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I wrote last week about the coming Grand Solar Minimum, something that will have much more impact on the environment than anything we puny humans can do. It generated a lot of interest from all sides, so it’s time to delve deeper into what we can expect. Starting with the hype: During the last grand solar minimum (GSM), the Maunder Minimum of 1645 to 1715, glaciers advanced, rivers froze, sea ice expanded -- in short, the Little Ice Age. Is another one is almost upon us? Probably not. Maunder occurred at the tail end of a bi-millennial cycle. These cycles...

Current models used by many climate scientists estimate global sea levels could rise by between 1 and 2 meters by the end of this century. The Durham researchers used detailed geological sea-level data and state-of-the-art modeling techniques to reveal the sources of the dramatic five-century sea level rising event. Comparable to melting an ice sheet twice the size of Greenland, it resulted in the flooding of vast areas of low-lying land and disrupted ocean circulation, with knock-on effects for global climate, they said. "Our study includes novel information from lakes around the coast of Scotland that were isolated from the...

Imagine not a white, but a green Arctic, with woody shrubs as far north as the Canadian coast of the Arctic Ocean. This is what the northernmost region of North America looked like about 125,000 years ago, during the last interglacial period, finds new research from CU Boulder.

Last month the Earth had its coldest February in seven years, thanks to the effect of La Niña. The irregular weather pattern causes abnormally strong winds that make the ocean colder than normal. During February, the average temperature in the contiguous US was 30.6 F, or 3.2°F below the 20th century average.... ...The US was particularly hard hit: The average temperature in the continental U.S. last month was 30.6 degrees F, or 3.2 degrees below the 20th century average. That's the 19th coldest February in the 127 years the agency has kept records, and the coldest February since 1989....

A massive walrus was spotted on the shore of western Ireland on Sunday — the first confirmed sighting of the tusked creature in the country, a report said. The marine mammal was discovered on the rocks along Valentia Island in Kerry, witnesses told the Irish Independent. SNIP Marine biologist Kevin Flannery, the director of a local aquarium, told the outlet that Sunday’s discovery, “is the first confirmed sighting of a walrus” in Ireland.

The tremendous melting of the glaciers resulted in some recent archaeological discoveries revealing several well preserved historical objects, and one of these remarkable finds is the discoveries of artifacts from the Viking era on the hills that were once used for transportation purposes dated back to 300 A.D. as per the study. More glacial melt, although a disturbing factor of a much larger global warming effect, has provided ample shreds of evidence and remains of the age-old objects for today’s generation advantageously. Artifacts from ancient time have been uncovered by ice patches which melted off the slopes of a rugged...

Iceland eruption could mark the beginning of a volcanic period lasting a few centuries David Hartley Interesting article in the Iceland Monitor about eruptive phases on Iceland. What caught my eye was the fact it settled round about 1300 which Wiki has as round about the beginnings of the Little Ice Age. “If an eruption occurs, it would likely mark the beginning of such a [volcanic] period – lasting a few centuries (emphasis added), I believe,” states Magnús Á. Sigurgeirsson, geologist at ÍSOR Iceland GeoSurvey – a consulting and research institute in the field of geothermal sciences and utilization. Research...

For many, especially folks who live in the South, the arctic outbreak that has gripped the nation's heartland for the past week is the kind of cold that only happens once in a century. Countless record cold temperatures were set. Conditions overwhelmed the Texas power grid, cutting off electricity to millions and bursting water pipes, creating a humanitarian crisis. But with climate change making for generally warmer winters and causing heat records to outnumber cold records by 2 to 1 globally over the past decade, this historic cold snap may seem counterintuitive. It's not. In fact, paradoxically, a warmer climate...

The plunge in temperatures led to both a surge in heating demand and the concomitant power outages. Data from the EIA show that at nearly the exact same time demand was surging and energy grids were buckling, wind energy experienced a catastrophic drop-off: In the evening of Feb. 14, wind in the state was producing just over 9,000 MWh of energy, while 24 hours later it was putting out less than 800 MWh, a roughly 91% decrease in output. Virtually every other energy industry in the state also saw decreased output over the same time period amid record demand, yet...

About ERCOTThe Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers -- representing about 90 percent of the state’s electric load. As the independent system operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 680+ generation units. It also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by...

