perceptions_now wrote on Feb 8
th, 2012 at 11:43am:
Science behind the big freeze: is climate change bringing the Arctic to Europe?
The bitterly cold weather sweeping Britain and the rest of Europe has been linked by scientists with the ice-free seas of the Arctic, where global warming is exerting its greatest influence.A dramatic loss of sea ice covering the Barents and Kara Seas above northern Russia could explain why a chill Arctic wind has engulfed much of Europe and killed 221 people over the past week.
The death toll from Arctic blast has been particularly severe in the Ukraine, where many of the dead have been people sleeping on the streets. Heating and food tents have been set up to ease their hardship. In Romania 24 people are known to have died and 17 in Poland.
A growing number of experts believe complex wind patterns are being changed because melting Arctic sea ice has exposed huge swaths of normally frozen ocean to the atmosphere above.
In particular, the loss of Arctic sea ice could be influencing the development of high-pressure weather systems over northern Russia, which bring very cold winds from the Arctic and Siberia to Western Europe and the British Isles, the scientists believe. An intense anticyclone over north-west Russia is behind the bitterly cold easterly winds that have swept across Europe and some climate scientists say the lack of Arctic sea ice brought about by global warming is responsible.
"The current weather pattern fits earlier predictions of computer models for how the atmosphere responds to the loss of sea ice due to global warming," said Professor Stefan Rahmstorf of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "The ice-free areas of the ocean act like a heater as the water is warmer than the Arctic air above it. This favours the formation of a high-pressure system near the Barents Sea, which steers cold air into Europe."Sea ice covering the Barents and Kara Seas has been exceptionally low this winter, according to the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Boulder, Colorado. But air temperatures above the Barents and Kara Seas have been higher than average. The relatively mild westerly winds that have kept Britain from freezing much of this winter have been blocked by fierce high pressure over north-west Russia, centred on an area just south of the Barents Sea.
Studies by scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have confirmed a link between the loss of Arctic sea ice and the development of high-pressure zones in the polar region, which influence wind patterns at lower latitudes further south. Scientists found that as the cap of sea ice is removed from the ocean, huge amounts of heat are released from the sea into the colder air above, causing the air to rise. Rising air destabilises the atmosphere and alters the difference in air pressure between the Arctic and more southerly regions, changing wind patterns.Professor Rahmstorf said the Alfred Wegener study confirms earlier predictions from computer models by Vladimir Petoukhov of the Potsdam Institute, who forecast colder winters in western Europe as a result of melting sea ice.
Dr Petoukhov and his colleague Vladimir Semenov were among the first scientists to suggest a link between the loss of sea ice and colder winters in Europe.
Their 2009 study simulated the effects of disappearing sea ice and found that for some years to come the loss will increase the chances of colder winters."Whoever thinks that the shrinking of some far-away sea ice won't bother him could be wrong. There are complex interconnections in the climate system, and in the Barents-Kara Sea we might have discovered a powerful feedback mechanism," Dr Petoukhov said.
But UK climate researcher Adam Scaife said other complexities are almost certainly influencing the current cold spell. "There is a pretty clear link between the current event and the upper level winds... The winds up at 30km (18.6 miles) altitude are very weak," he said. "We have verified several times using computer model experiments that this leads to high pressure across northern Europe and cold winter conditions in the UK as we see now."
Link -
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/science-behind-the-big-freeze-is-clima...===============================
Then, there is also the possibility that the great ocean conveyor current could be decreased OR stopped, as the ice melts, thus causing temperatures to plunge in some areas, including Western Europe! http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2004/05mar_arctic/http://science.nasa.gov/media/medialibrary/2004/03/01/05mar_arctic_resources/cur... How about you let the guy who forecast the cold blast to tell you where you are going wrong.
WeatherAction's headline long range warning for December was for Arctic blasts with heavy snow and
blizzards and specifically predicted the blizzards – to the day from 30 days ahead
http://www.weatheraction.com/docs/WANews09No102.pdfPiers Corbyn astrophysicist of WeatherAction long range
weather & climate forecasters said today: “The gritting
crisis and travel chaos in the present big freeze in Britain
& Ireland is largely a direct consequence of out-moded
forecasting procedures as used by the Met Office, and the
unreadiness of Councils for this Arctic blast because they
are misled by Global Warming propaganda from
government and media and the Met Office’s ridiculous
forecast for a ‘probably mild’ winter.
“That forecast, it appears, was designed to please the
Government’s ‘Global warming’ ideology when the forecasting method used has consistently failed. If the Government
had advised Councils to apply our solar-based forecasts they would have been ready and chaos and economic damage
reduced. WeatherAction's headline long range warning for December was for Arctic blasts with heavy snow and
blizzards and specifically predicted the blizzards – to the day from 30 days ahead – that hit Copenhagen & London
near the end of the Global Warming (!) Summit. (Full Dec forecast via: http://www.weatheraction.com/member.asp )
“Very importantly for the recent chaos of 20/21 Dec it should be noted that the Met
Office forecast was for light snow on 21st but it turned out to be very heavy. As
drivers commented; ‘There was no warning!’ The Met Office’s subsequent ‘severe
warnings’ were not really warnings but descriptions of what was going on. On the
other hand WeatherAction specified 19-21 Dec as a RED WEATHER WARNING
PERIOD from 30days ahead with a specific warning that there would be a big
increase in frontal activity compared with TV/Met Office forecasts whatever they
would state when produced. This was a true WARNING made 30 days ahead.
In line with our WeatherAction warning precipitation was much heavier than TV
/ Met Office forecasts. Any council who used our forecast would have applied this
knowledge and planned to bring in extra staff.
Piers added “Our Red Warnings are independent of forecast details which in this case had expected the milder weather now
on its way to have already arrived in more than just the far SouthWest. Red warnings enable users to know that rain will
become more rain and wind; and snow become more snow and wind.
“
Until the government, political classes and their agents in the media and weather business admit the total failure of CO2-
Global Warming theory which has now become a religion, they will continue to fail the public. CO2 driven Global Warming
is failed science based on fraudulent data and believing in it is causing chaos, suffering, deaths, and economic damage. It’s
not just a joke, it is deadly dangerous and is holding back Britain’s recovery. It must be swept away.