No Winter for Europe - WARMEST AUTUMN IN FOREVER

[StrictlyRockers]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,453041,00.html

December 07, 2006 WARMEST AUTUMN IN FOREVER
No Winter for Europe
Central Europe is experiencing its warmest winter in 500 years and the Alps haven't been this warm in over a millenneum. Ski resorts are suffering, as are the bears.

Only two weeks before the official start of winter, Europe is sweating. An unusually warm autumn -- which was last week credited for Germany's fourth quarter economic surge -- is forcing ski resorts to market hiking holidays, and bears to seek out places cold enough to hibernate.

Indeed, Germany is experiencing its warmest autumn in 500 years. Germany's average temperature from September to November this year was 12 degrees Celsius (54 degrees Fahrenheit), a full 3.2 Celsius degrees higher than the median temperature from 1961 to 1990.

Scientists are basing the claim on temperature records -- collected as far back as 1659 -- and information derived from other sources like monks' journals in old monasteries. "Weather historians have assembled all the available information for each given month," Jürg Luterbacher, a climate researcher with the University of Bern climate researcher, told SPIEGEL ONLINE.

More importantly, Germany's not alone. "An exceptionally warm autumn in a region proves very little," Luterbacher told the online magazine Nature. "But the data are consistent for the whole of Europe -- from Iceland to Greece."

Alps are warmest in 1,300 years

Indeed, Germany's warm autumn is only part of a larger trend. Reinhard Böhm, a climatologist at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics, says Europe's Alps are warmer today than anytime in the past 1,300 years.
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Alarming news about global warming. Sounds like Al Gore is right.

SR

[Eurobabe]

1. Tell me about it, I LIVE HERE, snowed last night for 1st time in month

On Thursday afternoon it was 65F. Sunny, gorgeous. Worked on my tan, j/k. It's been a really weird fall and winter so far.

But this isn't what the ski areas want to see!! Hopefully they got some enough snow last night to start a base, and it will remain colder.

[StrictlyRockers]

2. Bad news for the skiers, good news for the sunbathers.

;)

[buddysmellgood]

3. So? So what? So it's warm. Big deal. Why should everything stay within some

predetermined range of temperatures just because it's been that way for the tiniest fraction of the Earth's existence? We are but a sneeze upon this planet. We exhale carbon dioxide. It's what we do best. Embrace it. Celebrate it. This is our finest hour. We've conquered the planet. Now go find a way to release even more trapped carbon and let it end. We're people. We're not that special. Other shit will survive and evolve.
Is Dancing with Stars on tonight?

[StrictlyRockers]

4. lol Don't go all cynical on me, Agent Smith. The human race is not a virus.

I think..

;)

[OneBlueSky]

5. in even a quasi-sane world, this would be a huge wake-up call . . .

to governments, industry, and citizens . . . in OUR world, it's something for at least governments and corporate bosses to try to ignore and explain away while they continue to rape the planet for even greater profits . . .

which means that if anything is going to happen to fix the problem, it will only come at the initiation of citizens . . . like us . . .

[Tesha]

11. Unfortunately, we live in Kwazy-Insane world. :-( (NT)

[madokie]

6. didn't Europe have a terrible winter last year?

where as here in ne Okla. we had a mild one while this ones is starting off to be a doozy

[Eurobabe]

8. Yes Germany had alot of snow last winter

roofs collapsed in Munich! This year? I think not..

[KitSileya]

7. Warm and rainy here in Scandinavia

We have also had the warmest autumn on record, but we have also had rain every day since the 12th of October. We saw the sun for 10 minutes just after noon yesterday, and all the journalists ran out and took pictures, but it pretty soon started to rain again, and we got almost 2 inches of rain during the afternoon and evening.

I don't think there's anyone here in Norway who doesn't attribute the last few years of peculiar weather to global warming, be they layman or scientist. The American idiocy is regarded as just that, idiocy for refusing to see the facts.

[demobrit]

9. Warmest night in London in December since records began

[MadHound]

10. Europe is having the winter that we in the Midwest have had for the past two years

Warm, mild and no snow. We're actually starting out with a fine, traditional Midwest winter, lots of snow and very cold temperatures. I hope it continues, for after two years of drought and three years of way above average bug population, we need to recharge our groundwater and kill off a bunch of bugs.

Sorry that Europe is going through this type of winter this year. I expect that this is going to become ever more common as the world warms up. Interestingly enough though is that this sort of warmth might actually trigger another Ice Age, big or little remains to be seen.

[StrictlyRockers]

12. I'm,getting worried, too. This could become a real nightmare.