I was about to write some quick review of the park skis I tested about a week ago, and ponder a bit about the concept of a “quiver” for modern skier (remember the days you need one pair of GS skis and that was about it? Ok, I’ll get back to that later. For now I found some more interesting stuff).

These days, at least in the Northern Europe, everyone rants about the weather. It has gone to the point that it is starting to bother people. When Facebook is getting groups like “quit whining on weather” I guess it is better to notice that people don’t want to hear about the issue anymore…(and btw. Marko already wrote a post about this. However I still insist I should go on…)

Ok, no whining here. But what the phenomena (exceptionally warm winters for two years in Scandinavia) has brought me into is a growing interest to meteorology. You know, surfers always spot the currents and winds and skiers worldwide try to notice low pressures arising causing those welcomed storms that bring the white stuff…So, not to say I wasn’t interested in weather earlier. But these days I also try to find out stuff that has some scientific and/or more detailed information about the current strange phenomenas. IMHO there is too much hearsay and rough genaralization going on. I mean who actually knows what’s happening in the world? I hope someone does, or we are in trouble (and the lost skiing would be on of the very minor problems!)

Today I spot a piece of news telling that China has the coldest(!) winter for hundred years and that in Fairbanks, Alaska, there was over a week long period of over -40 C temperatures. At the same time we here suffered the January temperatures of about 6 6 to even 10 (yes, ten) degrees warmer than average.

The news (in Finnish) I found had a link to this WMO article, telling us about the current La Niña phenomena and its effects to global weather:

http://www.wmo.int/pages/mediacentre/press_releases/pr_810_en.html

What I found especially interesting is the colder than average sea water in central and eastern equatorial Pacific. While at the same time we read some reports about the sea weather being about 1,5 - 2 degrees warmer than average in northern Atlantic. Do we get an “even” if we consider these happenings somehow balancing each other? For me it is hard to believe that we will consistently get about 6-7 degrees warmer winters here for now on…if that’s true the local, small scale skiing we have here in Southern Finland is gone for sure (not to mention cross country skiing, ice fishing, children’s winter activities etc.)

Will this playground be gone in a few years? (source: www.skipass.com)

But if the article is true, La Niña should diminish within a year or two and we’re back on “normal” winter weather. Of course with its current trend of slowly rising temperatures. I mean in 2005 and 2006, for example, we had winter going until april, and the whole month of March was really cold in both years. Back in late ninities we had over -20C days consistently through January and February. I wonder how could the change this drastic happen in only about six or seven years?

Also, last time the similar La Niña existed (winter 1998/1999 the Alps had a record snow year, the so called winter of the century( snow and avalanche wise…examples here and here and here some example of me enjoying the pow of the said season). This winter, especially the early season, has been ok in the Alps (but no special by any standard). Compared to the last season’s warmest winter in the central Europe for about thousand years this has been very good news for skiers. Pretty hard to say anything about the La Niña and weather in the Alps though. For Scandinavia it seems that La Niña has something to do with warm winters (I remember e.g. 1999 being also quite rainy in the southern Finland).

Still, these strange weathers keep you thinking. I try not to preach to anyone but I have made some personal promisises to keep some things more in check from now on: using of electricity, reducing the use of car (and referring my bike!), not buying cheap crap that I don’t really need etc. I even consider the amount of flight to ski trips per year. IMHO (again) it would be nice to have one “big” trip per year but not to flight several times a year for short trips. Hard decisions for a skier but I think everyone should think by themselves anyway. Again, I want not to preach anything to anyone.

Ok. A bit negative sounding article this time. So, let’s not forget the main thing here, let it snow!

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