Remember that time when the world was getting too hot?

BRRRRRRRRR!!!! (from weather.com)

Guys who watch the weather in the DC area all know the name Bob Ryan (NOT the sports journalist from Boston).  He was the chief weather guy at Channel 4 for a number of years.  I used to generally like the way he presented the weather.  While he never came out and publicly said it, I feel like he was a believer in the man-made global warming idea based on the way he presented the weather and his reasoning behind the forecasts.  Didn't really care either way, he usually was fairly accurate in his forecasts, and I didn't watch him for his takes on climatology.  Where am I going with this?  He was the first one to introduce me to the following statement:

Climate is what you expect.  Weather is what you get. 

Amen.

For all this talk about how the ice caps are melting faster than we can possibly imagine, may I present to you exhibit A: the coldest weather we have experienced in over 20 years.  Naturally, since this weather is a point-blank kidney punch to the global warming idea, the climatological sensationalists attempt to explain it by saying that the polar vortex is "weakening" because temperatures at the North Pole are getting too warm. 

Ummm...could it just be that we're having a nasty cold snap, the same way we get the occasional heat wave in July?  It happens, people. 

Climate is what you expect.  Weather is what you get.

Every year we have extremes in temperatures in either direction.  Records are meant to be broken, both on the high end and the low end.  Just because we have some sort of extreme does not mean we need to go Chicken Little and say the world is coming to an end because of global warming...and it's ALL OUR FAULT!  A little common sense would tell you that extremes in weather happen all the time, and it's the AVERAGE of all these events that lead to the climatological norms that we dare deviate from. 

We all remember the Snowmageddon from 2009-2010.  That winter all sorts of records for snowfall were set.  The following winters were relatively mild, and now it looks like we're in for another doozy.  You average it all out, and that's how we get the norms for each day during the year.  In fact, it would be more strange (at least to me anyway) to see a climatological pattern that DOESN'T deviate from the norms all that much.  Bottom line, weather is what weather is.  Trying to pigeon hole it into some all-encompassing theory because it's what everyone else believes (or worse...to forward some political agenda), just like I tell my students, is bad science with a capital BS. 

Finally tonight, in a fitting moment of irony, I present to you this.  These fellas were on their way to an exotic Antarctic expedition to study how the Antarctic sea ice is quickly melting.  They proceeded to get stuck...............in the ice.  I'm happy to report that in spite of Australian and Chinese efforts, the US Coast Guard is currently sending one of its finest icebreakers to rescue the poor scientists.  They do have plenty of food and water and are in no danger.

(Quietly laughing under my breath...because they're perfectly OK.)