Egypt Sees First Snow Storm In Years

Last Updated 15:26 14/12/2013

A winter storm has brought snow to Cairo for the first time in decades and has blanketed parts of the Middle East.

Bad weather closed two of the country's Mediterranean ports and two ports on the Red Sea as "several" in inches fell in the Sinai Desert and elsewhere.

Ali Abdelazim, an official at Egypt's meteorological centre, said it was "the first time in very many years" since the last snowfall in the suburbs of Cairo.

Precipitation of any kind is rare in Egypt so the rare sight of snow has been much talked about on social networking sites such as Twitter.

In Syria's contested northern city of Aleppo, soldiers and rebels took a break from fighting as the temperatures on the deserted streets hovered around zero.

"All the fighters are cold and hiding," the activist who uses the pseudonym Abu Raed said.

The cold weather was part of a storm, dubbed Alexa, which has been pounding much of Lebanon and parts of northern Syria since Wednesday, pushing temperatures below zero in mountainous areas and dumping snow and heavy rains.

The snow has heaped another layer of misery on the already grim existence of many of the more than two million Syrians who have fled the civil war raging in their homeland.

In Lebanon, snow fell on northern and eastern regions where tens of thousands of Syrian refugees are staying, many of them in flimsy plastic tents.

Up to 13cm (5in) have fallen in refugee camps in Lebanon with 8cm (3in) in the wartorn Syrian city of Homs.

Jerusalem was left blanketed by up to 50cm (20in) of snow, forcing police to block access to and from the city as the army was called in to help restore power to more than 35,000 homes.

The city's heaviest snowstorm for 50 years forced Israeli authorities to lift a ban on public transport on the Jewish Sabbath - Saturday.

The unusually large fall allowed children to build snowmen but left elderly residents shivering.

The weather even featured in talks between visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Mr Kerry, a former Massachusetts senator, said the snow in Jerusalem made him feel "at home".

"I have heard of making guests welcome and feeling at home. This is about as far as I've ever seen anything go ... giving me a New England snowstorm."

In the West Bank and Gaza, UN relief teams offered emergency services to the worst-hit communities.

In Gaza, which was experiencing its first snow in a decade, more than 500 people were evacuated from their homes, according to Hamas spokesman Ihab Ghussein.

Heading For A Big Chill, Today's Temperature Readings

Current Jet Stream Position.

US Tornados, Piers Corbyn Right AGAIN!!

US Twisters 

Credit where it's due, Piers Corbyn prediction correct AGAIN!! People need to start listen to this REAL scientist! How is it that a man who believes the world is cooling "as we do," can predict such events..... well...... because he is a REAL scientist unlike alarmist warmists "Al Gore" who can't predict sh*t.

These storm systems which are becoming greater in both volume and quantity are all part of the new mini ice age condition we have entered into. Blame the jet stream! Not mankind! Expect worse to come.....

as Piers Corbyn of weatheraction.com has predicted time and time again. The IPCC reported "no warming in 16 years," surely that's the end of the climate lie?? Why do they continue to pedal this climate crap down our throats. 

US Twister Storm

Entire neighbourhoods were flattened within seconds as the twisters, triggered by a "very dangerous" and fast-moving weather system, touched down in as many as 10 states.

Gallery: Tornado Batters Midwest

Forecasters said the extreme weather - which destroyed homes, uprooted trees and flipped cars upside down - could affect more than 50 million people.

According to the National Weather Service, more than 60 tornadoes struck, unleashing 80mph winds and hail stones up to two inches in diameter.

Illinois was struck the hardest. At least six were killed and dozens more injured, but with communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear how many people might be hurt.

Video: Tornado Approaches (20s)

At one hospital in Peoria, Illinois, doctors were treating at least 24 casualties, some of whom had head injuries and broken bones.

Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin were buffered by the storm, which weakened as it tracked east towards Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and New Jersey.

Washington, a town of 16,000 in Illinois, appeared to have the most severe damage. 

Video: Tornado Damage (37s)

"I ran into the basement, jumped onto my wife and daughter and looked up and just saw white above us," said Ryan Bowers, a Washington resident whose house was destroyed.

"It was amazing."

Anthony Khoury, who saw a twister rip through Washington, told Sky News: "Most of my neighbourhood is completely destroyed, everything has been demolished.

"Families have lost their homes, people don't have anywhere to sleep and the electricity has gone."

