I agree (and have argued) that localized, cold weather is no more an argument against AGW than localized warm weather is an argument for it.
However, over the next 5 years, I believe we’ll see that this winter is more than that, that this cold spell is solid evidence of what those of us who have studied the AGW BS have been calling it, part of a climate cycle. The snow we’re seeing is part of a 30-year cycle exacerbated by the “Nino’s.”
And we are also very likely heading out of a much longer warming trend into a longer cooling trend. This may end up being critical because the AGW crowd has succeeded in cutting back on all that “bad stuff” that has made the US such a major food producer. With those cutbacks and the coming cold spell, it is very likely we will all suffer food shortages very quickly.
This past summer, the western provinces of Canada filed for a record number of government subsidies due to crop failure because of the colder, wetter weather. That is likely to drop down into our bread basket.
So, while I completely agree with you, I think we do need to use every opportunity we have to shut up the Statists that have been using every opportunity they have to destroy this country. I know it isn’t the best of Socratic and Aristotelean formal logic, but we have to use whatever comes our way.
The weather of this winter combined with ClimateGate coming out of East Anglia — to me — were both a godsend, and not an advantage I will toss aside.
Just my two zinc pennies.
I fully agree with you. The drop in stratospheric water vapor seems to be the primary cause of the decline, and the warmers have no explanation for it. It’s just important that we talk about climate (long-term trends) rather than weather, lest we open ourselves up to the same sort of ridicule they open themselves up to.