What Happened to all the Snow?

Jan. 19, 2012: Winter seems to have been on hold this year in some parts of the United States. Snowfall has been scarce so far in places that were overwhelmed with the white stuff by the same time last year.

California dog driver Tony Phillips poses with his new sled near Mammoth Mountain. In winter 2011 this spot was covered by several feet of snow; in 2012 it is bare dirt. [video]

Here's a prime example. "The Mammoth Mountain ski resort in the Sierras of California got more than 200 inches of snow last December," says NASA climatologist Bill Patzert of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This December they got less than 10 inches."
Temperatures have flip-flopped too. There were 583 new heat records broken in the first five days of January in the US.

MORE: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/17jan_missingsnow/

gaw

Glenn A. Walsh, Project Director,
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