Winter is Not Finished With North America Yet

Cold building up above western Canada is poised to move across the US border without registering with border agents. Expect more snow in the mid-west and east.

Cold is again building in western Canada and will come east and south the next few weeks. Look for more snow and cold in the news in the weeks ahead across many areas of the northern United States. This too is classic La Nina, cold Pacific Decadal Oscillation weather. Snow fell heavily in the Pacific Northwest as we often find in La Ninas. In fact in some places in Oregon, heavy enough (eighteen inches on top of 6 feet of snow already there) to cause roofs to collapse. See Idahna, Oregon Buried in Snow; Mayor Asks for Emergency Help. This story has some amazing video.

As some of the cold air first makes an appearance across the northern tier the next few days, rain will change to snow with heavy amounts once again from Chicago across the great lakes into New York State and New England. ____story

Icecap
Globally, this January was the 2nd coldest in the past 15 years. Cyclic ocean patterns such as the la nina/el nino, have a large effect on global weather.

Since about the year 1800, the Earths "average temperature" has been on a natural upward average trend of 0.5 degree Celsius per century. This "natural rise" or recovery from the Little Ice Age, when subtracted from estimated 0.6 degree Celsius rise over the past century, leaves almost no rise at all for anthropogenic effects, including green house gas.