As Germans shiver through double-digit negative temperatures and more than 80 centimeters (30 inches) of snow in parts of the country, climate science deniers have taken to social media to argue that global warming is a hoax. Their claim — which has been repeatedly debunked by climate scientists — is that extremely cold weather shows that carbon dioxide emissions are not warming the Earth. In fact, the effects of global warming may even have favored the extremely cold temperature. The past week’s sub-zero temperatures and heavy snowfalls are more than just a cold winter. They are made more likely by...

BIBLICAL believers have compared snow falling in two different deserts as a sign that the end times are near.On Sunday, snow fell in Saudi Arabia’s Asir Province for the first time in 50 years. Temperatures in the area fell below -2C, according to local weather reports. On the previous Wednesday, it also snowed in the Algerian town of Ain Sefra. The region is commonly known as the Gateway to the Sahara. It was the fourth consecutive winter to have snow fall or ice in the normally dry area. Before the first snow and ice in Ain Sefra, it had been...

Japan reported 13 deaths and hundreds of hospitalizations in the past week due to the intense snowfall in the country. Residents in Spain were in awe over the record snowfall in their streets. Here in India, Delhi experienced one of its harshest winters in recent memory, with intense cold waves.Does this disprove global warming? Certainly not! However, the extreme cold events bring about questions over the media narrative that climate change is causing milder winters and temperatures increasing to dangerous levels.The most worrying aspect is that these extreme cold events are a reminder that we could be in great danger...

EVERY YEAR, WEATHER enthusiasts eagerly watch and wait for signs that the polar vortex, a mass of cold air spinning around the Arctic, might meander south, sending cold and snow into the lower latitudes. Their wait might soon be over—and if you’re not a meteorologist, you may be surprised to learn that it’s because of a recent spike in Arctic temperatures. Specifically, temperatures high in the stratosphere above Siberia. In the first week of January, they increased from about minus 92 degrees Fahrenheit to 8 degrees Fahrenheit. While these “sudden stratospheric warming” events happen to some extent every year, this...

Antarctica wasn’t quite a region of ice for most of the year. It is widely believed that millions of years ago, when the planet earth was already a massive landmass called Gondwana, trees flourished near the South Pole. Now, newfound, intricate fossils of some of these trees are revealing how the plants thrived — and what forests might look like as they march northward in today’s warming world.

Antarctic Sea Ice on November 22, 2020 was the Third Highest on Record (since 1979).

HOUSE Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and her counterparts in G7 member states, issued a declaration from its virtual summit to name the climate crisis “the existential threat of our time.” Pelosi joined the leaders of parliament from Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom for the online summit where the legislative leaders discussed both the environment and the coronavirus. **SNIP** "Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in 2020 are among the highest averages ever recorded. The planet suffered through the second hottest year ever in 2019,” the declaration reads. They added: “As the Earth heats up, climate-related impacts,...

Residents in Norway have been reeling from the country's coldest summer in nearly 30 to 60 years. Early in July, more than 10 m (32 feet) of snow accumulated in parts of the southern region, which was unprecedented for this time of the year. According to state meteorologists, Oslo has recorded an average temperature of just 14.7 °C (58.5 °F) this month, which was the coldest in nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, Bergen's average has been even colder at 12.8 °C (55 °F). Trondheim hit 12.1 °C (53.8 °F), the coldest for almost 60 years. “ In Oslo, we have to...

The New York Post reports that the big, flaming ball in the sky is about to go into “lockdown” just like the rest of us. The sun is currently in a period of “solar minimum,” meaning activity on its surface has fallen dramatically.Experts believe we are about to enter the deepest period of sunshine “recession” ever recorded as sunspots have virtually disappeared.Astronomer Dr. Tony Phillips said: “Solar Minimum is underway and it’s a deep one.”“Sunspot counts suggest it is one of the deepest of the past century. The sun’s magnetic field has become weak, allowing extra cosmic rays into the...

Mother Nature wanted to make an impression this Mother's Day weekend, in what could be a once-in-a-generation May snowstorm.Mother Nature wanted to make an impression this Mother's Day weekend, in what could be a once-in-a-generation May snowstorm poised to drop snow across portions of the Northeast and New England. Snow will begin Friday afternoon across the interior Northeast and spread into New England by Friday evening and continue overnight, when snowfall rates could be heavy at times. This will be a heavy, wet snow, so power outages are likely (especially with leaves on the trees, which will make them heavier...