Free Republic

Even independently of the Obama administration’s policies, the U.S. energy grid has been undergoing some major shifts in the past few years. As the shale revolution has gained steam and natural gas has become more abundant, the proportion of electricity we get from coal has decreased while the role of viable-substitute natural gas has gotten bigger. Many defenders of the Obama administration’s incoming regulations for new and existing coal-fired power plants point to this ongoing market shift as part of their rationale, arguing that the transition to cleaner-burning natural gas is happening anyway and that all these regulations are just...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Boy, think about all of the impact that this snow and cold weather has to be having out there. I mean, there are a lot of places that are not used to this. Some places are and it isn’t any big deal. If they get 15 inches of snow in New York, big whoop. They get inclement whether like this in a lot of places, and despite the media, people are used to it. But there are places that are getting weather that do not get it regularly and, as such, may not be prepared for it....

The National Weather Service predicts that the major winter storm that dropped significant snowfall and ice on the Southeast yesterday will intensify as it moves up the Eastern Seaboard today. The accumulation of ice can damage the electric distribution system and make road conditions unsafe, which could hamper power restoration efforts. As of 3:30 p.m. yesterday more than 450,000 customers were without power from Florida to Pennsylvania, according to the Department of Energy's Energy Assurance Daily. States of emergency have been declared in Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. The U.S. Energy Information Administration provides...

We have been making Al Gore and Global Warming the butt of most jokes since the winters of 2009(when the Liberals took over!).And especially since the winters of 2009,we have seen and had to endure some very harsh and record cold winters,and ice storms that caused major havoc in southern states.And didn't South Dakota(or North)get buried in 10 feet of snow recently?And yet,we have never seen "The Godfather Of Global Warming",make an appearance on CNN/MSNBC/ABC "Esplaining" how all of these events are a symptom of Global Warming.So where is Al This Winter? Hiding In Florida Again?

As much as 14 inches of snow could hit New York City and the surrounding area tonight, as the storm that has gridlocked the Southeast comes north. AccuWeather Meteorologist Tom Kines says the snow will begin to fall around midnight and last through most of Thursday. The latest National Weather Service forecast map shows that the city will likely get between 10 and 14 inches, depending on whether precipitation changes over to rain during the day. People in New Jersey and Long island will be much luckier, Kines said. He expects they'll receive just a few inches.

Subfreezing temperatures and a night of rain and sleet on top of Wednesday’s snow promise to keep the Triangle largely shut down through Thursday night and possibly into Friday. The second stage of the storm was setting in even as police and tow trucks tried to clear the vehicles abandoned on the sides of roads and highways Wednesday. Forecasters had predicted the storm for days, prompting Wake County schools to close Wednesday, but the snow seemed to catch thousands off guard, trapping columns of cars on snow-whitened streets and highways.

Thursday, February 13, 2014 The Green Socialists of Mars Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog We live in a strange world in which the weather is a subject of furious political debate. People have been arguing about the weather ever since the first rainstorm caught the first man without the umbrella that he did not yet know how to make, but they didn't hold political debates over it. For the last fifty years, the anti-weather side has been insisting that the world is headed toward a Frostean apocalypse of ice or fire. The calm biblical assertion that...

(Reuters) - Eleven people died, more than a thousand were injured and tens of thousands lost power when the worst snowstorm in decades hit Tokyo and areas around the Japanese capital before heading north to blanket the tsunami-hit Pacific coast.

The potentially devastating winter storm that forecasters and the governor have been warning about for days began unfolding before daybreak Wednesday as temperatures dropped to 32 degrees or below and began freezing the precipitation that returned overnight. ... “All of the interstates, all of the secondary routes, all of the surface streets, are all iced over,” Arum said. “Where you are right now is where you’re going to be tomorrow morning, there’s no doubt about it.” ... The number of power outages is growing by the minute. Just before 5 a.m., the number of customers in the dark was 2,000....

(CNSNews.com) – Lake Superior hasn’t completely frozen over in two decades. But an expert on Great Lakes ice says there’s a “very high likelihood” that the three-quadrillion-gallon lake will soon be totally covered with ice thanks to this winter’s record-breaking cold. The ice cover on the largest freshwater lake in the world hit a 20-year record of 91 percent on Feb. 5, 1994. ...