Jeff Leeman, who was in his backyard with his son when a tornado struck Pekin, Illnois, added: "In a matter of seconds ... it was right on top of us.

"We hustled in the house and before we knew it, it was gone. It was that fast."

Two people, an 80-year-old man and his 78-year-old sister, were killed in Washington County; three were killed in Massac County, near the Kentucky border; and the sixth victim was reported in Tazewell County.

Ryan Allan Rickman of Leslie, Michigan, died when his vehicle was crushed by a fallen tree.

The tornadoes brought down phone lines, caused thousands of power failures and left debris strewn across roads.

The severe weather also caused the cancellation of many flights, while the Baltimore Ravens' game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field was temporarily suspended in the first quarter due to lightning in the area.

Meteorologist Matt Friedlein said such powerful storms rarely occur so late in the year because the climate is usually too cold.

However, temperatures had been forecast to climb to as high as 26C (78F), he said, which is warm enough to produce severe weather when coupled with strong winter winds.

Will the world end in 100 days? Sounding of ancient trumpet in York warns of Viking Ice Age apocalypse on 22 February 2014

Legend has it that on this day, the god Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir

• The soil and the sky will be stained with poison and the sea will rear up
  
• Prior to the apocalypse, three freezing winters would follow each other
• The sound of the horn is supposed to call the sons of Odin to the battlefield, where Odin will ultimately be killed.

If Vikings were here today, the sounding of a distinctive horn in York would have created chaos.

The ancient instrument, blown last night, signalled exactly 100 days until the end of the world, according to Norse mythology.

Legend has it that the Norse God, Heimdallr, would blow the mythical Gjallerhorn to warn of the Viking apocalypse, also known as 'Ragnarok'.

The end of the world was signalled in York last night as a horn was blown to herald the beginning of the apocalypse

'Then the Awful Fight', by George Wright in 1908, depicts the final battle of the gods

Ragnarok, which translates to ‘Doom of the Gods’, is due to be preceded by the winter of winters.

Vikings believed, prior to the apocalypse, three freezing winters would follow each other with no summers in between.

 

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All morality would disappear and fights would break out all over the world, signalling the beginning of the end.  

The wolf Skoll would devour the sun, and his brother Hati would eat the moon, causing stars to vanish from the sky and the Earth to be thrown into eternal darkness. 

Norse mythology experts have calculated that Vikings believed this will take place on February 22, 2014.

On this day, the god Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir and the other ‘creator’ gods.

The sound of the horn is supposed to call the sons of Odin and the heroes to the battlefield, where Odin (pictured) will ultimately be killed

THE RAGNAROK APOCALYPSE

Ragnarok, which translates to ‘Doom of the Gods’, is due to be preceded by the 'winter of winters'.

Vikings believed that prior to the apocalypse three freezing winters would follow each other with no summers in between. 

All morality would disappear and fights would break out all over the world, signalling the beginning of the end.  

The wolf Skoll would then devour the sun, and his brother Hati would eat the moon, causing stars to vanish from the sky.

Norse mythology experts have calculated that this is due to take place on February 22, 2014.

On this day, the god Odin will be killed by the wolf Fenrir and the other ‘creator’ gods.

There will be huge earthquakes, the sea will rear up and the soil and the sky will be stained with poison. 

The Earth will sink into the sea, paving the way for a new utopian world with endless supplies.

There will be huge earthquakes, the sea will rear up and the soil and the sky will be stained with poison.

The sound of the horn is supposed to call the sons of Odin to the battlefield, where Odin will ultimately be killed.

After his death, the Earth was foretold to sink into the sea, paving the way for a new utopian world with endless supplies. 

Danielle Daglan from the Norvik Viking Centre told MailOnline that a number of recent events spoken about in the legends of Ragnarok led them to believe that the end of the world may well be imminent.

The legend states that ‘the first to notice shall be man, brother will fight brother and all the boundaries that exist shall crumble.’

‘The idea that “boundaries that exist shall crumble” could be said to be about the Internet age, where you can communicate with millions of people simultaneously around the world thanks to the global rise of social media,’ said Ms Daglan.

Viking tradition also believes that a vast winter will appear before the apocalypse. 

