Daily Archives: 13. December 2020

Biggest snowstorm in years set to slam Northeast

First comes a smaller storm, but by Wednesday some cities may pick up more than a half-a-season’s-worth of snow in 24 hours. Up to12 inches of snow – or even more – in parts of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine.

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Sun 13 Dec 2020 – Light to moderate snow is likely across portions of the central/southern High Plains today before entering the central Appalachians and Northeast on Monday, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Around 3 to 6 inches of snow is possible from the Texas Panhandle across northern Oklahoma and into portions of southern Missouri and far northern Arkansas. In the Northeast, total snowfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible, with higher amounts across the central Appalachians.

However, a major winter storm is currently entering the Pacific Northwest bringing potentially heavy mountain snow today in Washington, Oregon and the Sierra Nevada. Eventually, the storm will traverse the entire United States, to finally wallop much of the densely populated Northeast.

By Wednesday, heavy snow will break out in northern Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, reaching Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and New York City by early to mid afternoon.

Accumulating snow is likely along the I-95 corridor from Boston to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington D.C.

The heaviest snowfall rates will start late Wednesday into Thursday morning, with 2 inches per hour piling up in spots.

New York City, Hartford, Providence and Boston are likely to be in the bullseye.

With forecasts calling for more than a foot of snow in many areas, roads are likely to become hazardous.

https://www.weather.gov

https://weather.com/forecast/regional/news/2020-12-11-east-coast-storm-noreaster-forecast

https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/major-snow-and-ice-storm-brewing-for-the-east/865343

https://abc7ny.com/winter-storm-snow-is-it-going-to-in-new-york-city-nyc-weather/8723650

Chance for a Major Snow Storm Looms in the Tri-State This Week

The post Biggest snowstorm in years set to slam Northeast appeared first on Ice Age Now.

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December 13, 2020 at 12:59PM

Climate change: Have countries kept their promises?

Guest post by Mike Jonas

The UK’s BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) has just published an assessment of five “countries” and how well they have kept their “climate” promises. The five “countries” are the UK, Australia, EU, China, and the Philipinnes. The article is by Matt McGrath.

Before I continue, please look at the names of the five “countries”, and without knowing anything about the data that the BBC used and how they did the assessment, ask yourself which ones the BBC will give a “pass” to.

…..

Matt McGrath presents a chart for each “country”:

My expectations, knowing that Matt McGrath’s assessment would be highly politically charged, was for a Pass for EU and China, a Fail for Australia, and a don’t know for UK and Philippines. Why were Australia and the Philippines included, instead of much more important CO2 emitters like India or Japan? The reason for inclusion of Australia is pretty obvious – one purpose of the article was to make Australia look bad (remember, Australia was excluded from the recent virtual “climate” conference, so it’s more important than ever for Australia now to look bad). The reason for including the Philippines is less obvious to me, maybe they wanted a lesser country in the list so that Australia wasn’t obviously in a different league to the others (suggestions, anyone?).

Looking at those charts, what can we see?

1. Australia was assessed “excluding forestry”. Why exclude forestry? Nothing was excluded for the others. Well, I think the answer is here:

[Australia’s] emissions from the land sector decreased 80% between 2005 and 2016

{..} Queensland land sector GHG emissions decreased from 97.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO2e) in 1990 to 12 MtCO2e in 2016

[I don’t have Australia’s total, but Queensland is a large part]. Matt McGrath would have been unable to make Australia look so bad if he had looked at the whole picture. Dishonesty in certain quarters knows no bounds. It probably took him quite a while to work out how he could fiddle Australia’s numbers. With forestry included, Australia would have been the only one of the five that was well ahead of its 2020 and projected 2030 targets.