Ice Expert Predicts Lake Superior Will Completely Freeze Over This Winter February 11, 2014 - 3:22 PM By Barbara Hollingsworth (CNSNews.com) – Lake Superior hasn’t completely frozen over in two decades. But an expert on Great Lakes ice says there’s a “very high likelihood” that the three-quadrillion-gallon lake will soon be totally covered with ice thanks to this winter’s record-breaking cold. The ice cover on the largest freshwater lake in the world hit a 20-year record of 91 percent on Feb. 5, 1994. Jay Austin, associate professor at the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., told CNSNews.com that he expects...

I’m seeing a lot of wrangling over the recent (15+ year) pause in global average warming…when did it start, is it a full pause, shouldn’t we be taking the longer view, etc. These are all interesting exercises, but they miss the most important point: the climate models that governments base policy decisions on have failed miserably. I’ve updated our comparison of 90 climate models versus observations for global average surface temperatures through 2013, and we still see that >95% of the models have over-forecast the warming trend since 1979, whether we use their own surface temperature dataset (HadCRUT4), or our...

For the second day in a row, chunks of ice fell from the Freedom Tower — but this time streets remained open and Port Authority officials didn’t close the nearby PATH station. Instead, pedestrians had to fend for themselves, scurrying for cover about 11 a.m. Saturday in the shadow of the nation’s tallest building. “We just saw ice falling down the building,” said startled Austrian tourist Katharina Amann, 24, who is visiting the city with her family. “It was scary. Then I heard it shatter.” Ice also fell from 7 World Trade Center, which is 52 stories tall, some chunks...

Reading what went on in Atlanta this week is just amazing! I moved to Florida after living near Chicago and the lake snow region of NW Indiana most of my life. We had to deal with bad ice storms in Southern Illinois when I was young and while at the University of Illinois in Champaign. Three inches of snow in Chicago is NOTHING. They got rid of a mayor that didn’t get and keep the roads open. I had to teach in Chicago Heights, IL when the temperature was -48 and the wind chill was -82. As I recall, I...

Is this what global warming is supposed to look like? More photos here. Yes, I know that it's "just weather" when it's cold. But you can bet if the winter was mild, the global warming alarmists would be sounding the doom and gloom trumpet. Not too long ago, the warmists were saying that an unusually mild winter proved their case. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) in 2005 said: "Having no snow is consistent with what the models predict will become a significant problem for us in the future." Well now it is the future and the "significant problem" we have is...

Readers may recall our story from Dec 15th, 2013: Over half the USA covered in snow, the most in 11 years Now, it’ even more.Area Covered By Snow: 67.4% Area Covered Last Month: 48.1%

Ice continued to build this past week on the Great Lakes due to the cold air and temperatures staying below freezing, and Lake Superior's new record shows it.

A record-number of people lost their power across the region thanks to a significant ice storm and power officials warn it could be days before everyone has their electricity back. "Based on the current conditions and the damage across the entire region, we believe service for the majority of customers will be restored by Friday night," said PECO spokesman Ben Armstrong. "However customers in more heavily-damaged areas will be without power through Sunday." PECO Energy, the largest power provider in the Philadelphia region, told NBC10.com the storm was the second worst in their history and worst winter storm outage ever with more...

DULUTH, Minn. -- A frigid winter is pushing Lake Superior toward a complete ice-over for the first time since 1996, though there's still a ways to go before you can skate from Duluth to the Soo Locks. Lake Superior had at least some ice across an estimated 91 percent of its surface as of Thursday, according to the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory. That compares with the 40-year average annual Lake Superior ice coverage for February of just 30 percent. George Leshkevich has been tracking Great Lakes ice for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory...

If you thought it was cold where you are at the moment then a visit to the Russian village of Oymyakon might just change your mind. With the average temperature for January standing at -50C, it is no wonder the village is the coldest permanently inhabited settlement in the world. Known as the 'Pole of Cold', the coldest ever temperature recorded in Oymyakon was -71.2C. Unsurprisingly, locals are hardened to the weather and unlike in other countries - where a flurry of snow brings things grinding to a halt, Oymyakon's solitary school only shuts if temperatures fall below -52C. (-61.6...