Continuing my posts on climate change, my topic of the day……..I have heard the Middle East called many things…but the one that always gets me is….It is Hell on earth……and then I think about the old saying….”when Hell freezes over”……..
News from the Middle East just brought some of that BS to the headlines…..
(Newser) – Cairo saw a rare and wonderful sight today: Snow. Much of the Middle East has been blanketed by the white stuff in recent days thanks to a region-wide cold snap and winter storm. According to local news reports, Cairo hasn’t gotten snow in more than a century, the LA Times reports. Talk of the weather lit up social media—you can see a nice collection of tweeted images at the Huffington Post—with some joking that it was the mystical work of Gen. Abdel Fattah Sisi. “It’s the first time in my life that I have seen it like this,” one resident told the AFP.
But the snow is causing major problems elsewhere in the region. Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan are being hammered by weather they weren’t designed to withstand, sending agencies rushing to distribute blankets and tarps, al-Jazeera reports. Jerusalem, meanwhile, has been hit with three feet of snow, knocking out power and closing roads—and officials today warned that the worst was yet to come. “We are expecting a second storm triple the size of the one we’ve seen now,” one municipality spokesman said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
May not sound like a big deal if you live in Buffalo….but believe me….when there is 3 feet of snow in Jerusalem……it is a big deal. And more on the way.
Is it possible that this could become the new “normal” for this region……if so, why? When I was in the Middle East I had been cold but I did not see snow with the exception of a minor flurry when I was working in Aleppo…….this just seems way too odd to be a normal…….thoughts?
Let’s hope they’re storing some
Should be hell for refugees……not a typical winter at all….
From what I have gathered reading the climate change blogs this unusual activity is part of a very active hydrologic cycle that of course is being effected by global warming. Extreme climate changes like this will continue to alter the normal weather patterns that we have become accustomed to
Here’s another link that might help explain snow in Egypt. Now if this were occurring during June, July and August there might be reason to think that global warming is a farce. But it’s not and every time we get extremely cold weather in the winter, even in regions it normally doesn’t, climate skeptics like to claim that global warming is a hoax.
But the GOP sez we are being alarmists…..
Chuq,
here’s an even better and more elaborate piece to explain why we’re seeing snow in Egypt at unprecedented levels and its connection to global warming.
An amazing, though clearly little-known, scientific fact: We get more snow storms in warm years!
A great piece, Larry thanx for turning me on to it…..chuq