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From the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)New perspectives for long-term climate predictions? This image shows a time series of solar activity (bottom) and the North Atlantic Oscillation in two model simulations, without (blue) and with (yellow) solar forcing. Credit, GEOMAR.  Are climate predictions over periods of several years reliable if weather forecast are still only possible for short periods of several days? Nevertheless there are options to predict the development of key parameters on such long time scales. A new study led by scientists at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel shows how the well-known 11-year cycle...

Hardcore warmist's amazing admission One of the world's most firmly global-warmist scientists has put his name to a scientific paper which says that even if humanity deliberately sets out to burn all the fossil fuels it can find, as fast as it can, there will be no troublesome sea level rise due to melting Antarctic ice this century. Dr Ken Caldeira's credentials as a global warmist are impeccable. He is not a true green hardliner - he has signed a plea to his fellow greens to get over their objections to nuclear power, for instance, and he doesn't totally rule...

Today's Saturday Summary from @BigJoeBastardi: the upcoming winter, balance of tropical season, arctic sea ice: http://t.co/3mA1lMh4du

DENVER (CBS4) – Colorado’s 2015-2016 Winter season may be one for the record books as El Niño conditions strengthen in the Pacific Ocean. The El Niño forecast released by NOAA suggests a colder winter with more snowfall than normal. Ocean temperatures in the equatorial Pacific have been as much as four degrees warmer than average over the past few months. Historically, this setup has brought more moisture into the state during the winter months, especially southwestern Colorado, but Denver has also seen its largest snowstorms during El Niño years.

As he detailed problems his coaching staff had with the headset communications on Thursday night, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin stopped short of coming right out and accusing the Patriots of cheating. But the Steelers’ website makes clear that the team believes the Patriots were in control of the audio problems the Steelers’ coaches were having. An article on the Steelers’ website says that the audio communications problems started and stopped repeatedly — always stopping when a league official came down to the sideline to deal with the matter, then starting up again when the league official left the sideline area....

Liam Dutton, a meteorologist in the United Kingdom, shocked viewers earlier this week. Their surprise was not because of a forecast, but rather his ability to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch correctly live on air. The tongue-twisting Welsh village has online guides on how to pronounce the name and apparently has the longest specific single-word .com domain name in the world. However, Dutton’s impressive display of vocal dexterity may have really put it on the map.

(CNN)—NASA's rockets are astounding machines, capable of blasting into space at thousands of miles per hour and withstanding temperatures twice the melting point of steel. But they can't take off underwater. Rising sea levels caused by melting ice caps threaten to disrupt a handful of NASA launch sites along U.S. coastlines, the space agency warns. In the coming years, launch facilities at Florida's Kennedy Space Center and other places may need to be retrofitted or even moved inland, NASA says. "Every NASA center has its own set of vulnerabilities, and some are more at risk than others," NASA climatologist...

Glacier National Park, the top of Logan Pass has been temporarily shut down again, this time because of snow. Glacier announced over the weekend that a section of the Going-to-the-Sun Road between Big Bend on the west side and Jackson Glacier Overlook on the east side is temporarily closed because of winter weather conditions.

From 30C to snow in under a week? It's possible in Germany where seven centimetres of the white stuff fell at the top of the Bavarian Alps on Friday. It might seem like summer was only last week in Germany – and that's because it was. With blazing sunshine and temperatures topping 30C over the weekend, the onset of winter couldn't have been further from most Germans' minds. But in the Bavarian Alps, autumn has been skipped out altogether. At Zugspitze – Germany's highest peak, at 2,962m – seven centimetres of snow have already fallen, reports the Münchner Merkur. "The...

The link shows a satellite view of the fires over the US. You can zoom in to view your locall areas. Depending on usage, it can be slow to load. This was used alot for the Washington Fires.

Recap of winter forecast, current state of global sea ice. Current SST/El Niño/SOI. Three to fifteen day forecast.

It might seem like summer was only last week in Germany—and that’s because it was. With blazing sunshine and temperatures topping 30°C over the weekend, the onset of winter couldn’t have been further from most Germans’ minds. But in the Bavarian Alps, autumn has been skipped out altogether. At Zugspitze—Germany’s highest peak, at 2,962 meters—seven centimeters of snow have already fallen, reports the Münchner Merkur. …

Every so often you will see articles warning that some species is going extinct. And usually it's not really a species -- you never hear about "leopards" going extinct, usually it's "purple dotted left handed bisexual Nepalese leopards" or some subvariety.  We are assured they are going extinct because fewer have been seen recently. But the Earth is so big, how can we really be sure that some subspecies is going extinct just because we see fewer of them? After all, only three percent of the land mass of the Earth is urbanized. Animals could easily be hidden in...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's calamitous effects, an image of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Mike Maroney locked in a heartwarming embrace with a young girl he encountered during rescue operations became a symbol of hope and optimism. For the last decade, Maroney has been determined to meet the child he hugged in the iconic photo. In March, the Air Force Times launched the "Find Katrina Kid" campaign to help Maroney reconnect with the little girl.

The global map of tree density at the square-kilometer pixel scale. Credit: Crowther, et al A new Yale-led study estimates that there are more than 3 trillion trees on Earth, about seven and a half times more than some previous estimates. But the total number of trees has plummeted by roughly 46 percent since the start of human civilization, the study estimates. Using a combination of satellite imagery, forest inventories, and supercomputer technologies, the international team of researchers was able to map tree populations worldwide at the square-kilometer level. Their results, published in the journal Nature, provide the most comprehensive...

Diablo Canyon is the last operating nuclear power plant in California — and arguably the most controversial. The plant sits along the scenic Central Coast and is surrounded by fault lines — one of which runs as close as 2,000 feet to the nuclear reactors. Many fear that a single earthquake could cause a repeat of the 2011 Fukushima disaster in Japan, when a tsunami devastated a nuclear plant. But despite decades of public protest, the plant's operator PG&E insists that the facility is not only seismically sound, but essential.

The Security Department of Abu Dhabi Police released this picture of lightning in Al Ain. A farm worker of an Asian nationality died yesterday evening in Al Ain, after he was hit by a bolt of lightning. Colonel Mohammed Ibrahim Al Ameri, Director, Emergency Management and Public Safety, Abu Dhabi Police, said that ambulances and patrol cars moved to the site of the incident, where paramedics discovered that the person was already dead. The lightning also caused the death of six camels that the deceased was herding. Colonel Al Ameri advised the public to follow weather forecasts and weather alerts....

THIS IS IT! THE WINTER FORECAST! Will it be cold? How cold? How much snow? Find out here!

Footage shows pedestrians walking on the pavement when it suddenly gave inA sinkhole in a northeastern Chinese city has swallowed five people in dramatic scenes that were captured on video. A provincial broadcaster says four people were injured in the Saturday incident in the provincial capital of Harbin.

The US is in a historic hurricane drought, according to NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The fading of Hurricane Danny, which peaked as a Category 3 storm over the Atlantic, came as no surprise Saturday.ATLANTA — Hurricane Danny, a small hurricane that at one point reached Category 3 status as it moved across from Africa toward the Leeward Islands, has weakened quickly and by Sunday should be reduced to tropical storm status. An unusually strong atmospheric wind shear can be seen on satellite images Saturday literally whisking the storm away. To be sure, Danny remains a dangerous development. Slated to hit...