The wind is picking up: in the heartland we are in the middle of the blizzard warning and it is snowing hard. Tomorrow night the forecast is for -8 deg F (-22 C)...air temperature, not windchill. I think this will be the coldest termperature I have ever experienced at a house I live at, or maybe period.

So, climate change caused by people: I've posted before that the global temperature change to date is small (0.7 deg C), and there seem to be larger effects in the Arctic and subartic, Antarctic peninsula, mountain glaciers. So, there cannot be an average temperature change in mid latitudes that you are going to casually notice. (although I think the unprecedented heat wave in Europe in, I think, 2002 was a bit alarming.

So, I don't think this weather says anything about climate change. The record low for my small City for today is -11 F and for some days is as low as -15 to -26 F. One questions I have is whether warmer sea surface temperatures in the ocean off the east coast (if this is even the case), results in a little enhancement in precipitation in Nor'easters.

So, will we have winters like this in 50 years? I don't know. I'm about certain that the changes will be very noticeable in many areas. But, perhaps variability will allow some severe winters to occur in places like the heartland and northeast and Europe. They just might not be as severe or as common.

If the ocean circulation system changes dramatically, all bets are off. There is evidence that this happened in the past. I can expand if there is a discussion on this thread.

Chris