Germany stuck in winter's icy grip

So let's talk about global warming

12 Mar 10 - "Spring officially started on March 1, but there is no sign of it in central Europe," says this article on MSNBC.

Snow shovels? Sold out. Sleds? Sold out, both thanks to Germany's unusually cold winter, heavy snowfall and icy weather.

And it's not over.

"Forecasts show that many regions in Germany can expect at least another foot of snow this weekend. Even traditionally warm winter holiday escapes, like southern France and the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, came to a frozen standstill at the beginning of the week with up to 3.5 feet of snow.

"Despite some speculation that perhaps global warming is somehow to blame for the odd weather, meteorologists have dismissed that idea.

Let's sneak in some global warming rhetoric here.

"This winter is special. It was the coldest and longest German winter in the past 13 years, with temperatures 1.5 degrees Celsius [34 degrees Fahrenheit] below average," said Dr. Joerg Rapp from the German Weather Service, DWD, in Frankfurt.

34F below average. Must be a typo.

"Other European countries have experienced even higher drops in temperatures this winter, and traditionally warm southern countries, like France and Spain, have been drowning in snow.

"But, many experts see the apparent reversal of average climate conditions as "pure coincidence" and don’t blame global warming for this winter‘s extreme weather."

Oops, there's that global warming thing again.

I wonder. Is it also "pure coincidence" that this winter's bitter cold
and snow comes after the lowest sunspot count in a hundred years?

http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/03/12/2226627.aspx
Thanks to Tom McHart for this link

THE NEXT ICE AGE - NOW!