'Kampf der untergehenden Götter' which translates as 'Battle of the Doomed Gods' was painted in 1882 by Wilhelm Wägner and depicts the gods in their ultimate fight. This was predicted to occur shortly before huge earthquakes and treacherous seas. it was thought that the soil sky would then be 'stained with poison'

‘There are predictions that we are heading into a mini-ice age thanks to a fall in solar flare activity - what is a mini-ice age but several winters rolled into one?’ said Ms Daglan.

Another part of the legend claims that the Midgard Serpent, named Jormungand, shall free itself from its tail and rise up from the ocean.

Ms Dagland points to the two huge fish which appeared on a beach in California last month.

The giant oarfish were dead when they washed up on land, and some scientists believe they came ashore to die because they are ‘in distress’.

‘Traditionally, the Viking festival of Jolablot marked the end of the winter - if this winter truly does not end, then that feast may be given over to Ragnarok instead,’ said Ms Dagland.

The Jorvik Viking Centre predicted that Ragnarok would occur on 22 February because this is the end of the feast of Jolablot. 

While not a scientific conclusion, they claim that Vikings loved to feast and wouldn't want to miss this event. For this reason, they argue that Vikings would believe the world would end in 100 days.

The end of the world is coincidently the start of the grand finale of the Viking festival in York.

‘Following a study published in 2010 that bearded men are more trustworthy than those without, we’re also looking for fantastic displays of facial hair, so that we can identify those with the potential to take us into the brave new world that is foretold to follow Ragnarok,’ said Danielle Daglan director of the JORVIK Viking Festival.  

‘In the last couple of years, we’ve had predictions of the Mayan apocalypse, which passed without incident, and numerous other dates where the end of the world has been pencilled in by seers, fortune tellers and visionaries,’ she added.

‘But the sound of the horn is possibly the best indicator yet that the Viking version of the end of the world really will happen on 22 February next year.’

The sound of the horn is possibly the best indicator yet that the Viking version of the end of the world really will happen on 22 February next year, claims festival director Danielle Daglan

The Dumb Warmist Again!

We just heard the most stupid Warmist claim to date, it came from ITV News. During a report about ash clouds effecting flights and how to overcome the problem the stupid spokesman claimed that there will be  "more volcanic eruptions due to climate change"....... we ask, how?..... with no reply from the warmist. 

Super Typhoon

'Piers Corbyn' Comment on the Super typhoon

"Extreme typhoons like this - and deadly landfalling Atlantic Hurricanes like Sandy which hit New York in 2012 - are an inevitable consequence of the Mini-Ice-Age - Wild-Jet-Stream climate now developing and will increase in frequency this decade and next decade. The delusional CO2 theory has no role in this whatsoever. 

"These storms are solar-lunar driven events and largely predictable. This storm specifically ramped-up dramatically during our, (WeatherAction Solar-Lunar-Action-Technique) Top Red R5 Weather period 4-6th Nov and now the same storm is exacerbated by a second TopRed R5 period 9-10th. Having two R5's so close is unusual. This second whammy made the Typhoon track shift somewhat rightwards of standard models, just as our Br+Ir+Eu storm of 28-29th Nov did so in accordance with our prediction.

"Solar activity is generally lower during Mini-Ice-Age's and so the relative changes in activity and more specifically magnetic connectivity are more dramatic and with the generally wild jet stream make these extreme storms and superstorms more frequent world-wide.

"I warned of the coming increase in Sandy-type storms (and extreme Pacific Typhoons in discussion) in my presentation to the GAFTA (Grain and Feed Trades Assoc) conference in Geneva in May  

http://www.weatheraction.com/docs/WANews13No43.pdf - slide 52. This point was also repeated in my presentation on morning of 8 Nov to the IAOM - International Association of Operative Millers - conference in Sousse, Tunisia.

"Our series of (trial) forecasts of Tropical storms have been very successful - eg for Irene from 12 weeks ahead - slide 31 in above Presentation.

"On this particular Typhoon one must ask why warning was, it appears, not given of the Storm driven Tsunami. Look at the pictures. Many palm trees survived even if damaged then look below them. The tsunami-flood dealt the death blow to houses and people who were warned of wind but not the violent flood it appears according to TV reports. These storm following floods are totally predictable and well understood phenomena and lead to destruction and loss of life unless warnings are made and acted upon"

CO2 Warmists lie again, no surprise

As expected the CO2 Warmist sect claim the super typhoon is evidence of man made climate change. This is opportunist delusional drivel which they just made up. They claimed many things in the last ten years eg more hurricanes USA and the end of snow in uk which all failed, now they just claim everything bad is evidence of their fraudulent theory and the Philippines delegate to the COP conference is making deranged claims which are against the interests of his people. 

