Back when we had vineyards in Billings, Montana

Last September in a mountain refugio in Northern Italy, we met three German psychologists. One thing about traveling Europe, I find that Germans speak very good English, so conversing with them was easy.  And, as with all trail people we meet, they were friendly, welcoming and interesting.

They were from Hanover, Germany, and told us that it has stopped snowing there, and that in years gone by it used to snow regularly. In other words, they had bought into Climate Change. Because we were all nice people, we were able to disagree amiably.

The above graph is the snow record for Pittsburgh, PA. It is typical of most of northern North America, with snow slightly on the rise. The idea that it snowed every Christmas until seven years ago is widespread. So is the idea that it snowed more when we were kids. In 1955 in Billings, Montana, this five-year-old kid saw four feet of snow in one spring storm. It drifted so high that we could walk up to the top of our neighbor’s roof, and slide down. These things are great fun for kids!

That ’55 storm still stands as a record for Billings. But long term trends, everywhere in North America where it snows, are for more snow. Indeed, more moisture in the atmosphere is the cause, and this is a very good thing. We are also experiencing fewer and milder droughts, fewer category five hurricanes, and fewer tornadoes. The trend on all is slightly downward. These too are all good things. I am a climate optimist; you should be one too.

Gregory Wrightstone is a geologist, and author of a book I highly recommend, Inconvenient Facts: The Science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know. It is not a narrative so much as a summary of hard data, all of which contradicts the Climates Change narrative. The book is littered with graphs and pictures throughout.

I just turned randomly to page 89 where he quotes climate scientist Rosie O’Donnell, who says “The amount of tornadoes … it’s like three times the highest amount ever before, right?” Climate change alarmists are allowed to pull random false facts out of their collective asses without blowback, as skeptics are generally censored in mainstream media. Wrightstone refutes this amazingly stupid statement with facts, that the number of tornadoes is decreasing, and that 2016 showed the lowest number on record.

The whole of the book, 143 pages, is like that. It is a great resource to have on hand.

Wrightstone addresses the “no snow on Christmas since I was a kid” in this article, Warming and the Snows of Yesteryear,” at Anthony Watts’ Wattsupwiththat blog. He calls the phenomenon “warming by recollection.” It was followed today by a much deeper analysis, Rutgers University Global Snow Lab and “the Snows of Yesteryear.”

Of course I remember the 1955 snow storm in Billings. It was exceptional. I cannot tell you how much snow Billings had in any other year in the 1950s. I do remember one Christmas day, perhaps early 1960s, where I and my brother and our friends were playing kickball in the street out front of our house, in shirtsleeves. It was warm, and there was no snow. From this I glean that the climate in Billings was Mediterranean, and that people probably used to grow grapes there. Then it started snowing every year.

Our memories are not dependable. I just came across this photo of me and my family taken in 1960, given to me by a cousin. I had no idea I was so good looking! I was teased about having a big nose growing up, not even apparent here. But I sure remember that. (I am the youngest, lower left.) My mother, God rest her soul, was a lovely and attractive woman who never in her life took a good picture. She had a habit of changing her facial expression at the exact instance that the shutter was snapped. It was predictable, even comical. She could not help herself.

Wrightstone in his article quotes Thomas Jefferson, a good way to close this ramble:

Both heats and cold are becoming much more moderate within the memory even of the middle-aged. Snows are less frequent and less deep…. The rivers which then seldom failed to freeze over in the course of the winter, scearcely (sic) ever do now.

— Thomas Jefferson 1801