Pirate's Cove

Shame on you for your modern lifestyle!

SNOW IN NAPA VALLEY ????
An unprecedented winter storm turned wineries into a winter wonderland. CADE Estate shared video of a winemaker snowboarding down the driveway Friday morning. https://t.co/Rxbb1Cqgg7

???? Ann Conover/CADE Estate
???? Mark & Laura Neal/Neal Family Vineyards pic.twitter.com/GHtf24cQZZ

— Betty Yu (@bett_yu) February 24, 2023

So, of course

How Climate Change and the Polar Vortex Influenced This Week’s Harsh Winter Storms

Much of the United States is being battered by bizarre winter weather this week, which trapped snowbound drivers in their cars, prompted airlines to cancel thousands of flights and knocked out power for at least one million properties across the country. It’s the latest disruption to the planet’s typical winter weather patterns caused by a teetering of the northern polar vortex—something researchers say is happening more frequently in part because of global warming.

That’s because the Arctic is warming some four times faster than the rest of the Earth, which destabilizes a fast, high-altitude current of air called the jet stream. That current encircles the Arctic, essentially containing the frigid air in that region and preventing it from creeping down into lower latitudes, including most of the United States. When the jet stream weakens, its pathway can wobble, much like a spinning top losing momentum, and pockets of cold Siberian air can then break out and scramble weather patterns in unpredictable and radical ways.

The swirling mass of freezing air that hangs above the North Pole is known as the polar vortex. Another polar vortex spins above Antarctica. And while disruptions to the northern polar vortex occur somewhat regularly—two out of every three winters on average, with many occurrences yielding mild consequences—some researchers have linked climate change to more extreme and persistent swings in the jet stream.

Linking is not the same as proving, nor proving anthropogenic causation

The U.S. storms, which began in some places as early as Tuesday night, caused havoc in nearly every part of the country. By Thursday afternoon, more than 930,000 utility customers living across Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Oregon, Arizona and New York had lost power, according to a website that tracks outages in real time. Hundreds of thousands of customers remained without power as of Friday morning, the website showed.

If the world went back into an ice age, or even just another Little Ice Age type climate, they’d still blame heat trapping gasses from your life. It’s a cult.

In fact, Los Angeles County got its first blizzard since 1989, and San Bernardino County issued its first ever blizzard warning, which stays in effect through Saturday. “Travel will be VERY DIFFICULT TO IMPOSSIBLE due to the extremely heavy snow and extremely high winds expected,” the San Diego division of the National Weather Service warned in a tweet Thursday.

So, it happens periodically, but, this is ‘climate change’. Even though it’s snowed in the LA area before, including measurable snow in downtown in 1882.

Video tweets of interest below the fold

Two bald eagles in a nest in Big Bear, California, are working hard to ensure their eggs stay warm as a #winterstorm brings cold weather and snow to the area. #CAwx pic.twitter.com/0r4sH8L2PE

— AccuWeather (@accuweather) February 24, 2023

Freedom doesn’t look happy

Saudi Arabia: snow falls for the first time in almost 100 years pic.twitter.com/dfFpDVa6nu

— SAINTELLE (@420roundabout) February 24, 2023

Checking a few California webcams, I see snow at the Tehachapi railroad has snow. Lots.