Global Warming Snow

Snowstorm and climate change - Los Angeles Times: "...Snow and global warming aren't mutually exclusive, climate scientists say. For starters, the amount of recorded warming over the last century, about 1 degree Fahrenheit above preindustrial levels, is nowhere near enough to eradicate winter in the mid-Atlantic.

Also, weather is variable: The planet would have extreme highs and lows with or without an overall warming trend.

And for all the recent snow in Washington, it hasn't been that cold -- mostly in the 20s or low 30s. The average temperature in Washington in January, according to the National Climatic Data Center, was about a degree warmer than the average for the last 40 years.

But the reverse is also true: The fact that Vancouver, Canada, is experiencing record-high temperatures and importing snow for the Winter Olympics doesn't prove a warming trend..."

The more likely key to actual climate change is observe sea levels and the Arctic ice pack, both of which indicate warming is occurring, though it is quite possible that this winter may blunt the trend. Over the history of Planet Earth, the benign climate of the past ten thousand years is an oddity; the typical climate has many more and larger temperature swings than we've experienced in our human history.