El Niño may make 2014 the hottest year on record

[HORIZONS]

Lets hope not!

Now they say the threshold was crossed in September 2013. "Therefore, the probability is 0.76 that El Niño will occur in 2014," says Bunde. In other words, there is a 76 per cent chance of an El Niño this year.

As a result of climate change 2014 is likely to be one of the hottest years on record. If El Niño does develop this year, it will make 2014 even hotter – maybe the hottest ever, says Cai. But since El Niño normally straddles two calendar years, it might give 2015 that title. "It is possible, but not a sure thing. It can be tipped over either way by other variability."

An increasing number of climate models are now predicting El Niño this year too. It is unclear whether it will be an extreme El Niño like the 1998 event, which is thought to have killed tens of thousands. But Cai thinks an extreme El Niño is unlikely because longer-term variability in the Pacific's weather is suppressing it.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/...l#.UwV43Mu9KSM

[HORIZONS]

A possible cool spring right into a hot summer - we shall see

Personally, I think the weather is a reflection of the mass consciousness of the people of the planet. The sooner consciousness is enriched, the sooner we will change everything...even the weather.

Potential Record Ice on Lake Superior May Mean a Cool Spring

With no end in sight, the winter of 2014 rages on, ushering in frigid Arctic air and dumping record-breaking snow and ice on much of the nation. This season, ice coverage on Lake Superior has exceeded other measurements in recent history.

“By the long shot this is the most ice we’ve had on Lake Superior in 20 years,” Associate Professor Jay Austin of the Large Lakes Observatory in Duluth, Minn., said.

During a typical winter, 30 to 40 percent of the Great Lakes are covered by ice, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.

Usually Arctic air swept over the Great Lakes creates lake-effect snow, but modifies the air, making it warmer. This usually makes regions from Ohio through the Northeast a little warmer than it otherwise would be.

However, this winter 80 to 90 percent of the Great Lakes are covered in ice. As of Thursday, Feb. 13, 2014, Lake Superior was classified as 90 percent covered.

“The Arctic air masses don’t get warmed up as much because of all the snow and ice,” Anderson said. “There has not been much of a thaw so the ice keeps building up.”

The last time in recent history the ice coverage was even close to this winter’s percentage was the winter of 1993/94. That winter ice coverage was measured at 90.7 percent.

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weathe...or-ma/23439393