21:48 04Nov2003 RTRS-Global warming means snow for Great Lakes - report

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - In theory, global warming should be a good
thing for the Great Lakes, right?
Wrong.
Global warming means more snow, not less, for the snowbound region along
the eastern border between Canada and the United States, researchers said on
Tuesday.
Their study of snowfall records in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere
suggests there has been a significant increase in snowfall in the Great
Lakes region since the 1930s but not anywhere else.
The team, at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, said that global
warming does not mean sunnier weather everywhere. Other researchers have
predicted that, as the climate gets warmer overall, it could mean colder
temperatures in some parts of the world and more severe weather in general
as weather patterns change.
For instance, warmer surface sea temperatures could fuel more violent
hurricanes and typhoons.
In the Great Lakes region, warmer temperatures mean more snow, Adam
Burnett, an associate professor of geography, writes in the November issue
of the Journal of Climate.
"Recent increases in the water temperature of the Great Lakes are
consistent with global warming," Burnett said in a statement. "This widens
the gap between water temperature and air temperature -- the ideal condition
for snowfall."
Burnett and colleagues compared snowfall records from 15 weather
stations within the Great Lakes region with 10 stations at sites outside of
the region and checked weather records dating as far back as 1931.
"We found a statistically significant increase in snowfall in the
lake-effect region since 1931, but no such increase in the non-lake-effect
area during the same period," Burnett said.

Tuesday, 04 November 2003 21:48:11
RTRS [nN04305998] {EN}
ENDS

"Brendan DJ Murphy" wrote in message
...
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| 21:48 04Nov2003 RTRS-Global warming means snow for Great Lakes - report

Interesting article Brendan, if not a little scarce of science. I have family who live on
the shores of Lake Huron. Photos during the winter months are well worth viewing
when they send them, drifts up to 12 foot against the house.

Joe

Complete freeze-overs of the Great Lakes since 1963 are as follows:

Lake Erie: 1977, 1978, 1979, 1997, 1998, 2002
Lake Huron: None
Lake Superior: 1979, 1996 (also 2003 reported by some news organisations
after Assel's paper was completed)

Source: Assel et al (2003)

Lake-effect snowfall will decrease as the lake freezes. When the lake is
completely frozen over, lake effect snowfall should cease. Whilst conceding
that freeze-overs don't give an accurate picture of the average winter water
temperature, its easier to squeeze a kind of cyclic pattern out of these
years rather than a progressive global warming. Just a few hundred years
more data and we might know.

Martin Crozier
Guernsey
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"Brendan DJ Murphy" wrote in message
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21:48 04Nov2003 RTRS-Global warming means snow for Great Lakes - report

WASHINGTON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - In theory, global warming should be a
good
thing for the Great Lakes, right?
Wrong.
snipped
In the Great Lakes region, warmer temperatures mean more snow, Adam
Burnett, an associate professor of geography, writes in the November issue
of the Journal of Climate.
"Recent increases in the water temperature of the Great Lakes are
consistent with global warming," Burnett said in a statement. "This widens
the gap between water temperature and air temperature -- the ideal
condition
for snowfall."