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Politics : Sioux Nation -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SiouxPal who wrote (96197)	1/19/2007 5:42:10 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 361250

The snowless winter Editorial Board January 18, 2007 When the topic turns to the winter weather, many ask the same thing: When will the snow arrive? This longing for snow became most noticeable just after Christmas, as if those with the longing wished to return our mostly winterless winter along with those unwanted sweaters. Typically, the refrain is that falling snow is lovely, even if it is inconvenient for walkers or drivers. A snowless winter is colorless and dreary, like an extended November, all browns and grays Business news reports tell us the stores can't sell winter coats and gloves. Snow blowers and snow shovels are marked down. Ski areas are open with manmade snow, but skiers aren't in the mood. Contractors with snowplowing services are hurting. Garden shops and nurseries are receiving shipments of spring plants already. Heavens! Will the daffodils bloom in January, with high temperatures reaching into the unseasonable 40s and 50s Fahrenheit through much of the early part of this month? Not likely after this week's cold blast, but the warmer-than-usual winter weather may return soon. There's no snow on the horizon, either. Long-range weather forecasts see no snow headed our way. What has causing this snowless, relatively balmy season? El Niño is one possibility. The phenomenon - a warming of the waters in the central and eastern Pacific Ocean - is forming right now, and climatologists predict it will affect North American weather patterns this winter. Global warming is another suspect. We recently heard that a slab of ice the size of Manhattan has broken off an ice shelf on the north shore of Ellesmere Island in northern Canada and is floating into the Arctic Ocean. Just before that, the U.S. government announced it might list polar bears as "threatened," one notch less than "endangered," because of global warming's effects. But global warming is measured in continental temperature averages, not in local temperature abnormalities. Indirectly it might be a factor, but not directly a cause. Whatever is causing it - the warm, wet weather pattern across most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains - is resulting from the jet streams. The lower jet stream arcs across the northern states, drawing warm, moist air up in our direction. The Arctic jet stream, which could send freezing air down here, has been out to lunch all season. This week was an exception. Climate scientists say the path of the southern jet stream is typical of a weak-to-moderate El Niño. What's missing is the northern jet stream and any cold, arctic air over Canada. If those things set up, the northern jet stream could bend into our area, mixing cold air with moisture coming up the coast, and that would spell S-N-O-W. There's no sense in fretting over it. As Mark Twain once said, everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. zwire.com