COLDEST TEMPS FOR DEC EVER IN UK! --- yet back in 2002 UK leading GW expert said " end of cold weather in UK forever"

[Amped]

Idiot did he really think that warming meant warmer than average weather for his backyard 365 days a year? Someone needed to explain the concept of global yearly average to him

[nzucker]

That's a pretty serious logical flaw. The guy in 2000 offered no other explanation for the warm winters the UK saw in the 1990s other than AGW...which now just makes him look foolish.

It's all about the NAO in the United Kingdom. NAO block=snow/cold with less progressive flow from the mild Atlantic Ocean. Global warming is really irrelevant as we're only talking about a few tenths of a degree of warming in the last 30 years compared to pattern differences of 10-15C with a -NAO compared to a +NAO. It's not as if Russia is without cold air these days because of global warming...quite the contrary, there's actually been a brutal outbreak in East Asia the past few days.

It'll be interesting to see how much of the Barents Sea and Denmark Strait can freeze this year, as well as all the bays around Scandinavia. Definitely could enhance some of the cold airmasses coming to Europe if we see a higher sea ice extent with greater snow cover than previous years.