What Global Warming? Snow Line In Alps Increases

It’s been a rather cool summer in much of Europe so far. And just before some hot weather is about to sweep across Central Europe starting tomorrow, winter made a brief comeback – at the peak of summer – in the Alps!

Snow down to 2300 meters

“At high altitudes of the Alps, the precipitation turned into snow overnight,” reported Wetteronline.de here. “In some areas, the snowfall line dropped to an altitude of around 2,300 meters.”

A foot of snow

Wetteronline.de also noted that on Germany’s highest mountain, Zugspitze, “about 30 centimeters of fresh snow fell in the morning at minus 2 degrees.”

“Employees of the Zugspitzbahn were in continuous operation to clear paths and the visitor platforms from the summer snow masses.”

DWD national weather service labels a cooler than normal July “quite warm”

Meanwhile, Germany’s DWD national weather service recently issued what I’d call a press release that is designed especially for stupid and lazy journalists who won’t bother fact-checking.

In its preliminary report on July weather in Germany, the DWD announced that the mid-summer month this year was “rather warm.”

According to the DWD, the average temperature in July for Germany was 17.7°C (64°F), which was “0.8°C (1.44°F) above the value for the internationally valid reference period 1961 to 1990.”

But what the DWD fails to tell us is that the 1961-1990 period was a cold one. And not only that, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) no longer uses the 1961-1990 reference period. Instead, it uses the 1981-2010 period to calculate the means.

The DWD does mention that July 2020 was 0.3°C (0.54°F) too cold compared with the valid reference period 1981 to 2010. So at the DWD, 0.3°C below the valid mean is in their eyes “rather warm.”

Read more at No Tricks Zone


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Comments (8)

  • Avatar

    Carbon Bigfoot

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    • Avatar

      Herb Rose

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      Hi Carbon,
      When I use the link kt says the event has been cancelled. I want to go to the trial of that murdering SOB.
      Herb

      Reply

  • Avatar

    Alex

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    I have to clarify things:
    This kind of information is just nonsense.
    I live in Switzerland and go every year in the mountains, I know very well several glaciers that I see every year.
    Why I can testify without any single doubt, is that in 30 years the melting of these glaciers is dramatic, heart breaking for me, remembering them vividly since I was a kid.
    The glacier of Ferpècle, which I know very well, lost a huge amount of its length and height, I can say that as I return there every year at the same time, it’s so sad for me to witness this glacier disappearing.
    So please, stop spreading this misinformation.
    It’s sad, but it’s real.

    Reply

    • Avatar

      Koen Vogel

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      Alex, I think you misunderstand Pierre’s main point: comparing Alpine temperatures – as the DWD did – to a – relatively cold – 1961-1990 average is misleading, as it compares today’s data against a relatively cold period in our recent history. Most climate scientists use 1951-1980 (which covers the late-70’s warming), or 1951-2000 which covers an even greater time interval. Presenting data in a manner which suits a pro or con narrative is what current climate science articles often do, so “Buyer Beware!”. A single warm or cold year in a single location doesn’t prove or disprove anything. A decadal trend – such as you’ve noticed with your glacier – is probably more reliable, but still only a single location. NASA look at a global average for their data. The importance of observing global decadal cooling trends is that according to the IPCC climate models they cannot occur under increasing greenhouse gasses, so will – someday soon I think – provide important evidence that CO2 forcing in the climate models is overstated. Most of the Alpine glaciers were formed during the Little Ice Age, a relatively cool period that occurred after the Mideval warm period. A return to more “Normal” temperatures is causing them to melt. While tragic that their natural beauty disappears, the warmer periods are historically the periods of greater prosperity: more arable land, less hunger, less disease.

      Reply

    • Avatar

      Christian Loosli

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      Hi, i’m swiss too, jes glaciers melt away but that’s not nessecarily because of higher temperatur. When in the winter the snowing is unsufficent and it melts more a way in the summer, glaciers retreat. It’s a question of humidity not temperatur.Very cold winter can be quiet dry and so less snow, even the sommer isn’t very hot. Joachin Zilmer has very intresting studies about our past. Actually our gaciers started to grow after the little ice age when the clima became warmer. More moisture more snow. It looks may frustrating to you but humans can do very, very little or nothing to change that, it’s like wantings to speed up or slowing down earth rotation. Have a good day.

      Reply

  • Avatar

    Michael Clarke

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    I have to clarify things as well.
    Mount St Helen’s, that one that blew it’s top not all that long ago, has a brand new glacier that is growing alarmingly in the caldera.

    Reply

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