January 12, 2008

Denver Snow Cover Reaches Record Books For Second Straight Year

Although there was no mention of it until it had passed (all the global warmening that had to be covered, aside from record Christmas Day snowfall), Denver saw 32 consecutive days of snow cover for the second straight year, pushing into the top 10 once again:
Only a trace of snow was measured in Denver Wednesday, ending a 32-day streak with an inch or more of snow on the ground.

December's above average snowfall and cold temperatures kept measureable snow on the ground at the old Stapleton Airport for over a month straight. The streak of snow-covered days was long enough to secure 10th place for consecutive days of snow cover in Denver. At least an inch of snow was measured on the ground in Denver from December 8, 2007 to January 8, 2008.

Every morning observers at the old Stapleton Airport officially measure the amount of snow cover. In an area free of obstructions like trees and buildings, several measurements are taken and averaged to account for melting and drifting. If the average is an inch or greater, it is added to the count. Less than an inch is recorded as a trace amount.

The Denver snow-cover record was set at 63 days between November 26, 1983 and January 27, 1984. Last winter recorded a second-place finish with a 61 day stretch between December 21, 2006 and February 19, 2007.

This year, the 24 days in December and 8 days in January with snow cover came close to a ninth place finish. One more day would have tied the 33 day mark set in 1919.
This comes on top of the news that actually has been covered since late November worries pushed the state's global warming panickers into overdrive following a warm, dry month--the state's snowpack is now uniformly over 100% of the 30-year average in all 8 river basins, with two above 150%, and the state average of 127% overall.

Global warm-mongers routinely cherry-pick evidence to support their claims, and even go so far as to claim that all weather, even unseen-in-a-century snowfall in Baghdad is also evidence of global warming.

For the past two years, early season predictions for Denver and Colorado as a whole have not come to fruition. Before 2006's twin blizzards and subsequent months of frequent snow and cold, Denver was supposed to have three months--December through February--of above average temperatures and little snowfall. Oops.

Same thing has occurred this year. Heavy snowfall over the southwest portion of the state has necessitated Colorado's Division of Wildlife to bail out elk and deer herds without winter forage due to snow cover above 50 inches.

Once again, it is difficult to reconcile reality with global warming conspiracy theories (where all evidence is evidence of climate change, etc.) and the inability to make believable predictions that are correct not just decades or years but just months and days away. There is a reason people poke fun at meteorologists' predictive power (the only job to be correct less than half the time and still be employed!), based as it is on complex computer models that certainly give more advance warning, but can not definitively predict a storm's path or strength. Nature still remains beyond human beings' arrogant attempt to predict or control, making frivolous "doomsday" assertions of climate change catastrophe that much more unpalatable to anyone with a skeptical frame of mind.

The only thing certain about climate is its uncertainty, and our inability to do much about it.

XDA, another Colorado blog, has been following the science of climate change as well.

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