LONDON – Blizzards and freezing temperatures shut down runways, train tracks and highways across Europe on Saturday, disrupting flights and leaving shivering drivers stranded on roadsides.
Airports in Britain, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark reported cancelations or delays to flights.
London's Gatwick airport reopened late afternoon after 150 employees using dozens of plows worked to clear the runway of 10 centimeters (four inches) of snow, though officials warned flights would be limited and cancelations likely.
Heathrow Airport will remain shut until Sunday after snow and ice forced the closure of runways, according to a statement on its website.
"There are likely to be significant knock-on delays tomorrow (Sunday) and you should contact your airline before traveling to the airport," the statement said.
I know...it's winter time. Climate doesn't seem to change - it's still cold in winter and hot in summer.
Colorado is experiencing climate change too....
Go west young man, go west. Conditions will be prime in the high country this weekend, with heavy snow from Saturday through Tuesday.
A number of winter weather alerts are in effect through the weekend for 12 to 24" of snowfall west of the Continental Divide. A number of storms will hit the Pacific coast and that moisture will spread east over Colorado.
This will be in addition to the snowfall already received Saturday. Crested Butte and Wolf Creek reported over a foot of new snowfall through Saturday afternoon. These totals could easily be doubled and possibly tripled by late Monday.
While winter weather dominates a good portion of the globe it is not much in terms of evidence to dismiss or promote climate change. I only wish we could experience some of the snow here in Conifer. I want a white Christmas.
Al Gore Types: More snow is a sign of global warming, warm air can hold more snow than cold.
Of course Cozumel breaking 100 year old cold records is more significant, especially during a global warming conference. Think God has a sense of humor?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
"I think it is the end of the world," she said. "Our planet warns us against what would happen if we don't care about nature."
The excessive amount of extreme weather that dominated 2010 is a classic sign of man-made global warming that climate scientists have long warned about. They calculate that the killer Russian heat wave - setting a national record of 111 degrees - would happen once every 100,000 years without global warming.
"The Earth strikes back in cahoots with bad human decision-making," said a weary Debarati Guha Sapir, director for the World Health Organization's Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters. "It's almost as if the policies, the government policies and development policies, are helping the Earth strike back instead of protecting from it. We've created conditions where the slightest thing the Earth does is really going to have a disproportionate impact."
SS109 wrote: Al Gore Types: More snow is a sign of global warming, warm air can hold more snow than cold.
Of course Cozumel breaking 100 year old cold records is more significant, especially during a global warming conference. Think God has a sense of humor?
Yeah, just like hot weather in summer time is sign of global warming.
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.
Fen skating, once a popular sport on the fields of East Anglia, now takes place on indoor artificial rinks. Malcolm Robinson, of the Fenland Indoor Speed Skating Club in Peterborough, says they have not skated outside since 1997. "As a boy, I can remember being on ice most winters. Now it's few and far between," he said.
And now, ten years later, here is what we have in Britain...
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.
OK, I don't think a one month episode of extreme cold proves anything, but that CRU scientist is looking pretty dumb based on what he said ten years ago.
I just think the rhetoric on both sides of the issue of climate change is too extreme and absolute. Both sides should tone it down a bit.
Now, back to making sure polar bears don't go extinct... :Snooze
An old timer told me they used to ice skate on the lakes along I-70 during the 30's and 40's. Maybe the world was colder then or people lived life more dangerously?
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
SS109 wrote: An old timer told me they used to ice skate on the lakes along I-70 during the 30's and 40's. Maybe the world was colder then or people lived life more dangerously?
I have seen people ice skating on the lakes near I-70....in any case, I was once told that all of the US was covered with ice.
If we quit building roads and buildings, you can be assured the mean temperature of a city will drop...not because of the "carbon footprint."
