The Reference Frame: RSS MSU: 0.06 °C month-on-month cooling

The mid troposphere cooled by 0.09 °C in one month (RSS). In this layer, the anomaly of the Arctic dropped (cooled) by 1.5 °C in one month!

The cooling appears despite the fact that the recent La Nina conditions are essentially over. During the most recent week, they have been replaced by ENSO-neutral conditions.

In the U.S., 358 low temperature records and 409 snowfall records were broken during the most recent week. New blizzards are expected.

All-time Snow Records Tumbling Again for the Second Straight Year

Just a week after the last major northern plains blizzard another major event is on the way. The Nebraska NWS office in North Platte puts it this way “another late season heavy snowfall event is evolving. The heaviest snowfalls are expected over northern Nebraska and southern South Dakota Saturday and Saturday night. It appears that winds will gust well over 50 miles an hour across southwestern and central Nebraska by Saturday evening.

Spring voting chooses Blue States/Red States « Watts Up With That?

January, 2008 was the snowiest month on record in the Northern Hemisphere, with nine out of the last eleven January’s above normal.

In Hot Water: Energy and Climate Bill is Really, Really Comprehensive - Environmental Capital - WSJ

The efficiency section gets attention, which is odd considering other seemingly crucial points were glossed over. The 648-page bill did not dedicate a single line to addressing big-picture questions such as how carbon-emissions permits will be distributed or what will be done with the presumptive cap-and-trade revenues.

Yet the bill’s authors took the time to dictate new efficiency standards in excruciating detail. If you’re planning on putting a slanted roof on a new house, get ready for one standard for “initial solar reflectance” for “fiberglass asphalt-shingle roofing,” and a different standard for other types of shingles.

Or take light fixtures. The bill found 10 pages just for portable lighting. If you’re curious, that means a new raft of standards for things like “art work light fixtures”—and yes, those are the lights affixed on the bottom of picture frames. Christmas lights, on the other hand, escape any new regulation.

Certain appliances also got the juices flowing. Reflecting perhaps California’s disproportionate influence in Congress these days—Henry Waxman is the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee—one sub-section is dedicated to something called “portable electric spas.” Yes, that’s just what it sounds like.