In Virginia, Dominion Virginia Power said nearly 123,000 customers were without power, with more than half in the Richmond metropolitan area. Appalachian Power, which serves southwest Virginia, reported about 5,600 outages.
In nearby Maryland, Gov. O’Malley said, “I don’t like snow.”
In a related story: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid already issues a letter stating the congressional plant will convert from coal to natural gas. (That plant is used for heat.) See the BS.
That said, the protest to get Congress to do what they are already doing is still on!
So, if you have time and a day off, you can fill your The Blackboard Mug with hot chocolate, join the protest and explain that recent years have been cooler than projected by the IPCC. If they ask you whether the non-warming trend caused the March 2 snowstorm, patiently explain that the snow storm is weather not climate. Then, use a coin flipping analogy to explain that the not-as-hellashiously warm as the IPCC predicted will happen more often if the projections are biased high relative to reality.
Or, if you think that conversation would make you unpopular with the non-violent civil disobedience crowd, stand on the other side of the street and record a video for YouTube.
Update
BarryW kindly provided photos from his backyard in the DC area:
I understand many of the protesters came down from The University of Vermont. I suspect this amount of snow counts as almost nothing to the doughty New Englanders. Why, they are probably happy to see it!
Lucia,
It is only cold and snowing in this realisation of the climate. In many of the Model E runs, it is hot and the UV index is high. I imagine Gavin and Jim are applying sunscreen as we speak, operating on the precautionary principle and all that. Who says this is the “real” climate?
The Gore effect metastasizes into the Hansen effect.
I love it when Nature has a sense of humor. Not the magazine, but the phenomena of the physical world.
Perhaps some skeptics could start a snowball fight with the protesters… now that would make a great YouTube video.
Doug–
This is definitely an unusually heavy snowstorm! It’s snowing lightly in my yard outside Chicago. Usually we are colder and snowier than DC. I guess this storm even hit South Carolina!
There was heavy snow in Memphis and even Atlanta.
Not like Chicago gets, but not unusual for the DC area. I’ve lived here all my life and we’ve had many years where this amount has fallen. These coastal storms start out as lows in Texas and move out over Cape Hatteras, reform and go up the coast. Depending on the track we can get rain or a foot or more of snow.
Do a recap of NOAA predictions for this winter 🙂
David_Jay, didn’t you mean “metamorphoses”? Oh, I see. No, you didn’t.
Lucia: Up here in Madison we seem to have escaped it completely. For once. Of course, it’s still wicked cold, but hey, it beats shoveling. Of course, down in SC and GA they have no idea how to deal with even small amounts of snow. A friend from UWisc got a job at UGA; they had 2 inches of snow. My friend biked in to the biochem department only to find out they’d closed the University.
Yes. I once explained to a Floridian that we own different types of shovels. I have a sort of deep one that’s good for “pushing” snow. I don’t have to live it much, and can even push over the grass. I also have a shallow aluminum one with a sharp edge, that’s good for getting the think frozen sleet and ice shaved off the driveway and sidewalks. I also have a combination shovel that is sort of “in between”.
Even better though: My nice neighbor owns a snow blower and often sneaks over before I even have a chance to shovel!
Lucia: I also have multiple instruments for snow removal.
– a broad “shovel”, as you described, designed for pushing snow.
– a smaller width shovel for shoveling wet snow, or tossing it over the 2 meters of accumulated snow at the edge of the driveway.
– a 4 inch wide ice pick to break up ice
– a wide shop-style broom to sweep a light dusting of snow
I’ve tried to convince my bride that she would be well served to learn how to use these implements, but with out success.
Snow is really rather pretty. I and a neighbor cleaned out the snowy/slushy piles behind six cars at our complex. It only took two hours. When I lived in Michigan, I remember the joys of a snow thrower for my driveway and walk. Still, I needed a broom, the two shovels and the spade. You want at least two or three inches before pulling out the heavy artillery.
The fact that all this snow came when James Hansen was planning a rally is either disappointing or delicious, depending on your disposition. Those who look at it as a sign from god, of course, are just crazy people. Sane people know it is just another coincidence. But if there were a god, it is comforting to think that, as Bill Cosby joked in Bill Cosby Himself, “God has a sense of humor.”
Yes, we got snow in South Carolina. It stopped about 14 miles west, north and east of us. I have been joking that is the UHI effect; and not because Columbia is the state capitol and full of hot air.
If we get as much as 3 inches with ice, the governor has declared a state emergency restricitng travel to essiential medical, police, emergency personel, and instructed state troopers to arrest those who disobeyed if involved in a serious accident for disobeying a civil defense emergency order.
Wow! That’s a big reaction. But the ice makes things much worse– and being down in SC, you have loads of drivers who aren’t used to the ice, don’t know how their car reacts etc.
No snow down here in south FL, but the temps are unusually cool for this time of year with highs in the 60s recently and lows at night in the upper 30s and low 40s. It provides a good opportunity for the native Floridians to bring out their winter gear and to stop making jokes about how predictable FL weather is.
Still haven’t taken the time to learn the difference between climate and weather I see. Consider that your homework for the day
Jim Bouldin,
Huh?
Lucia: make that “huh?”^2.
I thought we were discussing weather.
Yes. I thought we were discussing weather too. Maybe Jim will return and we can discuss coin flipping. That seems to be necessary to all climate vs. weather discussions.
Actually, if Jim Boulding can educate me – and Gavin Schmidt – as to the difference we would be grateful. No one-liners about expectations vs observation please! What is ENSO – weather or climate? What kind of error model should the GCM ensemblers be using? TIA.
I’ve been out of touch, but I did catch the local news about the demonstration. The newscasters never mentioned global warming! They kept talking about the demonstration being about pollution. The only way you would know that it was a CO2/AGW protest was the banners and signs the protesters were carrying. Temps were down in the teens for the first part of the week, but are going to hit sixty this weekend. Inverse Hansen effect?