The fact is this storm ramped up in a predicted solar driven Top red R5 period and without that it would have been just another typhoon. Or, do the Warmist cherry-Pickers think C02 caused those solar events? Furthermore we warned there would be more very extreme storms in the developing Mia wild jet stream conditions even if less storms in number. This is being confirmed. The biggest storm in the last 400 years in Europe was thetempest of 1703 which came in the later part of the Maunder Minimum Mini ice age. The warmists cannot predict anything and are holding back science. Their sect must be destroyed, or as Scipio would have said "Dalenda est warmistas".

Typhoon Haiya

US and British vessels were heading to the Philippines as the UN appealed for aid amid the large-scale devastation caused by Typhoon Haiyan. The US has deployed an aircraft carrier and navy ships, while the UK is sending a naval destroyer. At least 10,000 people are feared to have been killed and thousands of survivors desperately require aid - but reports say little is getting through. Philippine President Benigno Aquino has declared a state of national calamity. In a statement, he said the two worst affected provinces, Leyte and Samar, had suffered massive destruction and loss of life. He authorised the release of emergency relief funds and deployed troops to affected areas. A huge international relief effort is also under way, but journalists and rescue workers at the scene say reaching areas affected by the storm is difficult. Bernard Kerblat, who is overseeing the UNHCR response to the crisis, said some aircraft had landed in Cebu but distributing aid was difficult because of bad weather and damaged infrastructure. "The rain is further complicating the effort for light vehicles, including trucks, to penetrate in areas wherever there's still a bridge left intact. "The other bad news is that within the next 72 hours, we should see the arrival of yet another typhoon."

Super Typhoon Haiyan: 'At Least 100 Dead'

At least 100 people may have died in the Philippines from the impact of super typhoon Haiyan, according to government officials.

An aviation officer in the central city of Tacloban reported bodies lying in the streets, said Captain John Andrews, deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines.

Captain Andrews said the Tacloban airport manager had radioed the head office in Manila to report "100-plus dead, lying on the streets, with 100 plus injured".

Super Typhoon In Pictures

"This report was relayed to us by our station manager so it is considered very reliable information," he told ABS-CBN television.

"According to the station manager the airport is completely ruined."

Tacloban is the capital of Leyte, a large island of about two million people that was hit by Haiyan on Friday morning when the storm was at its strongest, knocking out all its communication facilities.

Satellite Views Of Haiyan

Local television GMA network reported that storm surges had hit Tacloban and nearby Palo town on its east coast.

Its reporter said he counted at least 31 bodies, including 20 at the Palo church. Philippine authorities are now rushing rescuers and communication equipment to the island.

Five other people have been confirmed killed elsewhere in the central Philippines and as emergency workers reach the worst affected areas, many which remain cut off, the death toll is expected to rise.

Minnie Portales, a spokesman for the aid agency World Vision, said: "As we wait for early reports from some of the hardest-hit provinces, we fear for the worst. This could be very bad."

Anna Lindenfors, Save the Children's director for the Philippines, added: "We expect the level of destruction caused by Typhoon Haiyan to be extensive and devastating, and sadly we fear that many lives will be lost."

Haiyan, now thought to be the strongest storm ever to hit land, was barrelling out of the Philippines after having flattened houses, triggered landslides and floods and knocked out power and communications across a number of islands.

The category five storm whipped-up winds of 195mph and waves as high as 5 metres as well as brought down power lines, knocked out communications, caused landslides and left streets flooded.

Hundreds of thousands of people had to be evacuated and thousands more fled their homes as Haiyan tore apart buildings.

The previous strongest tropical cylcone, Hurricane Camille, brought 190mph winds to the Gulf of Mexico in 1969.

Meteorologists say Haiyan could pick up strength again as it sweeps across the South China Sea toward Vietnam.

Scotland braced for bad weather as yellow "be aware" warnings issued.

Scotland braced for bad weather as yellow "be aware" warnings issued.

Weather warnings and flood alerts have been put in place as heavy rain continues to fall across large parts of the country.

Central, Tayside, Grampian and the Highland areas have been worst affected by the weather band with police urging drivers to take care due to large coverings of surface water on many roads.

