This is at the top of the Drudge Report right now:
Yes, I know: there's a "polar vortex" affecting the middle of the country. Minneapolis temperatures will be down to 25 below tonight, and tomorrow's high will be 13 below. The high in New York City on Tuesday is going to be 13 above. Therefore, Al Gore is fat and there's no global warming -- right?
Well, it was 71 degrees here in New York City on December 22, shattering the old record of 63 for the day. That day, records were also broken in Newark, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Delaware, as I learn from ... um, Fox News.
And before New York has that 13-degree high on Tuesday, we'll have a high of 50 tomorrow.
But this is nothing compared to what's going on in Australia:
On Thursday, parts of inland Australia reached temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit.... There were reports of temperatures as high as 54 degrees Celsius, 129 degrees Fahrenheit, in the outback on Thursday.More, from the Brisbane Times:
Archerfield, west of Brisbane, recorded its highest ever temperature since records began with a top of 43.5 degrees, just eclipsing the previous record of 43.3 degrees.(A partial conversion for the Celsius-challenged: 39.5 degrees Celsius is 103.1 Fahrenheit. 45.4 degrees Celsius is 113.72 degrees Fahrenheit. Google's converter is here.)
On the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore's 41.3 smashed its previous record of 37, while Nambour's 42.9 degrees was well above its previous record of 40.8.
Gympie equalled its record temperature of 42 degrees.
Records were also recorded at Redcliffe (40.3 degrees), Toowoomba (39.5) and Beaudesert (43.9).
As at 3.30pm, the hottest temperature recorded in Queensland on Saturday was at Lochington, south-west of Emerald, where it was 45.4 degrees.
This Australian heat wave has been going on since before Christmas, as this guy noted on December 21:
Just landing in Australia after endless flight. Worth it. What's better than family Xmas, even in heat wave?
— Rupert Murdoch (@rupertmurdoch) December 21, 2013And:
The Pacific Islands experienced record temperatures in 2013 due to warmer oceans.
Neville Koop, the Meteorology and Climate adviser to the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Program told [Radio Australia's] Pacific Beat increasing ocean temperatures have contributed to new highs in the region.
"Minimum temperatures in particular above average and we have seen warmer than normal daytime temperatures as well," he said.
"In some cases, we definitely have set new records, some places have recorded the monthly average temperatures that are warmest ever seen and over the course of 2013.
"I'm not sure if all of the stats are done yet but it would not surprise me if we saw annual records beaten in 2013 for many places in the Pacific."
So when right-wingers start cackling about the cold weather, please remember that America is not the planet. A cold spell of a few days in part of our country is not evidence that climate change is a hoax.
