Monday, December 21, 2009

Copenhagen: Snow & Warming

Blizzard Dumps Snow on Copenhagen as Leaders Battle Warming
Last Updated: December 17, 2009 06:52 EST 
Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- World leaders flying into Copenhagen today to discuss a solution to global warming will first face freezing weather as a blizzard dumped 10 centimeters (4 inches) of snow on the Danish capital overnight.
“Temperatures will stay low at least the next three days,” Henning Gisseloe, an official at Denmark’s Meteorological Institute, said today by telephone, forecasting more snow in coming days. “There’s a good chance of a white Christmas.”
Delegates from 193 countries have been in Copenhagen since Dec. 7 to discuss how to fund global greenhouse gas emission cuts. U.S. President Barack Obama will arrive before the summit is scheduled to end tomorrow.
Denmark has a maritime climate and milder winters than its Scandinavian neighbors. It hasn’t had a white Christmas for 14 years, under the DMI’s definition, and only had seven last century. Temperatures today fell as low as minus 4 Celsius (25 Fahrenheit).
DMI defines a white Christmas as 90 percent of the
country being covered by at least 2 centimeters of snow on the afternoon of Dec. 24.

Copenhagen climate summit: 1,200 limos, 140 private planes and caviar wedges
Copenhagen is preparing for the climate change summit that will produce as much carbon dioxide as a town the size of Middlesbrough.
As well 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists and 98 world leaders, the Danish capital will be blessed by the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio, Daryl Hannah, Helena Christensen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prince Charles. A Republican US senator, Jim Inhofe, is jetting in at the head of an anti-climate-change "Truth Squad." The top hotels – all fully booked at £650 a night – are readying their Climate Convention menus of (no doubt sustainable) scallops, foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges.


The answer may always have been there:


NASA Solar Cycle prediction:
In the meantime The Guardian had a collection of slides of snow scenes as far south as Brighton. Here are a few selections.


The Jill windmill at Clayton, near Brighton, west Sussex
Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters
 Snow-covered beach in Brighton
Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

A deer walks through the snow in Knole park, Sevenoaks, Kent
Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images







Snow blankets the lawn in front of the White House
Picture: AFP / GETTY
Washington DC: The US Capitol is nearly obscured during a heavy snow fall
Photograph: Brendan Hoffman/EPA







The base of the Eiffel Tower is barely visible as a couple walk in a heavy snowfall
Picture: EPA

Picture: AFP/GETTY

People wait to enter the Louvre museum as snow falls
Picture: AP
Venice: Snow-covered gondolas moored in Venice's lagoon
Photograph: Luigi Costantini/AP



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