More evidence that the phenomenon known as global warming is just a load of tish and tosh. Even bunkum.
We are all experiencing a spell of very cold weather at the moment (January 2010). Need less to say the media are making a meal out of it and making all sorts of comparisons. Much nonsense banded around.
This spell has created more perceived problems than previous cold spells. This is all caused by changes to the population and our habits. For example, there were just a few out of town shopping centres 20 odd years ago. And back in the early 1960’s we were by and large a manufacturing economy. People walked and cycled to work as they lived close by. Compare that to current commute most of us endure.
In short, all this reliance on the road network is all down to our changing demands. Also, as a very cold spell happens so infrequently, it makes no business sense for our services to be always prepared for all eventualities.
So onto a well proven weather cycle:
There is a cycle of about every 22 years of severe winters. These basically run as follows: 1870/71, 1894/95, 1916/17, 1939/40, 1962/63, 1984/85 and now 2010 may apply. All these winters were preceded (a warning if you like) and followed by some very cold individual months.
The 1939/40 cold spell was interesting from a historical context. As we had just declared war, the fact that the country was paralysed by cold weather was…..a national secret.
The weather cycle is dependent on a magnetic effect known as the Hale cycle. This encompasses two sun spot cycles. The Hale cycle starts and ends at points of minimum sun spot activity. Period of high geomagnetic activity, such as there is at present and there was in the early 1870s, can cause weather extremes. Both 1868 and 1870 produced droughts for example, followed by excessive storms and floods in 1872 when the Trent burst its banks. August and December in 1872 were particularly wet, with six and half inches of rain (three times the average) falling on Bingham in December that year.
My other thoughts on global warming are here: www.smarty09.wordpress.com/2009/09/24/global-warming/
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