifty feet in some places) stretching across the entire river. For photographs of historical ice bridges on the falls, go to Edsen Breyer's Postcard Museum.

According to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

Let’s look at each individual lake.

Lake Superior - Almost frozen over (92 percent covered with ice).

Lake Michigan - Now 51 percent covered with ice. Coyotes were seen walking on the ice just offshore of Chicago this week. This makes us wonder if the lakes freeze over totally, will animals from Canada be able to cross over Lake Huron or Lake Superior, and enter Michigan.

Lake Huron - Ice cover rocketed up an additional 14 percent this week, climbing to a total ice cover of 86 percent. At that rate, Lake Huron could be almost frozen over, or frozen over by the end of next week.

Lake Erie - The shallowest of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie has an average depth of 62 feet and a maximum depth of 210 feet. It also has the least volume of any Great Lake, with 116 cubic miles of water. So it should come as no surprise that Lake Erie is 96 percent covered with ice.

Lake Ontario - Although Lake Ontario is the smallest Great Lake when it comes to surface area, its  average depth of 283 feet makes it the second deepest Great Lake behind Lake Superior. Lake Ontario actually holds more than three times the amount of water when compared to Lake Erie. Lake Ontario is only 32 percent covered in ice.

Will ice continue to grow?
The ice cover should continue to grow at a rapid rate based on temperatures expected in the next few weeks.

It is going to be close, but we may be living in a historic winter with regards to amount of Great Lakes ice.


See entire article, along with photos of individual lakes : http://www.mlive.com/weather/index.ssf/2014/02/great_lakes_added_11_percent_i.html

For a look at current and historical Great Lakes surface and ice cover, go to GLERL's Great Lakes Surface Environmental Analysis pages.Hmmm......So the last time they were completely frozen over was 10,000 years ago at the end of the last Ice age.

Video - Horseshoe Falls in Winter.

Video - Sun has ‘flipped upside down’ as new magnetic cycle begins.

The sun has “flipped upside down,” with its north and south poles reversed to reach the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24, NASA has said. 

Now, the magnetic fields will once again started moving in opposite directions to begin the completion of the 22 year long process which will culminate in the poles switching once again. “A reversal of the sun’s magnetic field is, literally, a big event,” said NASA’s Dr. Tony Phillips.

“The domain of the sun’s magnetic influence (also known as the ‘heliosphere’) extends billions of kilometers beyond Pluto. Changes to the field’s polarity ripple all the way out to the Voyager probes, on the doorstep of interstellar space.” 

To mark the event, NASA has released a visualization of the entire process. At the beginning, in 1997 the video shows the sun in Solar Cycle 23 with its positive polarity on the top (the green lines), and the negative polarity on the bottom (the purple lines). Each set of lines gradually move toward the opposite pole, showing a complete flip around 2002, completing the sun’s previous cycle. Both set of lines representing the opposing magnetic fields then begin to work their way back, to culminate in the latest flip. 

“At the height of each magnetic flip, the sun goes through periods of more solar activity, during which there are more sunspots, and more eruptive events such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections,” said NASA’s Karen C. Fox. “Cosmic rays are also affected,” added Dr. Phillips. “These are high-energy particles accelerated to nearly light speed by supernova explosions and other violent events in the galaxy.” –Independent UK

'Global Warming' - SNOWY OWLS FROM ARCTIC REGIONS FLEEING, last time seen at the second coldest Winter.

Snowy Owl landing Quebec

'Global Warming' - SNOWY OWLS FROM ARCTIC REGIONS FLEEING , last time seen at the second coldest Winter.(Njspotlight).
Bird-watchers and general public warned to keep their distance, since birds may be underfed and overstressed from long journey south.

New Jersey birders are all aflutter over an influx of snowy owls, Arctic predators that seldom stray into the Garden State but are doing so this winter in numbers that are unprecedented in at least 50 years.

By December 6 around 20 of the birds had been seen at various locations including Stone Harbor Point, Sandy Hook, and Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, starting in late November.

The count sharply exceeds the state’s typical winter tally of zero to three, and is expected to increase as the winter goes on as more birds venture south from their normal wintering grounds in Canada.

“This is really just the beginning,” said Pete Dunne, director of the Cape May Bird Observatory. “When you get an increase this big, typically birds just continue to move in.”

Dunne, a nationally known birding expert, said the birds’ wide dispersion from their normal territory -- known in ornithological circles as an “irruption” -- was unprecedented in his 50 years of birding.

Given the expectation that the owls will continue to arrive, the influx may become the largest since birding records began. “It has the potential to be the biggest irruption ever,” Dunne said. The two previous largest irruptions occurred in the winters of 1890-1891 and 1926-1927.

The birds have clearly been driven south by a shortage of food in their normal wintering habitat, Dunne said, although reasons for the shortage are less clear.

One theory is that the species had a very good breeding season because of an abundance of lemmings -- small rodents that are a major food source for the owls. The resulting population boom means there isn’t enough winter food for all the birds in their regular winter territory, forcing some to fly south.

“There is not enough winter prey to support the expanding population,” Dunne said.

Outside of New Jersey, the birds are appearing in other northeastern states, southeastern Canada, the Great Lakes region, and even Bermuda, said Jeffrey Gordon, president of the American Birding Association.

Snowy Owls -- with distinctive black-and-white patterning and a wing span of more than four feet -- generate excitement among birders at any time because they are big, handsome birds that live in remote regions that most people never visit, Gordon said. The fact that they are now visible in significant numbers, and in unfamiliar habitat like New Jersey, adds to their mystique.

“Most people who watch birds don’t get a chance to see one,” Gordon said. “It’s a reason to celebrate.”Hmmm.......'The two previous largest irruptions occurred in the winters of 1890-1891' .......The winter of 1889 was the second coldest winter in the Netherlands and Belgium in the 19th century and that of 1838, after the coldest since the winter of 1789 revolution Read the full story here.