GHCN Temperature Adjustments In Iceland–A Closer Look At Stykkisholmur–Part II « NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

[Trausti Jonsson] In 1965 there was a real and very sudden climatic change in Iceland (deterioration). It was larger in the north than in the south and affected both the agriculture and fishing – and therefore also the whole of society with soaring unemployment rates and a 50% devaluation of the local currency. It is very sad if this significant climatic change is being interpreted as an observation error and adjusted out of existence.
I have been working for more than 25 years in the field of historical climatology and have been guilty of eager overadjustments in the past as well as other data handling crimes. But as I have lived through these sudden large climatic shifts I know that they are very real.

Early snow in Albania

“The whole Northern Hemisphere is experiencing ‘cold snaps’ at the same time,” says Argiris. “Whatever happened to global warming?”

France - 'Winter before it should be'

Up to 50 cm (19½ inches) of snow fell in some parts bringing power cuts to up to 50,000 households in the Isere region in the Alps.

Television News Outlets Ignore Climate Change During Sandy Coverage. Should We Really Be Surprised? | ThinkProgress

throughout it all, there were no mentions of the dramatic increases in extreme weather and no mentions of the influence of a warming planet on extreme storms like Sandy. According to tracking from TVEyes, there were only a couple quick references on MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Monday morning and nothing on the other networks throughout the day.

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog: Sandy and the Top 20 Normalized US Hurricane Losses

While it will be some time until we have apples to apples estimates from Sandy, the current estimates of $20 billion would place Sandy at #17 all time out of 242 loss-producng storms 1900 to present (in the top 10%). If the damage gets to $30 billion it would crack the top 10 and (top 5%). Right now it seems unlikely that Sandy will climb any higher on the table. (Note that inland flood damage is not included in the tabulations above.)

In historical context, Sandy sits alongside Carol, Diane and Hazel. One big difference however -- Carol, Diane and Hazel hit the US Atlantic coast within a single 13 month period in 1954-1955. Imagine that.