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RE: What a difference a year makes
By TSS on 5/11/2012 5:05:32 PM , Rating: 0
Then the question is very simple. Do you trust Al Gore, or yourself?

Personally, born in 1987, i've seen the weather getting hotter and hotter with some bitchin heatwaves in the 90's. Since the turn of the millenium i've no longer seen any extreme heat waves where i live (holland), but the temperature throughout the year has been higher (less intense summers but hotter springs, fall and winter).

Then suddenly, 2 years ago, winter took a turn for the worse. the 23 years i had lived up to that point i'd never seen the same snow on the ground more then 5 days. That year, the same snow fell and stayed on the ground for an entire month, in november. It thawed, some more fell, thawed again and no fresh snow fell, though it stayed cold.

Last winter, there was less snowfall, but it was so cold that we came within an inch of a new "elfstedentocht", or 11 cities run. It's an ancient dutch custom, where when it's frozen long enough, water ways between 11 cities in the most northern province will freeze over, allowing you to iceskate between them. The elfstedentocht is the race organised around this. For this to happen it will need to be atleast -5c, -10c for multiple nights (around a week).

The last time the elfstedentocht was run was in 1997, 1986 before that. We missed it by a 1 days worth of frost (safety rules are very strict, though the ice was good enough for a few of the public to try, it has to hold thousands during the run).

Even now in may we still have crappy weather. It's been warmer the past few days and i think it'll finally stay this way now, but usually that happens mid april, not mid may.

So IMO we're definitly in cooling mode now, and have been for 2 years certain, a decade likely. How long it'll say this way, no clue. I'll just have to make sure my children know how to survive in the desert as well as build an iglo.

