Remember this oldy but goody?
CHILDREN JUST AREN’T GOING TO KNOW WHAT SNOW IS
The Independent, 2000:
Snow is starting to disappear from our lives. Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain’s culture, as warmer winters – which scientists are attributing to global climate change – produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries … Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community … According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit of the University of East Anglia, within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
The Independent wiped that one off the Internet, but, Watts Up With That? has it in an archive, because it was just very, very silly, and spawned all sorts of “schoolkids won’t know what snow is!” parodies. But, the climate cult keeps trying, like here, because they will never give up
Snow chance: how white Christmases have become rarer in Britain
Outside of advertisements and Hollywood films, idyllic snow-filled Christmas scenes are becoming increasingly rare in the UK, according to a Guardian analysis.
The UK has faced bitter cold this week, with Sunday’s snowfall leading to travel disruption and a level 3 cold weather alert for the whole of England until Friday morning. Next week is set to be milder, however, with the chance of a white Christmas remaining low for most parts of the UK.
Analysis shows the chances of a white Christmas have become slimmer as the climate has grown warmer. On average, snow was much less likely to fall on Christmas Day in the 2010s than it was in the 1960s, according to data from the Met Office. At the same time, average temperatures on Christmas Day are warmer in all parts of the UK.
The data shows that only eight white Christmases were observed at 44 analysed weather stations in the 2010s, less than half the number of any other decade since records started.
Why is this in any way a surprise during a Holocene warm period? This is expected. Of course, the graph at the UK Guardian only goes back to the 1960’s (using a Met Office factsheet, which only goes back to 1960), when the world was in a slight cooling time. This is literally an updated version of their 2016 article. According to the same Met Office, the warmest Christmas in the UK was 1920. I’ve tried digging to find pre-1960 data for comparison. Unsurprisingly, damned near impossible to find. But, again, there’s nothing unusual about a Holocene warm period getting warm. No need to assign notions of witchcraft.
Read: Your Fault: White Christmas’ Are Less Likely In The UK »