A cold wave across northwestern Europe has frosted Amsterdam, in the Netherlands (Holland), freezing canals. Check out this article at Huffington Post, which has a great slide show of pictures of people skating on the canals.
Deep Freeze Turns Amsterdam Canals Into Ice Skating Wonderland
Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates revisited.
And for our Global Warming Denialists ™, I will point out that all models have predicted that, thanks to melting and warming of Arctic ice cap, and flooding of fresh water into northern Atlantic, the warmth conveyor belt of the Gulf Current will be disrupted, resulting, paradoxical only if you are anti-science, in a possible new little ice age in Europe.
Science. REAL science, not the kind paid for by the oil companies to the denialists. You should all try it some time.
According to NASA’s Earth Observatory, much of Europe is experiencing the worst cold weather since 1991. The link in the quote below has an excellent graphic showing the deviations from norms across Europe and into Russia.
Rare snowstorms in Rome and Tripoli and mounting death tolls from exposure were among the consequences of a severe cold snap in Europe in late January and early February 2012. Meteorologist Jeff Masters described it as Europe’s worst stretch of cold weather since February 1991.
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Masters explains that the unusual cold is a product of the jet stream. Jet streams are bands of strong, upper-atmospheric winds that blow from west to east around the globe. These bands roughly separate colder air at higher latitudes from warmer air at middle to low latitudes, and they generally blow straight west to east. “But this winter, the jet has had a highly convoluted shape, with unusually large excursions to the north and south,” Masters states. “When the jet bulges southwards, it allows cold air to spill in behind it, and that is what has happened to Europe over the past two weeks.” When the jet stream adheres to a convoluted pattern for long enough, extreme weather can result
…
Masters explains that the unusual cold is a product of the jet stream. Jet streams are bands of strong, upper-atmospheric winds that blow from west to east around the globe. These bands roughly separate colder air at higher latitudes from warmer air at middle to low latitudes, and they generally blow straight west to east. “But this winter, the jet has had a highly convoluted shape, with unusually large excursions to the north and south,” Masters states. “When the jet bulges southwards, it allows cold air to spill in behind it, and that is what has happened to Europe over the past two weeks.” When the jet stream adheres to a convoluted pattern for long enough, extreme weather can result.
Meanwhile, back here in the United States:
December 2011 was one of the driest Decembers on record in the continental United States—particularly short on snowfall—and also among the warmest. Several large-scale weather and climate patterns are likely to blame for an unusual jet stream and the unseasonal weather.
