New Englander

Yes. the result being a 3 month member who does not post much except in a few topics. Pretty funny.

Fooled me for the first minute. Ugh

Nearly closing out a January 30 miles sw of Boston. Yeah it has been cold but not very cold if the month is taken into account fully. One week of a very mild thaw in mid month will put us nearly on line with January 2011. A month that made headlines here for its near 40 inch snow depth but not cold. It's been colder than the past few winters, which right now...is about 1 degree below normal. January 2009, now that was cold. January 2003 was impressive and January 2004, that was the most impressive.

I remember thinking to myself about 25 yrs ago "wow, 400 would be really high" Here we are.....

The warming in the colder yrs does cause concern....I have focused a lot of my thinking on the Gulf Stream, perhaps too much for I have not looked at the Labrador Current much lately. As you say, perhaps a combination of both. Right now mitigating factors, in my opinion, is what is keeping us from having a climate that should be warmer than what it is... from what I understand given the amount of CO2 etc in the atmosphere which is a very broad, simplified statement. To know that eventually the ocean, which is our BIg Friend right now, will get tol a point where it will no longer mitigate to the extent it is......gives me scary scenarios. So much data, observation, theory and the kitchen sink to look at with the interaction of the land/ocean. We live in a very fasinating time but one in which we may be on the cusp of something that people are not going to want in the long run.....Thanks Weatherguy701. I'm the last person who wants climate change.

It becomes mind boggling when analyzing the ocean and trying to predict with the variables at hand but it is fascinating at the same time.. To be very overly simplistic, I worry about a rapid change, talking decade or two, where we edge ourselves to the tipping point then look out below. Then it becomes a matter of what can adapt to such massive changes. I certainly don't want such a scenario. The long term PH of the oceans is something that is troubling, one of many troubling issues.