Snow Snow Snow, Whither Global Warming?

          Looking back on 2010, the dominant story was weather.  Earlier this year, major european airports like London's Heathrow, Amsterdam's Schipol, and Paris's Charles De Gaulle were thrown into chaos because of snow.  Remember the people snowed in on Ontario's Hwy 402? or the Trans Canada near Calgary?  Every state in the US except florida has reported snow this winter.  So in the midst of all this, we are justified in wondering, what has happened to global warming?

          First off, some facts.  2010 was, despite the cold in europe, actually tied for the warmest in 131 years.  This is despite the fact that it was a La Nina year.  The warming, though, was not uniform.  A common misconception about global warming is that everything is going to get warmer all the time.  That is simplistic.  As these numbers from NASA show, seme parts of the world were actually below average temperatures, particularily in November.  But they also show huge swathes of the planet that are greatly above average, and by a much higher margin.

          Remember those wildfires in Russia?  Moscow choking in smoke?  The same thing happening on a smaller scale in BC?  You see, there has been warming.  Look at those NASA maps again.  The most intense areas of warming are located in very remote areas, particularly the Arctic.  Few people live in Canada's arctic archipelago, or greenland.  Absolutely nobody lives off the north coast of Siberia.  So when these places warm up, they do not make the news.  And yet they are warming.

          To conclude then, some places have cooled down a bit.  Europe and southern california, for example, dipped as much as 4 degrees below average.  In the same period though, the hudson bay and baffin regions, an area larger than france and germany combined, saw temperatures more than 12 degrees over average.  As we look back on 2010, we shouldn't stop worrying- we should worry more.