Weird Weather, 40 Inches of Snow in One Week

After getting slammed by about 16 inches of snow last week, my area is going to get hit by another 2 feet of snow again this week. That last snow storm was a record snowfall here, and it seems we are set for another.

How is it that we are getting nearly 40 inches of snow in Norfolk Virginia? This place is definitely not an area where snow is supposed to happen. You can go years here without ever seeing a few inches, and in the span of a week we are getting slammed.

Any of you guys getting weird weather?

Errr... Not really. We had an oddly warm week about 16 days ago, but other then that it's Canadian winter... cold and full of snow.

Here weather changes during the day. Its so cold here that there is no snow in the morning but after that it gets hot because of the sun.

Most snow than I've ever seen in Britain too. Coldest winter since the 70s or 60s apparently.

Basically we had a winter how they are meant to be

OH SHI-

ITS GLOBAL COOLING!

Coldest winter since pre WWII I think it is over hear, we've had about 4 successive periods with high-levels of snow that lasted for at least a week. And when it finally starts metling: it only takes a day or 2 before a few dozen centimeters falls in 1 or 2 days... I'm getting quite sick of it, it's melting now: hope it stays like that.

On a brighter note, I haven't fallen onto my ass yet because of the frozen side-walks in some areas... I have had some scary moments in the car, thankfully I've taken a few "skid training courses". The salt they throw onto the roads is almost gone I hear...

Actually, I think we've finally given the Gulf Stream a heart attack. This strange weather seems to be isolated only to the Eastern US and Britain, the areas most reliant on the Gulf Stream's heat.

Then how come it was this cold and snowy during my parents generation?

LOL and the rest of Europe, just because there are enough brits here to complain doesn't mean that it's been sub 20 degrees centigrade in central Europe quite often now.... At one point a sattelite image showed that only Italy and Greece were relatively clear of being whited out by snow.

In Germany I've seen pictures where they shoved all the snow that fell on the roads for a week into the curb (or whatever you call that strip of grass next to the road) and it was over 5 meters high!

This post has been edited by Driver on 4 February 2010, 20:53

Global temperatures actually were going down from 1940 to 1975. I believe that what kept them going down was the mass bombardments of WW II, nuclear testing, and the bombing during the Vietnam War (which was bombed more than other nation in history).

Temperatures were actually on the increase mostly for the past 10 years. Now it seems the Gulf Stream has left its desired temperature range and is dying. It has been weakening for years, but now it may be very weak (if not dead).

Before that, in the 1800s - 1940s, we where also much ,much colder. The Thames used to freeze solid constantly and far more snow fell. I see nothing to suggest this is anything but our climate how it should be...

One of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history caused temperatures to drop in the 1800s. It was in Indonesia, I forget its name. Essentially it caused a tiny version of nuclear winter.

That lasted 150 years? And what about occurrences of similar things from back to Shakespeare time?

How?

Well, one of the theories I have heard on that is because of the massive burning of forests during the period before coal came along.

Or right how about this; the actions of man have nothing to do with the weather?

They have. But its speculated the influence of those actions.

My location is about to get it up the arse this weekend... Could get about 2-4 FEET of snow.... I hear all of the UK is getting it really bad this year.... and certain locations of the UK are running low on food.

LOL?

I think the LOL you are referring to is a BBC clip i was watching on TV talking about parts of Scotland.

Give me a few minutes and i can probably find that for you.

just got back from the grocery store that is less than 5 minutes from where i live....


It was a F******* nut house.... Every line 5+deep. Low on Chicken,waffles and bread. Actually had plenty of milk,eggs and Toilet Paper... The staples of every winter storm. :-) Not to also include the fact that a few of the back parking spots was used... I never seem them used during Christmas and Thanksgiving. :-)

This post has been edited by John McCloud2 on 5 February 2010, 0:14

BTW the gulf stream doesn't die down because of global average temperature rising: it drops because of a fall in ocean salinity due to fresh water being dumped into it: that won't happen en-mass until Greenland starts melting. That said the conveyor has been slowing down slightly over the years but that can be attributed to the North Pole. I think it could however die when the north pole becomes open water and there's nothing to stop the conveyor water from going over Russia and thus dieing.

When I was younger, we had amazing snow storms. Snow drifts would go over the roof our house. You'd open the garage door, and then begin making a trench to where the truck is... then, if all was well, the truck would be able to get out and the driveway would be plowed. It was quite fun.

The worse was in 1997/8. The Black Hills area got 100 inches in a week. We made some pretty bad ass snow forts. Adults were furious.

This post has been edited by Pinko on 5 February 2010, 1:21

As i live in central canada (Manitoba, the transition between the canadian shield to the north and the prairies to the west) we usually get TONS of snow, but i doubt we even have 12 inches outside which sucks. Of my 17 years of life, all of which i have spent living in this area, we have never had such little snow fall. We usually have a few feet! Theres barely enough too keep the local ski hill running!

This post has been edited by Fubbles on 5 February 2010, 1:31

And is it said when will the Gulf Stream die?

A few weeks ago the whole northern Albania just went underwater, due to temperatures hiting 20 degrees in early January! Now its freezing! In November that also happened in Greece and Turkey. Delta is right, the Gulf Stream is going out, but not because of humans. Just because we’re right on the brink of a regularly occurring ice age. When I’ll hit 80 most of northern Europe will be inhabitable. Sorry Britain, it just wasn’t meant to be

I'm sorry but these statements are from a scientific perspective completely hilarious: What measurements do you have that the ocean conveyor was sufficiently weaker to cause the weird temperature shifts of this year...

I love it when people start finding scientific explanations for perfectly normal phenomena but at the same time have 0,0 scientifically acquired information to actually even legitimize the proposal of the explanation let alone call it fact. That's called pseudo scientists, scour youtube, it's full of pseudo science.

Weather patterns are never fixed, you have cold years and you have warm years, you have wet years and some are dry. You can't really call this a pattern yet, judging by the fact that this is the first winter in years to have freak snow events across Europe and the Eastern USA. If this keeps happening year in, year out: then you may be on to something: but since this is up to now the 1st time following many very mild winters plus you have zilch information on the ocean conveyor actually being dead (as you can actually measure it! (DUH!!!!) This theory has just as much validity as: "I believe something to be true but have zero evidence for it: so it must be true".

Could it be... no really could it? Maybe it could.... What is it driver what is it?

Ok I'll tell you a secret: the cold weather we've been having was because of large low pressure zones constantly hanging around the polar regions and if anyone of you knows the most basic things about meteorology you'd know two things:

1. In winter polar regions tend to be cold.

2. Pressure zones are circular regions that can move air from north to south and vica virsa depending on it being high or low pressure.

With point 1 and 2 put together: O NO COULD IT BE!?!?!?! Yes it is! Could air was brought down from the polar regions by pressure systems!

By god it's a miracle! Driver must be a freaging Genious. Or could it just be that he knows what happens when you plant a low pressure zone in the polar region...

OEOEOEOE! *finger in the air*

Teacher: Yes driver what is it?

Driver: I also wanted to add, the ocean conveyor barely has any influence on central and eastern European climate. Why are we even linking the flooding of Albania and then it freezing over with anything that has anything to do with the ocean conveyor?

Teacher: I don't know Driver...

Happens every year in the US. Fucking Canada, always exporting their air...