Record Hemispheric snow but moisture content BELOW normal

December and January have seen the greatest snowcover for the Northern Hemisphere in the record (back to 1966). It beats out 2009/10 in second and 1977/78 in third place and 2007/08 in fourth place (source: Rutgers snow lab). Notice the UPWARD trend over the period of record.

Alarmists and their enablers in the media want to blame excess moisture due to global warming. As the Goracle himself puts it “Snow has two simple ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow.”

But cold air hold LESS moisture not more and indeed the average anomaly of precipitable water from the surface to 18,000 feet (500mb) from December 1, 2010 to February 3, 2011 is below the long term average (blues and purples) in the region where the snow has been anomalously heavy - northern Europe and central and eastern United States.