If you think it has been cold in the UK, or in the Mid West, over the last week or so, and then grab a load of this at http://notrickszone.com/2013/02/23/northern-hemisphere-sets-new-all-time… …. which is a reference to Oymyakon in Siberia where a temperature reading of minus -71 degrees Celsius has been recorded. Meanwhile, the BBC, with its insistence on chilly rather than freezing cold has yet to mention the IPCC chairman has admitted there has been no warming over recent years (from whatever variant from 17 to 0). However, in recent days there has been a rash of newspaper reports (Mail, Express, Telegraph etc) telling us that power cuts are on the way. This is all due to the realisation that some coal fired power stations are due to pop their clogs – and shut down. Done in by the obsession to reduce co2 output. In this they are more than several years behind the old codgers on their computers that man the sceptic blogs. It has been common knowledge on the blogosphere for a very long time that the day of reckoning is rapidly approaching. Once power cuts bite politicians may unscramble their heads. Hopefully. I don't suppose they'll unscramble their wallets, however. Mother Nature seems none too pleased, or somebody upstairs. Somebody appears to be slightly miffed with the CAGW people. Perhaps it is the troughing, snouts in the slurry, or perhaps somebody is sensitive to all the hype and over enthusiasm of the self seeking morass. Winter temperatures are not responding and river banks are still in flood and subsidies for renewables are escalating. It's like watching a modern re-run of the 18th century South Sea Bubble – and we've got grandstand seats. You can bet some people out there are angling for a position when finally the eye of the storm is upon us, in expection of a rich killing fields. For anyone interested, there is news of a dab little green mean machine, an environmentally friendly stove to cook your food and boil your kettle when times really do get rough. Well, that is the plan. All the little people chip in and all the important people fill their pockets – and we thought we weren't medieval (go to www.biolitestove.com/campstove/camp-overview/features/ ). It uses smal twigs, pine cones, and pellets (wood, manure, even plastic pellets I suppose) and therefore you don't have to chop down the trees in the local woods (as they are reputed to be doing over in Germany). At the same time, it is not recommended you use your barbecue indoors when it's snowing outside. You might set fire to the carpets.
Meanwhile, scientists are forecasting more snow at the Poles – less for the rest (see http://phys.org/print280765169.html). A new climate model predicts an increase in snowfall in the polar regions and at the highest altitudes coinciding with a dip in snow for everyone else. This is all due to rising co2 levels – the model says it is so. Unsurprisingly the model was developed by those clever chappies at NOAA (the American equivalent of HADCru) and the study is published, without a blush at all, at the Journal of Climate. They even go so far as to say the new model is an improvement – but see http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/02/22/new-model-says-more-snow-at-poles-… Anthony Watts posts the paper – and his readers comment. The second of these is a bit snarky as he asks if last weeks snow dump on Arizona and Colorado has anything to do with the mountainous terrain.