If you could see us from space you would notice most of Northern Hemisphere is covered in snow and ice. When I saw that above picture it reminded me of a relief map I had seen at the Natural History Museum in Cleveland, Ohio that looked something like this.

I was talking with my CW buddy Howie in Chicago last night. He said it was snowing 'up' ... from the ground up, with thunder and lightening. He said the storm was rolling into the city, and reminded him of that sandstorm scene from the movie Hidalgo. I'd also heard this phenomenon reported a couple weeks ago out of New York City during one of their storms (the snow gets caught in the updraft caused by the air between the tall buildings). When I lived in downtown Cleveland back in the winter of 1979-80 my apartment was on the 7th floor of an electronicsl school building on the corner where the taller city buildings ended. I could watch the intersection of the streets from my windows and the snow, at times, looked like the video you saw on 9/11 when the buildings collapsed and the huge cloud came rolling down the street between the buildings. It would hit the windows like needles on the glass. There was thunder and lightening. The next morning, when I had to trek two blocks on foot to my school and the radio station the snow was hip-high. When you live near the Great Lakes it can be brutal. Last night here in Ohio, my area got freezing rain on top of the several inches of snow already on the ground. It was as if someone had a clear high gloss enamel everywhere as the lights hit it in the night.

But you knew it was only a matter of time before the global warming preachers got their talking points organized to address this winter's excess of snow and cold as proof of global warming (it's "climate change" in the winter, ya know).
Last year there was this little news story the MSM refused to cover. We in the blog media dubbed it ClimateGate. Unlike those involved in WikiLeaks, those who allegedly 'hacked' the Climatic Research Unit email to expose the deliberate 'fixing' and omitting of data by the scientific community to suit the AGW agenda were not seen as heroes.

Well, unphased by the last two winters and the scandal of Climategate, Sen. Barbara "Don't Call Me Ma'am" Boxer is insisting on holding global warming hearings. And Obama insists on being our greenhouse gasses overlord.

Anyhow, as Chicago continues to dig out from 'a storm of historic proportions' we should all be aware of the prognostications of AccuWeather's Chief Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi:

This winter is on track to become the coldest for the nation as a whole since the 1980s or possibly even the late 1970s. According to AccuWeather.com Chief Long Range Forecaster Joe Bastardi, three or four out of the next five winters could be just as cold, if not colder. He is worried that next winter, for example, will be colder than this one.

[...]

While there are many different factors that are playing into Bastardi's forecast, one of the primary drivers is La Niña and the trends that have been observed in winters that follow the onset of a La Niña.

[...]

The current La Niña, which kicked in this past summer, is unprecedented after becoming the strongest on record in December 2010. Bastardi thinks this La Niña will last into next year, though it will be weaker, and will not disappear completely until 2012.

According to Bastardi, studies over the past 100 years or so show that after the first winter following the onset of a La Niña, the next several winters thereafter tend to be colder than normal in the U.S.

He says the first winter during a La Niña tends to be warm. The next winter that follows is usually less warm, and the winter after that is usually cold.

"There's a natural tendency for that to happen because of the large-scale factors," Bastardi commented. "What's interesting about what we're seeing here is that [the current La Niña] is starting so cold."

Temperatures this winter so far are averaging below normal across much of the eastern two-thirds of the country.

He adds, "If the past predicts the future, then the first year La Niña is warmer than the combination of the following two."

[...]

If this winter, which has been colder than normal across the eastern two-thirds of the country, is historically supposed to be the warmest of the next three winters for the U.S., according to Bastardi, we have some frigid times ahead. [...]

Read the whole article. He continues to predict this type of cold, and colder, for the next 20-30 years. Isn't that the time window Al Gore and his AGW congregation have us down for the world spontaneously combusting ... or something? To hear Bastardi explain it we are actually heading into another 'ice age'.

Bastardi also addresses the affect our current bad economic situation will have on people trying to stay warm enough in this country when the fuel and energy costs keep rising (as someone told us he planned for them to).

Me? I'll take Joe Bastardi's knowledge, science and experience over Al Gore's, thank you.