“Most Severe Winter Start In 200 Years!” + Euro Municipalities Now Ignoring Foolish Predictions Of Warm Winters

Road_Salt PollinatorLast Thursday evening and yesterday winter made its debut in Southern Germany and Austria  – and how! Read more here.

German RTL television last night here (starting at 4:30) called it the “most severe start of winter in 200 years!“, saying many meteorologists were caught by surprise. Up to half a meter of snow fell at some locations.

Gone are the mild winters of the sort Europe seen in the 1990s and early 2000s. Indeed for central Europe the last 5 consecutive winters have all been colder than normal – a record!

Municipalities ignoring forecasts of warm winters

These days are blockbuster times for German road salt manufacturers. In Europe municipalities have learned their lesson: ignore foolish predictions of warm winters, order huge quantities of salt, and do it early!

Municipalities and road commissioners were once led astray by climatologists’ predictions of increasingly warmer winters and led to thinking that these had become a thing of the past due to global warming (recall famous words of David Viner and Mojib Latif). One major daily even proclaimed that spring would arrive in January!

As a consequence of these false global warming predictions, municipalities unwisely kept much smaller stocks of road salt for expected shorter and milder winters. Road commissioners saw little reason to keep thousands of tons of road salt in stock.

Then beginning in 2009 came one harsh winter after another. Road maintenance crews and commissioners were caught red-faced. Suddenly municipalities were running out of salt by January and were even no longer able to keep the most vital traffic arteries cleared. Traffic chaos ensued and motorists were left to fend for themselves. Municipalities were stunned and left scratching their heads. Weather-wise the exact opposite of what climatologists had predicted had taken place. They learned the hard way. Now they are no longer heeding the foolish forecasts of warm winters.

Not surprisingly, many of the very same climatologists have since changed their tune and are now suddenly predicting cold, bitter winters for Europe….because of global warming!

German public radio SWR here reports that this year municipalities and road commissioners are stocking up on road salt:

The Salzwerke AG in Heilbronn said that municipalities had ordered large quantities of road salt. […] Over the past years road salt had often been in short supply in some municipalities because the cold periods lasted longer and longer than expected.”

The online daily Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung here reports that the city is now building up its stock of road salt, writing:

In the last season 2012/2013 about 90,000 tonnes of road salt were used. Because of the long and harsh winter considerably more than normal was used, said Mitschka. road salt had to be continuously re-ordered.

In 2010/2011 there were delivery bottlenecks. Even the autobahns in Brandenburg could not be adequately salted at the time.”

Photo credit: See wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Saltmine0096.jpg.

 

15 responses to ““Most Severe Winter Start In 200 Years!” + Euro Municipalities Now Ignoring Foolish Predictions Of Warm Winters”

  1. Segue C

    Good thing salt has not yet been declared unsustainable!

    1. DirkH

      The red-green movement needs a remainder of German industrial activity to pay for their parasitic lifestyles; and for the broke socialist regimes of Europe.

    2. Terry

      Do you think we are on the brink of ‘peak salt’? We have to run out at some point, right?

      /s

  2. AndyG55

    “Suddenly municipalities were running out of salt by January and were even longer able to keep the most vital traffic arteries cleared.”

    Do you want to re-word that sentence so it makes sense ? 🙂 even -> no

  3. This isgettingtiresome
    1. Jimbo

      The Met Office are very careful in their use of words

      What the Daily Express has failed to explain to it’s readers is that there is absolutely no certainty about what weather the UK will see over the winter period. The science simply does not exist to make detailed, long-term forecasts for temperature and snowfall even for the end of November, let alone for the winter period, which does not officially start until 1 December.

      The word here is “detailed” so they leave the seasonal open, but they abandoned it when they kept forecasting milder winters and people died in the UK as road went ungritted etc. The good news is that they coming to face with reality.

  4. Meeste oktobersneeuw sinds 200 jaar op Beierse Hoher Peißenberg (988m) | Wintersportweerman.nl

    […] vriend Pierre Gosselin van Notrickszone.com knalde vanavond met: “Most Severe Winter Start In 200 Years!” + Euro Municipalities Now Ignoring Foolish Predictions …. Het artikel, dat uitlegt dat Duitse steden met het inslaan van strooizout allang niet meer uitgaan […]

  5. DirkH
  6. HADCRUT4 10 Years By Month = AMO | sunshine hours

    […] Dec/Jan/Feb are cooling at -0.17C/decade to -0.25C/decade. Brr.  Germany is already off to the coldest start of winter in 200 […]

  7. Dave

    The UK has the best weather forcasts. But not with the BBC. Take a look at what Piers Corbyn ( Joe Bastardi in the USA ) have to say.

  8. Jeremy Poynton
  9. Jimbo

    The UK is preparing for another Arctic blast next week which might bring frost and snow. It seems to get worse every year. I wonder what Dr. Viner has to say?

    From the UK Express newspaper.
    Worst winter for decades: Record-breaking snow predicted for November
    James Madden, forecaster for Exacta Weather, said it was likely to be the worst winter for more than 100 years.
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/436170/Worst-winter-for-decades-Record-breaking-snow-predicted-for-November

  10. Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup | Watts Up With That?
  11. James H. Rust

    I live in Atlanta, GA , U.S.A. and the media in this area made no mention of record snowfall in Germany or Austria October 10 or of 100,000 head of cattle killed in the Badlands. The media wants those in the U. S. to believe catastrophic global warming caused by burning fossil fuels still threatens the world. We must abide by President Obama’s policies of eliminating use of our abundant supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas. This will lead to further impoverishing the United States.
    James H. Rust, Professor of nuclear engineering

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