Free Republic

A remarkable lake-effect snowstorm dumped six feet of snow on upstate New York Tuesday in a mid-November snowstorm dubbed "snowvember." For those unfamiliar with heavy snowstorms, this drone gives an inside look at what living in an area with heavy snow is like. The National Weather Service reported that some areas of Buffalo received six feet of snow in just a matter of hours:

resident Barack Obama announced the release of a global warming “toolkit,” one day before all 50 U.S. states fell below freezing temperatures. The White House says its “resilience toolkit” is an extension of Obama’s “Climate Action Plan” .. A recent Gallup poll finds that just two percent of Americans rate “environment/pollution” as a top concern.

The focus of the 2014 Group of 20 summit meeting in Brisbane, Australia, was on stimulating economic growth across the industrialized world. Thanks, though, to President Obama’s grandstanding and attempted sabotage of the agenda as laid out by the host country, climate change also came to prominence. For several months prior to the G-20, and despite strong Australian resistance, radical environmental groups had been lobbying for inclusion of global-warming issues on the meeting’s agenda. Mr. Obama was happy to oblige them. His endorsement of the U.S.-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change just before the G-20 was a signal that he...

Heavy snow has stranded many motorists on a western New York highway. Some tips on what to do if you find yourself stuck in the snow: Pull off the highway and make yourself visible to rescuers. Turn on hazard lights and tie a bright cloth to your antenna or door handle. Call 911 from your cellphone, if you have one. Be prepared to describe the location, the condition of your companions and the trouble you’re having. Don’t hang up until you know whom you’ve spoken with and what will happen next. Stay in your vehicle.…

D’Aleo, now chief forecaster at WeatherBell Analytics, was one of the few meteorologists to accurately predict a colder-than-normal November. He expects several major East Coast snowstorms and “widespread below-zero temperatures” that will plunge much of the nation into a deep freeze for as long as six weeks this winter. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it snows in Atlanta, Dallas, and Birmingham,” he told CNSNews.com. “We’ve been talking about this being another one of those historic winters since the spring. The summer before last, we had seen last winter as being one that people near the Great Lakes would remember for...

The San Francisco Bay Area city of Berkeley will decide whether to slap stickers on gas pumps warning that burning fuel contributes to global warming in a plan that’s a first of its kind in the country. […] A spokeswoman for the Western States Petroleum Association, an oil-industry lobbying group, has said the labels reflect the state’s and Berkeley’s opinions and would force “unwanted speech in violation of the First Amendment.” …

Meteorologist Tim Buckley of WFMY-TV writes on Facebook: All 50 states have low temperatures BELOW freezing tonight. (Monday night) Yes, even Hawaii. Tall mountain peaks there regularly get below freezing, and even get snow. This typically happens a few times during winter, but is very rare this early in the season. Pretty neat!

With just two years left in power, President Barack Obama is elevating his efforts to combat global warming as he seeks to leave an imprint on the world that will endure after he's gone. It's a strategy rooted not only in Obama's long-stated support for such efforts, but also in political reality. Two weeks ago, Obama watched his prospects for realizing his goals on education, wages and immigration all but evaporate as voters handed his party a stinging rebuke in the midterms, putting Republicans in full control of Congress for the remainder of his presidency. But on a trip last...

The largest solar power plant of its type in the world - once promoted as a turning point in green energy - isn't producing as much energy as planned. One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn't shining as much as expected.

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and other supporters of the Keystone XL oil pipeline are stuck at 59 votes — one vote shy of the supermajority they need to move their bill forward on Tuesday. Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Monday that they would vote against moving forward with the legislation, making it unclear whether supporters had a path to the magic number of 60. Rockefeller had appeared to be one of the last possible converts Monday evening, and supporters were pressuring the retiring senator to join their side. But he told reporters on Monday that he...

The White House on Monday essentially dared Republicans to try and stop President Obama’s climate-change agenda, with officials bragging that even after the GOP takes control of the Senate in January, there is nothing that can be done to stop a host of controversial new actions. On a conference call with reporters, White House counselor John Podesta said the administration will move ahead on the issue despite Republican efforts to stand in the way. He even called out incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by name, saying the Kentucky Republican will not succeed in trying to slow executive action on...

For some reason, I don’t find it surprising that Oregon is a hotbed of climate alarmism. Thus, when the Portland Tribune recently published an article describing how Oregon’s “warmer climate imperils our health,” it seemed appropriate to look further into the claims being made. Apparently, climate change in Oregon will lead to “less snow on Mount Hood? [but] we can live with that.” Interesting, given how there has been no significant trend in maximum overwinter snowpack on Mount Hood since records began in 1981. Indeed, according to an article in 2012 at ABC News Cleveland, snowpack in the Cascade Mountains...

The earth is allegedly in the midst of a 30-year cold spell, as is apparently evident from the early icy spell across many parts of North America, as well as last winter being, “One of the snowiest, coldest, most miserable on record,” according to USA Today. The man who made the claims is climatologist John L. Casey, who is also a former space shuttle engineer and NASA consultant. According to Casey, who just released a new book entitled, Dark Winter: How the Sun Is Causing a 30-Year Cold Spell, a radical shift in global climate is underway, as the Earth...

Casey says the evidence is clear that the earth is rapidly growing colder because of diminished solar activity. He says trends indicate we could be headed for colder temperatures similar to those seen in the late 1700s and early 1800s when the sun went into a "solar minimum" — a phenomenon with significantly reduced solar activity, including solar flares and sunspot. .... If "Dark Winter" is right, that means the nation is busily preparing for the wrong calamity. "We don't have 10 years," Casey warns. "We've squandered during President Obama's administration eight years . . . and we didn't have...

The first sightings of ice on Lake Superior and the Great Lakes overall usually occur during the beginning to middle of December. However, a perfect combination of last season's record ice coverage, cooler summer temperatures, and an early blast of arctic air this fall has allowed for areas of ice to form earlier than normal for the second year in a row.

Senate Republicans appear likely to use their majority status in the next Congress to attack the science behind climate change in an attempt to undercut environmental policies. But some GOP strategists wonder whether such an offensive might backfire. Questioning — and attempting to delegitimize — climate scientists them has been an oft-used tactic of Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who is poised to reprise his role as chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. It was a hallmark of his 2003 to 2007 chairmanship of the panel — and the following six years, when he was its ranking member. As...

DES MOINES, Iowa —Central Iowa is digging out after a Saturday storm dropped around 3 inches of snow for people to deal with. Check road conditions before you travel.

"................The ongoing economic suicide of Europe is based on a faulty understanding of the climate issue by most Western politicians and on their extreme policy response, based on emotion rather than logic and science. The major European economies have reacted irrationally to contrived,unjustified fear of imagined global-warming disasters...[SNIP]One may ask:Is there any way to stop this steamroller? There’s probably little hope that such an initiative can come from Europe;it may have to come from the United States. Somehow we would have to convince European leaders that their policies, based on global-warming fears, are mistaken. That job may prove to be...

From the University of Hawaii ‑ SOEST“This summer has seen the highest global mean sea surface temperatures ever recorded since their systematic measuring started. Temperatures even exceed those of the record-breaking 1998 El Niño year,” says Axel Timmermann, climate scientist and professor, studying variability of the global climate system at the International Pacific Research Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa.From 2000-2013 the global ocean surface temperature rise paused, in spite of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. This period, referred to as the Global Warming Hiatus, raised a lot of public and scientific interest. However, as of April 2014 ocean warming has...

Jo Bastardi discusses the weather.