Minnesota: CO2 takes a break--More on Cool Summer 2004

August 2004 continued the cold summer pattern for Minnesota. The summer of 2004 from June through August will rank right up there with some of the coldest summers on record for places in Minnesota. The Twin Cities finished with the 6th coldest August on record and the 14th coldest summer on record. The following are statements issued by the National Weather Service offices in Chanhassen, Duluth, Sioux Falls and Grand Forks about the cool summer.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
430 PM CDT WED SEP 01 2004

...AN ALL TIME RECORD COOL AUGUST COMES TO PASS ACROSS PORTIONS
OF MINNESOTA...
...METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER WILL BE ONE OF THE COOLEST ON RECORD...
AUGUST 2004 HAS GONE DOWN AS THE COOLEST ON RECORD FOR ALEXANDRIA...ST.CLOUD...
AND EAU CLAIRE. MINNEAPOLIS HAS FINISHED
THE MONTH TIED FOR THE 6TH COOLEST MONTH ON RECORD. RECORDS FOR
MINNEAPOLIS HAVE BEEN KEPT FOR 113 YEARS.

WHILE IT WON'T BE THE COOLEST METEOROLOGICAL SUMMER EVER...IT CERTAINLY
WILL BE REMEMBERED AS ONE OF THE COOLER THE TWO STATES HAVE EVER SEEN. BOTH
EAU CLAIRE AND ST.CLOUD WILL FINISH THE SUMMER IN THE TOP 5 OF RECORDS AVAILABLE.
MINNEAPOLIS WILL NOT BREAK THE TOP 10...QUITE DIFFERENT FROM ITS SURROUNDING
CITIES. THIS IS LIKELY DUE TO THE INCREASED URBAN HEAT ISLAND OVER THE PAST
10 TO 20 YEARS...WITH MANY OF THE RECORDS COMING WELL BEFORE MINNEAPOLIS WAS
THE URBAN BEHEMOTH THAT IT IS TODAY. SINCE URBAN SPRAWL HAS BECOME COMMONPLACE
...COLD TEMPERATURE RECORDS SPANNING SEVERAL MONTHS...SUCH AS "COLD SUMMER"
RECORDS...HAVE BEEN HARD TO COME BY. THIS IS MAINLY DUE TO THE URBAN AREAS
HOLDING HEAT AT NIGHT...KEEPING NIGHTTIME MINIMUMS HIGHER THAN THE OUTLYING
CITIES. ONLY 3 OUT OF THE TOP 10 COOL SUMMERS IN MINNEAPOLIS CAME AFTER
1950...AND ONLY ONE AFTER 1970 (WHICH WAS 1992) WHEN URBAN SPRAWL REALLY
TOOK OFF.

Climate change can only be driven by gremlins or pollution?

It’s not sexist to discuss [Palin's allegedly] atrocious environmental record, something that should concern hunters more than her bag limit of moose, including a belief in the outrageous political fiction that the climate change that threatens her state more than many others is apparently caused by gremlins, not pollution.