2. The percentage change and total change in CO2 emissions over the 1990(ish)-2019 period shown in the charts were (approx):

UK: -45% (-350Mt)

Australia (excluding forestry): +30% (+135Mt)

EU: -30% (-170Mt)

China: +350% (+10,500Mt)

Philippines: +30% (+110Mt)

When you are sea-sick, always remember to go to the leeward (downwind) side of the boat, so that you don’t get your own back. The UK and EU have made themselves rather ill with their “climate” efforts, but when they look at China’s numbers, they must feel like they went to the windward side. Only it wasn’t their own that they got back.

The BBC’s assessment of whether the five “countries” had kept their promises was:

UK: “mostly yes”.

Australia: “not really”.

EU: “mostly yes”.

China: “mostly yes, but with some caveats”

Philippines: “its actions to date are compatible with keeping warming well below 2C this century”.

My assessment is that this article is so highly politicised that it is just a sick joke.

There is a perfectly good reason for the USA not to be in the BBC article – they are not in the Paris agreement – but just for interest, their 1990-2019 numbers are (approx):

USA:  0% (0Mt) – 4,800Mt in 1990, 5,800Mt in 2007, 4,800Mt in 2019 (data from here and here).

The BBC article is at https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-55222890. I have not checked whether Matt McGrath’s numbers are correct. He gives no sources. Anyone who believes the projections in the China chart is surely in cloud-cuckoo land.

Guest Blogger / 24 mins ago December 13, 2020

via Watts Up With That?

Climate change: Have countries kept their promises? | Watts Up With That?

Expert On Germany’s Green Energy Policy: “We Are Threatened With A Dramatic Loss Of Prosperity”

Die kalte Sonne


Image: GWPF

Prof. Fritz Vahrenholt was interviewed by the Hamburger Abendblatt on a new book he co-authored: “Unerwünschte Wahrheiten: Was Sie über den Klimawandel wissen sollten“ (Unwanted Truths: What You Have To Know About Climate Change).

He warns that Germany’s energy policy of transitioning to renewable energies could lead to a “dramatic loss of prosperity”.

The interview appeared on December 11, 2020: What follows are some excerpts:

Former Environment Senator Vahrenholt: “We are threatened with a loss of prosperity“

[…]

ABENDBLATT: With solar cells, we have just seen what efficiency gains are possible.

VAHRENHOLT: That’s true with solar energy, when I think back to my first solar cells at Shell. We can produce electricity for a few cents at sunny sites, and the drop in cost is not as significant with wind. But that doesn’t solve the problem of intermediate storage, which becomes unaffordable with the amount that needs to be stored.

ABENDBLATT: Do you have something against renewable energies?

VAHRENHOLT: No, not at all – I helped to make them big, photovoltaics at Shell, wind power at Repower. RWE Innogy’s first offshore plant in the North Sea bears my name: Fritz. But I would never have thought of making such a fluctuating energy the sole source of electricity, heat and mobility.”

ABENDBLATT: What should be done, in your view?

VAHRENHOLT: If the situation is as dramatic as they always say, I wonder why we don’t rethink it over. Why aren’t we willing to think about capturing CO2 from coal-fired power plants? And why do we refuse to look at new nuclear energy technologies with an open mind? Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change considers them an alternative. But we don’t want to see it.

ABENDBLATT: Our chancellor is a natural scientist…

VAHRENHOLT: Yes, but she is driven by public sentiment. That’s what her about-face on nuclear power showed.

On the subject of deindustrialization, we’re with your party – the SPD.

VAHRENHOLT: Unfortunately, the SPD no longer has its clientele in mind. There is already a party for the hip, green urban crowd. But the employees in the steel, chemical or car industry have been lost from sight. The little people will now be punished with a CO2 tax starting in January. It will cost the average household 270 euros in the first year, and this amount is set to rise further and further to over 600 euros.”

Read the complete interview here (paywall).

There were many comments with praise and criticism coming from readers over the Abendblatt interview. What follows is a positive comment:

This interview with Mr. Fritz Vahrenholt should be made compulsory reading for politicians of all parties with subsequent discussion and debate! Considerable food for thought!”

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December 13, 2020 at 10:30AM