At Tuolumne Meadows, January was the warmest and driest January on record, according to weather measurements/NPS
Until a storm blew into California this weekend, winter weather had largely gone missing in Yosemite National Park, especially in Tuolumne Meadows. Rangers there reported that this January was the warmest and driest on record in Tuolume Meadows as measured at the weather station there.
That said, they noted, skiing on the Tioga Road and in the meadows was still pretty good.
"And, if you are feeling adventurous and creative, you can leave the security of the road and try your luck skiing on local summer hiking trails where, at least, there are fewer obstacles," Laura and Rob Pilewski reported on their blog on February 4. "Snowshoers are also using these corridors. We skied 17 miles yesterday while patrolling for the rare Sierra Nevada red fox. We only had to take our skis off once, and yes, we were feeling adventurous and creative (desperate is another appropriate adjective!)
"Just remember, it is Tuolumne Meadows without the cars; a wilderness paradise regardless of what mode of non-mechanized transportation one uses to get here."
According to their weather recordings, total settled snow depth was 5 inches as of February 4th, 2015 (at 8,600 feet); high temperature was 52°F, recorded on February 1, and the low temperature of 18°F was noted on February 3.
Comments
Well, whether you call it climate change, weather, or global warming, most of the country west of the Continental Divide is in a dire shortage of snow moisture content.
SNOTEL - River Basin Snow Water Content
I also can tell you that at Traveler headquarters at 6,500', we've slogged through a "winter" of mild (daily highs approaching or above 50), wet (in the form of rain and drizzle, not snow) weather.
Pink blocks = less than 25 percent of average
Red blocks= 25-50 percent of average
Tan blocks = 50-75 percent of average
Yellow blocks = 75-90 percent of average
Lime green blocks = 90-110 percent of average
Bright green blocks = 110-125 percent of average
Guess there's no such thing as satellites to the flat earth mindset of the average bagga'.
From the World Meteorological Organization:
Warming Trend Continues in 2014
14 of 15 Hottest Years Have Been in 21st Century
Geneva, 2 February 2015 (WMO) The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has ranked 2014 as the hottest year on record, as part of a continuing trend. After consolidating leading international datasets, WMO noted that the difference in temperature between the warmest years is only a few hundredths of a degree – less than the margin of uncertainty.
Average global air temperatures over land and sea surface in 2014 were 0.57 °C (1.03°F) above the long-term average of 14.00°C (57.2 °F) for the 1961-1990 reference period. By comparison, temperatures were 0.55 °C (1.00°F) above average in 2010 and 0.54°C (0.98°F) above average in 2005, according to WMO calculations. The estimated margin of uncertainty was 0.10°C (0.18°F).
“The overall warming trend is more important than the ranking of an individual year,” said WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud. “Analysis of the datasets indicates that 2014 was nominally the warmest on record, although there is very little difference between the three hottest years,” said Mr Jarraud.
“Fourteen of the fifteen hottest years have all been this century. We expect global warming to continue, given that rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the increasing heat content of the oceans are committing us to a warmer future,” he said.
Around 93% of the excess energy trapped in the atmosphere by greenhouse gases from fossil fuels and other human activities ends up in the oceans. Therefore, the heat content of the oceans is key to understanding the climate system. Global sea-surface temperatures reached record levels in 2014.[1]
It is notable that the high 2014 temperatures occurred in the absence of a fully developed El Niño. El Niño occurs when warmer than average sea-surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific combine, in a self-reinforcing loop, with atmospheric pressure systems. This has an overall warming impact on the climate. High temperatures in 1998 – the hottest year before the 21st century – occurred during a strong El-Niño year.
Weather, Climate and Water
For more information: Please contact Clare Nullis at +41 22 7308478 or 41 79 709 1397 or cnullis{at)wmo.int.
The full datasets are available on request
I'm sitting here in my living room looking through the window at a retreating glacier. Not a link to a right wing newspaper, Not a pretty graph from a denial site. I'm watching the glacier in front of me.
Interest in ongoing haggling with the sycophants*** of the right wing is less than interest in a root canal.
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***[For those of you who decry the "educated elite" and have to look sycophant up, synonyms you might be more familiar with include: yes-man, bootlicker, brown-noser, toady, lickspittle, flatterer, flunky, lackey, spaniel, doormat, stooge, cringer, suck, or suck-up]
If I remember correctly, a student at Stanford hypothesized last year that global warming made the high pressure ridge off the CA coast more likely. This ridge of high pressure basically pushes all the moisture to the north and around CA. It's been the winter weather pattern for the last 4 years. There are quite a few ski resorts closed around lake Tahoe right now.
So if you lived in antartica where glaciers are expanding you would have a different opinion?
Another example of why it's called climate change :-) I suspect, for better or worse, most Americans are a lot more concerned about the ongoing drought in the western U.S. (and shinking glaciers in Alaska and Montana) than they are about a recent change in the trend for Glaciers at Antarctica.
Most American's are (or should be) concerned about getting the facts right and most don't believe global warming is human caused.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/26/poll-53-of-americans-dont-believe-in-m...
But I guess most Americans are just sycophants, although Rick's list of synonyms seem to be more applicable to the alarmists than the skeptics. At least this time he didn't revert to pornography in his rant.