Last week I wrote about the current heatwave enveloping the nation and how it’s being blamed on climate change.
It seems like in the summer when we have a heat wave the media and politicians shout CLIMATE CHANGE!
And, when winter weather turns a wee bit warmer than normal, folks shout “thanks for climate change!”
There seems to be an implicit belief that climate change only impacts summer months where temperatures are higher than normal. But you never hear about “cold waves.”
In an effort to cool the summer heat, I thought it might be interesting to look at the other end of the thermometer.
To listen to the politicians and the media pundits, you’d think that heat waves are the biggest killer. We must cool the planet!
But that’s not true. Cold kills more people than heat. From Wikipedia: “Cold spells are associated with increased mortality rates in populations around the world. Both cold waves and heat waves cause deaths, though different groups of people may be susceptible to different weather events. More temperature-attributable deaths occur during a cold wave than in a heat wave, though the mortality rate is higher in undeveloped regions of the world.”
Funny how we never hear that, eh?
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Well, here are 20th century U.S. cold waves as reported by Wikipedia:
1904 The winter of 1904 was the coolest year on record worldwide.
1912 The severe 1912 United States cold wave caused the longest recorded period of weather below 0F.
1916-1917 The "extended winter" of 1916–17 was the coldest on record in the West and Midwest.
1917-1918 Severe cold wave in December 1917 and January 1918 in the northeast. December 30 set a number of record lows at the time in New York City (−13F) and Boston (−15F). The Ohio River froze solidly along its entire length.
1930 A cold wave gripped the western United States in January 1930. Two inches of snow fell in Palm Springs, CA on January 11, one of only two times in the city's history that snow was ever observed.
1932 Major cold outbreaks affected California in January, February and December. Up to two inches of snow fell across the Los Angeles Basin on January 15, and two inches of snow was officially recorded at the Downtown Los Angeles Weather Bureau Office. Snow also fell in San Francisco on three days in December 1932.
1933 Western United States cold wave – The winter of 1932–33 was the coldest on record in Arizona. There were record cold temperatures in Seneca, Oregon (-54F), Moran and Wyoming (-66F). Sixty deaths were blamed on extreme cold and ice storms.
1936 North American cold wave –One of the coldest winters in the Great Plains on record. Low temperatures dropped below −50F in Malta, Montana. Parshall, North Dakota hit −60F, still a record. Langdon, North Dakota remained below 0F for 41 straight days, the longest stretch in recorded history for the U.S. outside of Alaska. The cold wave was followed by one of the hottest summers on record, the 1936 North American heat wave.
1937 Western United States cold wave – January 1937 was the coldest month on record in the West and saw snowfall as far south as the hot desert city of Yuma, Arizona, for one of only two occasions on record. California and Nevada saw their lowest temperatures on record: −45F at Boca on January 20 and −50F at San Jacinto on January 8.
1949 Western United States cold wave – The winter of 1948–49 was the coldest since 1891 over the Western United States and had record snowfall, ice storms as far south as Texas. Las Vegas Nevada got a record 16.7 in of snowfall during the month of January.
1969 Northwest North American cold wave – December 1968 and January 1969 saw record cold and snow in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle recorded its snowiest winter on record with 67.5 inches for the season at Sea-Tac Airport.
1977 Cold wave of January 1977. Was the greatest eastern US cold wave of the 20th century. Cold air extended from New Hampshire to Florida and west to Iowa and Missouri. Cincinnati, Ohio recorded its lowest known temperature of −25F dating back to 1820. Snow fell in Miami, Florida, the farthest south snow was ever recorded in America.
1981–1982 January 1982 cold air outbreak. The 1981 AFC Championship Game, held in Cincinnati, was nicknamed the "Freezer Bowl" due to the −9F temperature at kickoff and −59F wind chill. Milwaukee, Wisconsin recorded temperatures of −26F on January 17, the lowest in 111 years there. Atlanta and Jackson, Mississippi recorded a temperature of −5F.
1985 Great Western cold air outbreak – February 1985 saw the contiguous U.S.'s second-coldest temperature of −69F in Peter Sinks, Utah. 1985 became the fourth-coldest calendar year on record in the Pacific Northwest.
1989 February 1989 featured a significant, week-long cold wave across the Western United States. Las Vegas set a record low for February with 16F degrees.
1996 Great Midwest cold outbreak – Late January and early February was Northern Minnesota's coldest short-term period on record. The record low of −60F was recorded in Tower, Minnesota. Minneapolis experienced temperatures near −35F.
1997 Mid-January across the Northern U.S. was one of the windiest on record. With a low of around −40F in some places, wind caused bitterly cold wind chills sometimes nearing −80F. Northern parts of North Dakota saw up to 90 inches of snow. This was one of the most severe cold-air outbreaks of the 1990s.
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So what’s the point? Well, when you mash these facts up against the facts of last week’s heat article, we can see that the earth experiences excessive heat and cold. It’s a fact of life.
What causes these extreme fluctuations in temperature? Well, considering that many of these events preceded the expansive use of petroleum in the world’s economy, my vote is on the very bright and very hot orb of burning hydrogen in the sky. Not the flyspeck of mankind.
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“Whatever delays, disappointments and discouragements may come, truth, justice, liberty and humanity will prevail.”
- Frederick Douglass
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Ducklings vs. Stairs!
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Climate Mafia!