On Tuesday, the city of Erie, Pennsylvania signed a declaration of disaster emergency, after a two-day storm dumped 5-feet of snow. Heavy lake-effect snow set record-setting snowfall totals in the snow belts to the east of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.
From 7 p.m. on Dec. 24 to 6:02 p.m. Dec. 26, Erie had received 60.0
inches of snow, which shattered numerous records for the region. Nearly
all of the snow fell on Monday and Tuesday.
inches of snow, which shattered numerous records for the region. Nearly
all of the snow fell on Monday and Tuesday.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Bill Deger said, “this is now the biggest two-day snow total on record for Pennsylvania, besting the old record of 44 inches, which was set in Morgantown from March 20-21, 1958.”
Dale Robinson, the county’s emergency management coordinator, said that the declaration will allow the National Guard to respond to the paralyzed region. Robinson adds the National Guard deployment is “really for precautionary measures for the additional amount of snow we think we’re going to get.”
As of Wednesday morning, NWS Cleveland reports additional snow will accumulate through the day with temperatures ranging from -5 and -10 degrees F. So far no sign of global warming...
On March 20, 2000, The Independent, a British newspaper, reported that “Snowfalls are just a thing of the past.” Global warming was simply making the UK too warm for heavy snowfalls. The column quotes Dr. David Viner of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia — yes, the epicenter of what would become the Climategate scandal — as saying that within a few years snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event.” Indeed, Viner opined, “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.”
Similarly, David Parker, at the UK’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, said that eventually British children could have only “virtual” experience of snow via movies and the Internet.
Well, last week another British newspaper, the Daily Mail, reported “The Coldest December since records began as temperatures plummet to minus 10C bringing travel chaos across Britain.” Here’s a snippet from the article (also excerpted by Wesley J. Smith in First Things):
Swathes of Britain skidded to a halt today as the big freeze returned – grounding flights, closing rail links and leaving traffic at a standstill. And tonight the nation was braced for another 10 in of snow and yet more sub-zero temperatures – with no let-up in the bitterly cold weather for at least a month, forecasters have warned. The Arctic conditions are set to last through the Christmas and New Year bank holidays and beyond and as temperatures plummeted to -10c (14f) the Met Office said this December was ‘almost certain’ to become the coldest since records began in 1910.
Meanwhile, back in the USA, the lead item in Google News is a Bloomberg story, “Snow Blankets US East Coast, Stranding Travelers.” Bloomberg reports that, “New York City’s Central Park had 20 inches (51 centimeters) of snow by 8 a.m., the most for the month in 62 years.” This was “the most snow in the park for any December since 1948, the agency’s website showed.”
As in the UK, the record-breaking snowfall is disrupting transportation, keeping travelers snowbound and delaying Santa’s deliveries. It’s also downing power lines and turning off the Christmas lights. Some highlights:
- “More than 6,000 flights were canceled in the region since yesterday as airports closed.”
- “The day after Christmas is one of the five busiest shopping days of the year, and it may take retailers two weeks to capture sales lost yesterday,” an industry analyst told Bloomberg.
- “NJ Transit, which transports about 170,000 commuters to and from New York City daily, suspended bus service as of 8:30 p.m. yesterday, according to a statement.”
- “Four hundred subway passengers were aboard an A train that was stuck in Queens for more than six hours, until it could be pushed to a station by another train. The Coney Island area was without subway service.”
- “Consolidated Edison Inc. reported there were 6,167 customers in Queens, New York, and 1,811 in Westchester County without power. “
- “National Grid Plc, which provides electricity in New York and Massachusetts, was reporting power outages at 14 sites throughout New York and Massachusetts affecting about 29,727 homes and businesses. The largest was in Norfolk, Massachusetts, where 10,902 customers were without power.”
As my colleague Heritage Foundation economist David Kreutzer observed at a panel discussion, winter is the biggest climate-related threat to public health and welfare!
Britain has had three snowy winters in a row, and this year’s Snowmageddon USA follows last year’s Snowpocalypse. Despite global warming, it seems, our children may never enjoy either Florida’s balmy weather in New York and Boston or Mediterranean “liveability” in the British isles.
Over 5 feet of snow has fallen in parts of western New York and Pennsylvania in a record-breaking lake effect snow event as bitter cold temperatures are heading to the Northeast.
The airport in Erie, Pennsylvania, has had a whopping 65.1 inches of snow from this lake effect event -- the highest snowfall total from any event on record in Erie. (Heavy lake effect snow is produced by cold Arctic air moving over relatively mild water temperatures in the Great Lakes.)
Now, with over 100 inches of snow in December, this has become Erie's snowiest month on record.
The upstate New York town of Redfield has seen 62.2 inches of snow since Christmas Day, making it the highest two-day snowfall on record for Oswego County, New York.
A state of emergency was declared in Oswego, with the mayor saying in a statement that City Hall is closed and residents should avoid traveling and parking on city streets.
In Lorraine, New York, firefighters reported that a resident was trapped in her home after several feet of snow fell in the area.
"Residents in the Town of Lorraine and Worth, please check on your neighbors," the fire department wrote on Facebook.
Lake effect storm warnings remain in effect this afternoon from east of Cleveland, Ohio, to Erie and to Fulton, New York.
The snow is expected to wind down tonight.
But bitter cold is coming to much of the country.
A major Arctic blast with frigid wind chills will move into the Northeast tonight.
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