http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031104/sc_nm/environment_warming_dc

Wed, Nov 05, 2003
Global Warming Means Snow for Great Lakes - Report

[ Satellite picture of Lake Superior covered with snow... ]

CAPTION:
"A large portion of Lake Superior is seen covered in ice in this
March 12, 2003 satellite image. In theory, global warming should
be a good thing for the Great Lakes, right? Wrong. Global warming
means more snow, not less, for the snowbound region along
the eastern border between Canada and the United States,
researchers said on November 4, 2003. Their study of snowfall
records in the Great Lakes region and elsewhere suggests
there has been a significant increase in snowfall in the
Great Lakes region since the 1930s but not anywhere else.
The team, at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, said
that global warming does not mean sunnier weather everywhere.
Other researchers have predicted that, as the climate gets
warmer overall, it could mean colder temperatures in some parts
of the world and more severe weather in general as weather
patterns change." (MODIS-LRRS/Reuters)

Related Link:
"Increasing Great Lake–Effect Snowfall during the Twentieth
Century: A Regional Response to Global Warming?"
American Meteorological Society


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In theory, global warming should be
a good thing for the Great Lakes, right? Wrong.

Global warming means more snow, not less, for the snowbound
region along the eastern border between Canada and the United
States, researchers said on Tuesday.

Their study of snowfall records in the Great Lakes region and
elsewhere suggests there has been a significant increase in
snowfall in the Great Lakes region since the 1930s but not
anywhere else.

The team, at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, said
that global warming does not mean sunnier weather everywhere.
Other researchers have predicted that, as the climate gets warmer
overall, it could mean colder temperatures in some parts of the
world and more severe weather in general as weather patterns change.

For instance, warmer surface sea temperatures could fuel more
violent hurricanes and typhoons.

In the Great Lakes region, warmer temperatures mean more snow,
Adam Burnett, an associate professor of geography, writes in
the November issue of the Journal of Climate.

"Recent increases in the water temperature of the Great Lakes
are consistent with global warming," Burnett said in a statement.
"This widens the gap between water temperature and air temperature
-- the ideal condition for snowfall."

Burnett and colleagues compared snowfall records from 15 weather
stations within the Great Lakes region with 10 stations at sites
outside of the region and checked weather records dating as far
back as 1931.

"We found a statistically significant increase in snowfall
in the lake-effect region since 1931, but no such increase
in the non-lake-effect area during the same period," Burnett
said.

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