Saturday
Mar052011
by 
Bishop Hill
Bishop Hill Breaking the ice
Mar 5, 2011 Climate: Surface The Gulf of Finland is in danger of grinding to a halt from a lack of ice-breaking capacity.
The Gulf of Finland is covered by thick ice from the Estonian mainland to Osmussaar, making it possible for only large ships to reach Muuga Harbour. Recently, eight vessels were icebound near Kunda and Sillamäe. The situation has been no different on the Gulf of Riga, where the port authority is working its icebreaker Varma non-stop, and still needs help. Chaotic conditions have been reported.
EUReferendum has the story.
Reader Comments (17)
As the article says, real world experience beats computer models anyday. As we have discovered this winter, cold and snow are much more dangerous and difficult to deal with than a bit of warming. In Devon the council is worried about the road surfaces melting due to the warming, whereas I worry about road surfaces breaking up due to frost penetration. It's a mad world.
The Guardian had an article in January about the future of rail travel in the UK, as cold winters recede into the past and our sweltering barbecue-summer future unfolds:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/28/climate-change-uk-rail-tourism
According to Network Rail: fewer cold winter days, in the times to come, may also "lead to a more reliable infrastructure and operations and fewer accidents on the railway for staff and passengers..."
Meanwhile: "The Highways Agency is developing road surfaces similar to those of southern France, an area more accustomed to hot weather."
Maybe they are taking their cue from this web page:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/teens/casestudy_heatwave.html
"Summers as hot as 2003 could happen every other year by the year 2050 as a result of climate change due to human activities."
Yes - the Baltic is well and truly frozen over again - http://ocean.dmi.dk/satellite/index.php - and a new ice breaker would seem like a good idea. The Baltic was just as frozen last winter (remember the passenger ferry which got stuck in the ice, which was barely mentioned by the BBC) and at least in theory it was possible to walk directly from Denmark to Sweden and also Denmark to Norway.
In Sweden our strongest ice breaker is presently in the Antarctis doing climate research. We have, at least, as much ice as the Finns.
Slightly more on-topic than my last comment - here's an article about a 2008 survey re climate change in the Baltic (h/t Steven Goddard):
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-01/haog-cci012108.php
"A milder climate could reduce the ice cover in the Baltic Sea by 50 to 80%. While ice-free conditions would be beneficial for shipping in the Baltic Sea, they would threaten populations of animals..."
Alex. It's just more computer modelling with lots of ifs and coulds and maybes but always lots of money needed to do more research. It's the same old same old.
"In Sweden our strongest ice breaker is presently in the Antarctis doing climate research." (Gösta Oscarsson)
But it will be home for summer, I trust, Gösta?
The cavalry is on its way!
"Nuclear icebreaker Vaygach sailing from Murmansk along the Norwegian coast to free ships caught in Baltic ice"
"An unseasonably harsh winter in the region of the Gulf of Finland has locked some 58 vessels in ice and necessitated the dispatching of the Russian nuclear powered icebreaker "Vaygach" from its home port in Murmansk to St. Petersburg in a move viewed warily by Norwegian environmentalists."
http://www.bellona.org/articles/articles_2011/vaygach_norway
Phillip Bratby
Sydney Australia tends to have rather hotter summers than in the UK.
In the late 1940's (the last hot period before the 1990's) it was common for road surfaces to get soft and sticky, but I don't recall that this caused them to break up.
Now this does not happen today.
Either the authorities have changed their formulation for tar based road surfaces,
OR it's not as hot in the summer as when I was a lad (despite measurements telling me that it is far, far hotter (oh at least 0.7 degrees I would say - wow!).
From casual observation, the road mix is far more complex and stable today, so a change in formula has probably occurred.
The other possibility coould only be true if xxxxxx naar, I'll not go that way.
So if Devon is worried, perhaps they should contact some Sydney council engineers.
Anyway, a little more warmth would not hurt too much, particularly when it seems to be getting so cold.
Funy world.
Green Sand - what is an unseasonally harsh winter?
I would have thought that it would have been a seasonally harsh winter.
What am I missing?
I'm all confused.
Can some body in the UK please enlighten me.
I had thought that the northern hemisphere has been experiencing particulary cold spells during the last few years.
If that is right, then why are all the authorities warning about future hot weather?
Have I been misled by reading all these blogs produced by flat earthers and slaves of big oil or what?
Has the climate up your way really being getting hotter?
Or what ?
Please help.
Good point AusieDan, beats me.
Maybe Charles knows:-)
http://www.bellona.org/persons/1140449402.92
@AusieDan
There was report this am that cashmere wool will be in short supply this year because of a very harsh winter on the steppes where they graze. The goatherds have been forced to kill them for food.
@AusieDan
Up here the authorities are following the advice of the MET office and their supporters in sticking to the view that this "unseasonal!" cold is just weather and that once the catastrophic warming as predicted by their models, resumes its inexorable rise then all their forward planning will not have been in vain.
Meanwhile at least half the population looks on in wonderment as each cold winter succeeds another. This juggernaut is not going to turn round quickly but close observers who read these blogs and take an interest in these issues do detect subtle shifts as some warmists begin to cover themselves by acknowledging less certainty in the warmist story.
For example, I recently complained via my MP about the warmist bias at the Met office. I didn't expect anything but a fully self satisfied defence. However, I was mildly surprised to see this admission from the Minister of State responsible. "Over the last ten years there has been a small tendency for the HadCRUT data to be in the lower half of the predicted range of temperatures" So is there bias in their methods or attitudes?
"a small tendency for the HadCRUT data to be in the lower half of the predicted range of temperatures"
It's that pesky data giving the wrong answers again!
The only explanation for this is CAGW.
Re Oden, Sweden's strongest ice-breaker. It is on it's way back from Antarctica and is confidently expected to arrive about the time it will no longer be needed.
At the moment it is off Brazil. Local temperature +28 degrees.
http://www.smhi.se/klimatdata/2.1090