This afternoon's Scottish Premiere League's match between Ross County and St Mirren was abandoned because of a water-logged pitch, much to the disappointment of the Highland home side who were 2-0 up to St Mirren.

The Met Office has issued yellow "be aware" warnings and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency have urged people to be prepared for flooding in parts of Dundee,Aberdeenshire and Moray.

The rain is expected to less persistent during Sunday but strong gales and a drop in temperature could bring some snow to higher parts in the north of the country.

Nick Prebble, a forecaster for MeteoGroup, the weather division of the Press Association, said: "There has been heavy rain across mainly northern and eastern parts and as that clears it looks like more blustery showers are on the way tomorrow.

"It will be windy, particularly in the east and up to Aberdeen with some gales blowing along the coast. The real heavy rain will be largely confined to northern parts on Sunday with even some wet snow looking likely in Highland mountain areas.

Temperature readings from today. The winter equinox has passed... Here comes the winter.

Temperature readings from today. The winter equinox has passed... Here comes the winter.

An equinox occurs twice a year (around 20 March and 22 September), when the plane of the Earth's equator passes the center of the Sun. At this time the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun. The term equinox can also be used in a broader sense, meaning the date when such a passage happens. The name "equinox" is derived from the Latin aequus (equal) and nox(night), because around the equinox, night and day are about equal length.

The Jet Stream - Mini Ice Age Circulation Patterns.

The jet stream, the river of air high above Earth that generally dictates the weather, usually rushes rapidly from west to east in a mostly straight direction.

But lately it seems to be wobbling and weaving like a drunken driver, wreaking havoc as it goes.

The more the jet stream undulates north and south, the more changeable and extreme the weather.

The most recent example occurred in mid-June when some towns in Alaska hit record highs. McGrath, Alaska, recorded an all-time high of 94 degrees on June 17. A few weeks earlier, the same spot was 15 degrees, the coldest recorded for so late in the year.

You can blame the heat wave on a large northward bulge in the jet stream, Rutgers University climate scientist Jennifer Francis said.

Several scientists are blaming weather whiplash — both high and low extremes — on a jet stream that's not quite playing by its old rules. It's a relatively new phenomenon that experts are still trying to understand.

Some say it's related to global warming, but others say it's not.

Upside-down weather also happened in May: Early California wildfires fueled by heat contrasted with more than a foot of snow in Minnesota. Seattle was the hottest spot in the nation one day, and Maine and Edmonton, Canada, were warmer than Miami and Phoenix.

Consider these unusual occurrences over the past few years! It's been happening since 2007. This is mini ice age type occurrences. Iceageearth.com knew this years ago, learn more at - www.iceageearth.com

A major Atlantic storm pummeled southern England

(CNN) - A major Atlantic storm pummeled southern England early Monday, knocking out power for tens of thousands of homes and blocking roads and railways with fallen trees.

With gusts as strong as 99 mph battering the south coast, authorities warned travelers to prepare for disruption across the region.

As the storm approached, rescuers had to suspend their search for a missing teenager swept out to sea. The unidentified teenager disappeared from Newhaven, East Sussex, on the southern coast, according to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution.

People in the southwestern city of Exeter complained of powerful winds.

"It sounds as if my windows will cave in and my roof will blow off," tweeted a user under the name Lauren Hill.

Fallen trees

Gary Qualter, a milkman working in the city, said the weather wasn't too bad when he started his shift around 2 a.m. But after 3 a.m., the wind "picked up noticeably and got very strong," he said by phone.

He said he came across a fallen tree and a lot of debris strewn around, but not a great deal of major damage.

Scores of trees were also reported to have come down farther east in East and West Sussex.

The strongest wind gusts - at 99 mph - were recorded on the Isle of Wight, which is situated off the south coast, the Met Office said.

Most of the homes without power are in the southeast of England.

Antarctic sea ice reached a record of 19.65 million square kilometres.

Republished from Iceagenow.info 

According to Germany‘s Alfred Wegener Institute

---

On September 18, Antarctic sea ice reached a record of 19.65 million square kilometers, an area  more than 50 times the size of Germany.

Some naysayers have tried to dismiss this new record, claiming that although the ice may have expanded to cover a huge area, the record is meaningless because the ice is very thin.

However, it appears that that argument doesn’t wash.

