etudiant

Sadly it is only after such catastrophes that we learn to set serious standards. Shipping is safer because of the Titanic, buildings are safer because of the Triangle Shirt Waist fire, Texas had lots of warning that cold spells could be a problem, but no one hit the mule over the head with a 2x4 to help it see reason. Imho this is just another lesson that will soon be forgotten.

Afaik, the grid managers are prioritizing locations with hospitals and similar sensitive facilities, at the expense of residential and industrial sectors. Not sure how easily that is actually implemented though...

Well, I've only been there in winter along the eastern coast, so can attest robust deep snow cover. But don't have any idea of seasonal averages.

Hokkaido is considerably (about 500 miles) further north than is Tokyo, so it gets snow where Tokyo gets rain. The liquid equivalents may even be in the same ballpark.

Does no one make rubber shoes with some sort of spiked sole? They don't need to be huge spikes, just enough to give some grip on slick surfaces.

That's nature coming back. Sneeze and be grateful!

Is it feasible to show the first sign in date for the posters? That would perhaps allow us to filter the socks.

Whatever happened to the record cold NYC was supposed to experience this weekend?

Very wet snow falling in Manhattan UES since about 9.30 AM, mostly melting on contact. Actual accumulation is modest, perhaps an inch as of 1PM. Would guess it might be a more substantial event further north.

The super premium super tall apartments are mostly empty, owned by absent individuals to serve as a pied a terre on visits and as a safe stash of funds. Not so many actually live there, so NYC gets eyesores that don't even give much back economically to the community.

Now that this is in the books, did JB's expectation of 40"+ in the Poconos verify? I've always respected his meteorological chops and he did get it right that this would be a big one, but he does get very enthusiastic when in the chase.

Have to say, the details of how the Central Park site is run are murky, so I've low confidence that the numbers produced are truly representative. The site is split afaik between the Castle, a high point in the Park and the remaining sensor array, surrounded by shrubbery and perhaps 30 feet lower. Snow fall measurements are manual iirc, so not automated and consequently less uniform.

That is quite a lot. It says that since 1960, the ocean surface layer down to 2000 meters has absorbed 3.6x10**23 joules, enough to warm it (about 7x10**8 km**3) by about a tenth of a degree Centigrade. The ray of light is that the paper suggests that this is pretty much in line with the current estimates of how much extra solar input is trapped by increased greenhouse effects, so the increase should stay fairly stable.

Another non event hyped by the NYT, no less. Are they getting bored as well? The snow, such as it was, barely whitened the detritus in Central Park, paths a little damp at most.

Perhaps, but maybe not wrong.

Is there any actual evidence of that? We do have a materially warmer than usual Arctic, some beyond historical experience. But it is difficult for me to see why there would be a step change in oceanic buffering when the increase in ocean temperature to date is at the limits of the measurements.

Imho this is more reassuring. If the oceans can absorb this massive input of heat without substantial disruption, we are home free. All these effects are logarithmic, the most rapid impacts are early on. So if the oceans can buffer several decades of warming, we will never have abrupt change, just stuff that has a generational lead time.

Judging by some of our own demonstrators, it may be argued whether our species is in fact sentient.... Who was it who said that people go mad in crowds and return to sanity one by one?

People are expecting too much. Forecasts have many dimensions. Not all of them eventuate. Here in Manhattan, we had a forecast of a potential Nor'easter for this time about 10 days ago, did not get the snow and precip, but a lovely sunny day with healthy north winds. I'd call that a solid B forecast, the direction was good, the details less so, but we all know the devil is in the details.

About an hour's worth of mix in Central Park, started between 10 and 11 am as slight graupel with rain, gradually shifted to more snow flakes, all sucked into the wet ground, just a bit of white on some of the dead leaves and the grass. MInimal precipitation. as of noontime a tenth of an inch at the outside, nothing like the half inch of rain predicted.

Very interesting comment about the Three Gorges, it is at such an important locus of Chinese history that I had thought of it as a more social rather than economic project. What I don't know is the consideration of the downstream effects of the various water storage/diversion projects. In the US, the Columbia river dams destroyed a salmon fishery that was more valuable than the irrigated land produced. I've no idea whether the Chinese dam and diversion projects factor in the impacts on the outflow areas or their fisheries.

This map is just super to illustrate the China water problem, an arid cold season and an irregularly wet warm season. No one cares about the peripheral regions, the key is redistributing the surplus during the rainy season in the south. We now know that the Three Gorges dam was too small, but the local geography was a constraint. Does anyone have better suggestions?

Deeply wrong. The ancient Greeks considered politics the highest of the civilized arts, they were not wrong imho. Politics is the art of managing our country. If it does not benefit the people who live there, they have the right to change it

Thank you very much for these excellent supplemental maps. They make it clear that water is crucial in northern China. With Beijing located in a semi desert region, I can see the logic behind some of China's massive diversion projects The often unexpected consequences are no surprise to American readers of Mark Reisner's 'Cadillac Desert', which looks at the political and economic drivers and consequences of the comparably massive projects in the western US.

Jupiter sets around 6.30-6.45 pm here, so when I came back at 7.00 pm, the sky was clear of both clouds and the conjunction. Now pretty reconciled to a long wait, unless Elon sets up some low cost 'Astronomy in Space' tourism.