What Snow Is

Ten years ago in March of 2000, a London newspaper, The Independent, wrote:

The first two months of 2000 were virtually free of significant snowfall in much of lowland Britain, and December brought only moderate snowfall in the South-east. It is the continuation of a trend that has been increasingly visible in the past 15 years: in the south of England, for instance, from 1970 to 1995 snow and sleet fell for an average of 3.7 days, while from 1988 to 1995 the average was 0.7 days. London's last substantial snowfall was in February 1991.

Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community. Average temperatures in Britain were nearly 0.6°C higher in the Nineties than in 1960-90, and it is estimated that they will increase by 0.2C every decade over the coming century. Eight of the 10 hottest years on record occurred in the Nineties.

However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.

Really?

Today The Mail reports that this December is to coldest ever recorded in the U.K. They note:

Swathes of Britain skidded to a halt today as the big freeze returned - grounding flights, closing rail links and leaving traffic at a standstill.

And tonight the nation was braced for another 10in of snow and yet more sub-zero temperatures - with no let-up in the bitterly cold weather for at least a month, forecasters have warned.

The Arctic conditions are set to last through the Christmas and New Year bank holidays and beyond and as temperatures plummeted to -10c (14f) the Met Office said this December was ‘almost certain’ to become the coldest since records began in 1910.

Looks like the little ones in the U.K. will have plenty of snow to look at.

But there’s a more important issue here. Climate change true believers repeatedly use transient weather phenomenon (recall Hurricane Katrina as a harbinger of more frequent hurricanes) to suggest broader climatic trends. This is both dishonest and unscientific. Worse, the MSM reports the claims of these true believers with critical assessment or context.

So the next time you hear that a very hot July is proof positive the humans are responsible for global warming, think about the poor children in Britain who in the year 2000 would never again see a snowfall and then cut to 2010.