Excerpts:

 Over the last months, Germany‘s Alfred Wegener Institute has conducted two winter experiments with the Polarstern research ice breaker in the Weddell Sea. In these expeditions the scientists encountered “ever thicker and more compact ice”(emphasis added), which supports the claim of maximum ice mass.

“… Even if there are no large area long-term measurements of sea ice thickness in the Antarctic, we conclude from various studies that the total volume of the Antarctic sea ice has grown over the last years….” “ (emphasis added)

---

Minimum sea ice concentration on 22 February 2013

---

Sea ice concentration maximum at 18 September 2013

---

See:
http://notrickszone.com/2013/10/24/stunner-germanys-alfred-wegener-institute-confirms-antarctic-sea-ice-may-have-reached-record-volume/And

And:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/10/24/a-new-record-the-most-sea-ice-in-antarctica-in-30-years-by-extent-and-by-volume/

Republished from iceagenow.info

DC Examiner | The age of climate alarmism is coming to an end!

You can be forgiven for not noticing that the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a summary of its Fifth Assessment Report late last month.

The report landed with a thud, criticized and even mocked by many leading climate scientists. The distinguished science journal Nature editorialized that this should be the last report issued by the UN body.

This is just the latest signal that the age of climate alarmism is over. Given five tries to convince the world that human activity is causing catastrophic warming of the planet, runaway sea-level rise and various weather disasters, the public still doesn't buy it.

We're all skeptics now because the science simply does not back up the hypothesis. For starters, there's been no rise in global temperatures for 15 years.

The IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report concedes for the first time that global temperatures have not risen since 1998, despite a 7 percent rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Britain's Energy Crisis Goes From Bad To Worse; "People are going to have to choose between keeping warm and eating."

With a cooling climate and increasing energy bills this is a disaster waiting to happen. 

The relentless rise of electric and gas prices in the United Kingdom has provoked a political backlash of epic proportions.

Over the past few weeks, three out of the UK's six largest energy utilities - SSE, British Gas and nPower - have rolled out plans to raise electric and natural gas prices between 8% and 10% by the end of 2013.

The looming rate hikes have stoked the flames of an already fiery political fight over the past, present and future of energy and environmental policy in the UK.

In September, Ed Milibrand, the leader of the left-leaning Labor party, pledged to freeze energy prices for 20 months if the Labor party wins the next election in 2015.

Prime Minister David Cameron dismissed Miliband's as a "con man" for suggesting that a price freeze would address the underlying issue, which appears to be inadequate natural gas supply.

Yesterday, former Prime Minister John Major called for imposing a windfall tax on England's largest energy utilities while speaking at a Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch.

"It ought not to be acceptable to anyone, that many people are going to have to choose between keeping warm and eating," said Major.

In response to mounting pressure to act, Cameron said today that he would seek to eliminate policy-imposed "green charges" on energy bills, which support energy efficiency and clean air programs.

Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute: "Antarctic Sea Ice May Have Reached Record VOLUME!"

Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute: "Antarctic Sea Ice May Have Reached Record VOLUME!"

"Never so much sea ice at Antarctica in the last 30 years"

For whatever reason the following Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) press release was nowhere mentioned in the mainstream media.

And I was not able to find the report in an English version. So what follows is a professional translation. It's indeed something the alarmists can put in their pipes and smoke on for awhile. My emphasis added:

Never so much sea ice at Antarctica in the last 30 years."

With respect to global warming it seems to be a paradox that this year sea ice in the Southern Ocean has reached the highest extent in the last decades. It was only in the mid 1970s that a similar sea ice extent had been observed. 

The mean sea ice cover for September 2013 was 19.48 million square kilometers, an area that is 50 times the size of Germany.

"There was more sea ice this winter than we've seen in a long time, if there ever was so much ice since the start of regular satellite observations."

Even if there are no large area long-term measurements of sea ice thickness in the Antarctic, we conclude from various studies that the total volume of the Antarctic sea ice has grown over the last years.

The causes for these surprising observations are still the subject of various research projects. The main reason is currently suspected to be because of a strong natural variability as well as changes in the wind." 

How Science Fiction Could Get Climate Change Right!

We've all seen how terrible things can get when science fiction tries to tackle environmental issues. There's The Day After Tomorrow, with its super ice-hurricanes, and The Host, starring fish monsters created by pollution. Still, there's no reason you can't have disaster porn and accurate representations of climate change at the same time. Here's how.

