On December 17, 2012 CBC published an article entitled:
“Green Christmas likely for most Canadians, forecaster says – Environment Canada climatologist says chances of holiday snow are bleak.”
It appears that no one at either the CBC or Environment Canada bothered to look at the conditions that actually existed when the forecast was written. For, if they had, they would have seen that most Canadians were already buried in snow by the 17th of December. Or did they expect a big melt in the week before Christmas?
Take a look at the satellite images yourself:
Here is the snow cover for most of the country on Dec 17, 2012:
And here is the map for Christmas Day:
A simpler representation may be seen as follows:
So, obviously, for the vast majority of Canadians, it was a very white Christmas indeed.
We get a clue as to why such a forecast would have been made, when it was wrong even on the day it was published, when we read how CBC concluded the article:
“Many of the reasons for the warmer winters can be attributed to climate change, he [Environment Canada’s David Phillips] added.
‘The lesson for this is if you get one [a white Christmas]: embrace it, enjoy it because it is something that future generations will have [to] be dreaming a little harder to get,” said Phillips. “We know the future is warmer and with less snow.'”
Ah, yes. It’s global warming of course. And with global warming must come more green Christmases, no matter what nature really does.
It is clear that this year’s Christmas forecast was simply propaganda in support of Environment Minister Peter Kent’s climate change mantra.
Take a look here to see the snow cover across Canada today. It is going to be a long winter, with records already set for snowfall in the Northern Hemisphere, no matter what Environment Canada forecasts.
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Tom Harris is Executive Director of the International Climate Science Coalition and an advisor to the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
