From: Gary Britt 


Yes this is definitely a warmer winter almost everywhere it would seem. 
The question is whether that warmer winter is natural or man made causes. 
The case for man made causes is extremely week, apparently even for CO2
levels.
  From yesterday's Sun-Sentinel:

Gary

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/health/la-sci-climate5jan05,0,4198056.stor
y?coll=sfla-news-science

early [as in 300 million years ago] global warming caused unexpectedly
severe and erratic temperature swings as rising levels of greenhouse gases
helped transform Earth, a team led by researchers at UC Davis said
Thursday.

The global transition from ice age to greenhouse 300 million years ago was
marked by repeated dips and rises in the amount of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere and wild swings in temperature, with drastic effects on forests
and vegetation, the researchers reported in the journal Science.

"It was a real yo-yo," said UC Davis geochemist Isabel Montanez,
who led researchers from five universities and the Smithsonian Museum of
Natural History in a project funded by the National Science Foundation.
"Should we expect similar but faster climate behavior in the future?
One has to question whether that is where we are headed."

The provocative insight into planetary climate change counters the
traditional view that global warming could be gradual and its regional
effects easily anticipated.

Over several million years, carbon dioxide in the ancient atmosphere
increased from about 280 parts per million to 2,000 ppm, the same increase
that experts expect by the end of this century as remaining reserves of
fossil fuels are burned.


"It suggests," she said, "*that the normal behavior in major
climate transitions is instability, erratic temperature behavior and carbon
dioxide changes*."*

Gary


mike wrote:
> At the moment (11:42am) it is 67 degrees here.  I'm planning to go on a
> bicycle ride this afternoon....
>
>  /m
>
> On Mon, 1 Jan 2007 17:22:46 -0500, "Geo."
 wrote:
>
>> Yes, so far a fairly mild winter here as well, and el Ni¤o is a medium
>> strength event this year so I don't expect it will be a major event either
>> although I welcome any el Ni¤o effects.
>>
>> Geo.
>>

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5