Timescales

The biggest error that we see time and again in environmental apocalypse stories has to do with timescales. Climate change - whether it's an ice age caused by volcanic eruptions, or a greenhouse caused by fossil fuel emissions - takes a hell of a long time to happen. The climate perturbations we're experiencing right now have been brewing for centuries, while humans burned massive amounts of fossil fuels.

And of course this isn't the first time climate change has changed the Earth. The geological history of our planet is basically a series of climate disasters, from floods and droughts to ice ages and massive volcanic outpourings of lava. 200 million years ago, the planet's two vast supercontinents were scourged by wildfires that make the ones in Australia's outback look like a birthday cake. A megavolcano in India, spewing lava that streamed for thousands of miles, rivaled the asteroid strike 65 million years ago for "worst thing to happen to the dinosaurs ever."

But other than that asteroid strike we've all heard about, all of these climate-altering disasters unfolded on timescales far beyond a human life. You couldn't watch an ice age freezing things in real time, the way Jake Gyllenhaal does inThe Day After Tomorrow. And when carbon emissions heat the planet up, the effects are only perceptible on timescales of centuries.

This is a scenario that's incredibly frustrating for writers and creators who want to deliver a punch-bang 2010-style story. So how do you make slow-moving climate disasters exciting?

One possibility is to focus on one disastrous outcome of climate change. Superstorms are a good possibility, as are massive wildfires. Or you can go the Blade Runner route, and show us a world in the wake of many climate change disasters: most animals have gone extinct, the air is a hazy, poisonous mess, and many people are suffering from cancers and other diseases. There's room for a political story, here, too. Tobias Buckell's incredible novel Arctic Rising explores how the loss of ice in the Arctic Ocean will change international relations and reverse some countries' economic fortunes.

We could also use more climate change epics, Roots-style, tracking the fortunes of a family or community over two or three centuries as the environment deteriorates. In Kim Stanley Robinson's recent novel 2312, we see how Earth is coping with a world where Florida is underwater and wolves are extinct. We get a complete picture of how the planet got that way, and what it means for the rest of the solar system. With this wide-angle lens view of history, the disastrous nature of climate change is easier to perceive.

The Real Effects of Climate Change

The other major problem with current science fiction about climate change is that we don't ever get a realistic picture of why it's a disaster. Sure, climate change is associated with big, recognizable disasters like storms. But why is it such a big deal that the planet is warming up and flooding?

A movie like Waterworld doesn't help us understand the real outcomes of this situation. The problem isn't that we'll all be living in boats and wearing really bad swimwear. It's that climate change is going to usher in an era of famines that are a direct result of climate-caused extinctions. Humans will be starving, and many other creatures will be starving along with us.

If we look back in the geological record on Earth, it's easy to see where climate changes took place. Some of them are recorded in chemical changes in rocks caused by shifting seawaters, growing ice caps, and different molecules in the atmosphere. But when geologists look at the layers in ancient rocks, the most astonishing thing they see are the dramatic changes in the fossil record. Animals and plants who were everywhere in one era have vanished in the next. When over 75 percent of the life forms on the planet disappear in one of these great shifts, it's called a mass extinction.

After studying this phenomenon for over a century, geologists realized that mass extinctions were closely associated with climate change. When habitats change, animals and plants can't adjust and they die out. In many cases, "climate change" doesn't just mean a change in temperature. In the oceans, carbon mixes with sea water to create carbonic acid. So the water becomes more acidic. This prevents animals from growing shells, and eats away at coral reefs.

OK, so climate change causes some extinctions. But why does this mean famine? Because every species is part of a food web, or a set of relationships between predators and prey. When a prey species dies out, it's likely some predator species will also die out because their food supply is gone. The extinction of some species, like bees, can be catastrophic. Bees fertilize many food plants, from apples to onions, and their deaths will mean the deaths of these plants too. Any animals (including humans) who eat those plants will be affected.

The worst outcome of climate change isn't going to be flooded cities, though that will be bad. It will be the destruction of our food supply. And when food supplies dwindle, undernourished people are much more vulnerable to pandemic diseases.

The real disaster at the heart of climate change is starvation, followed by disease. Most importantly, these problems will affect many species - not just humans. Realistic stories about climate change have to deal with famine and its effects. We're not going to be fighting over gasoline. We'll be fighting over the last greenhouse full of apple trees.