UK has first snow fall of winter, temperatures below freezing, 11/6/16. Sixteen years after taxpayer funded UK gov. "climate expert" claimed, "Snowfalls are just a thing of the past. Children aren't going to know what snow is. Our notion of Christmas might have to shift." Has he been fired for selling the longest running and most financially profitable fraud ever perpetrated on humanity?

March 20, 2000, "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past," UK Independent, Charles Onians

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11/6/16, "ARCTIC PLUNGE: Snow falls for the first time this winter as big freeze to send temperatures plummeting below freezing," Sun UK, Brittany Vonow 

"BRITAIN is shivering its way into winter as temperatures drop below freezing–heralding the start of a white winter.

Temperatures have fallen to -4.6 in some areas with November’s temperatures already lower than average.

 
People have already been confronted with snow, with the white powder creating a thick layer across roads, driveways and parks.

The Met Office meteorologist Tom Crocker told The Sun Online: “It’s already one to two degrees cooler than we would expect for this time of the year.

“The next couple of days will continue in that cold theme… today has already been another chilly day.”

He said Exeter airport had hit a low of minus 4.6, making it the coldest in the UK overnight.

Widespread frosts are also expected across rural areas with areas in north and west Britain predicted to struggle to get past 3 degrees.

Strong winds are now expected to sweep across Britain, particularly around the southeastern areas of Norfolk and Kent coast.

Winds are expected to reach up to 50 miles an hour around the coast, getting up to 40 miles an hour on land.

But there is little hope of a warmer week, with temperatures barely expected to reach double temperatures....More snow could even hit the northern hill areas.

The Met Office is briefing the Cabinet Office, emergency services, transport bosses and councils that November to January sees below-average temperatures favoured. 

Much colder-than-usual temperatures are three times more likely than much milder-than-average, at 30 per cent versus 10 per cent.

Government weathermen predicted high-altitude Polar Vortex winds – which spin around the North Pole and keep cold air trapped in the Arctic – would weaken, allowing Polar air to plunge south and chill Britain.

The phenomenon saw temperatures fall to below -16C in Scotland in February 2009 and below -16C in Wales in November 2010 in the year’s nationwide big freeze, with widespread snow both times."

2016 images from UK Sun

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March 20, 2000 article

March 20, 2000, "Snowfalls are now just a thing of the past," UK Independent, Charles Onians

"Britain's winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives. 

Britain's winter ends tomorrow with further indications of a striking environmental change: snow is starting to disappear from our lives. Sledges, snowmen, snowballs and the excitement of waking to find that the stuff has settled outside are all a rapidly diminishing part of Britain's culture, as warmer winters - which scientists are attributing to global climate change - produce not only fewer white Christmases, but fewer white Januaries and Februaries.

The first two months of 2000 were virtually free of significant snowfall in much of lowland Britain, and December brought only moderate snowfall in the South-east. It is the continuation of a trend that has been increasingly visible in the past 15 years: in the south of England, for instance, from 1970 to 1995 snow and sleet fell for an average of 3.7 days, while from 1988 to 1995 the average was 0.7 days. London's last substantial snowfall was in February 1991.

Global warming, the heating of the atmosphere by increased amounts of industrial gases, is now accepted as a reality by the international community. Average temperatures in Britain were nearly 0.6°C higher in the Nineties than in 1960-90, and it is estimated that they will increase by 0.2C every decade over the coming century. Eight of the 10 hottest years on record occurred in the Nineties.

However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers.

According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.

The effects of snow-free winter in Britain are already becoming apparent. This year, for the first time ever, Hamleys, Britain's biggest toyshop, had no sledges on display in its Regent Street store. "It was a bit of a first," a spokesperson said.

Fen skating, once a popular sport on the fields of East Anglia, now takes place on indoor artificial rinks. Malcolm Robinson, of the Fenland Indoor Speed Skating Club in Peterborough, says they have not skated outside since 1997. "As a boy, I can remember being on ice most winters. Now it's few and far between," he said.

Michael Jeacock, a Cambridgeshire local historian, added that a generation was growing up "without experiencing one of the greatest joys and privileges of living in this part of the world - open-air skating".

Warmer winters have significant environmental and economic implications, and a wide range of research indicates that pests and plant diseases, usually killed back by sharp frosts, are likely to flourish. But very little research has been done on the cultural implications of climate change - into the possibility, for example, that our notion of Christmas might have to shift.

Professor Jarich Oosten, an anthropologist at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, says that even if we no longer see snow, it will remain culturally important.

"We don't really have wolves in Europe any more, but they are still an important part of our culture and everyone knows what they look like," he said.

David Parker, at the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Berkshire, says ultimately, British children could have only virtual experience of snow. Via the internet, they might wonder at polar scenes - or eventually "feel" virtual cold.

Heavy snow will return occasionally, says Dr Viner, but when it does we will be unprepared. "We're really going to get caught out. Snow will probably cause chaos in 20 years time," he said.

The chances are certainly now stacked against the sort of heavy snowfall in cities that inspired Impressionist painters, such as Sisley, and the 19th century poet laureate Robert Bridges, who wrote in "London Snow" of it, "stealthily and perpetually settling and loosely lying".

Not any more, it seems."

 

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