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In the 1800s the lakes in New Jersey would freeze solid to the point that there were companies who would cut ice in New Jersey and store it to be sold in New Yo

In the 1800s the lakes in New Jersey would freeze solid to the point that there were companies who would cut ice in New Jersey and store it to be sold in New York in the summer. Nowadays the mid atlantic is lucky to get a few inches of snow at a time, and I doubt a single lake in New Jersey has frozen enough to walk on in 30 years. Even places like Upstate New York, famous for their snowfall and long winters, have long stretches of winter with above freezing temperatures where all of the snow melts. The effects are extremely pronounced and the climate is nothing like it was in the 1800s now.

hackerlight 3y ago
About a week ago there was a freak heatwave in West Africa that caused almost 100 excess deaths. These events are going to get more common near the equator, and this will drive climate refugees.
- nerdponx 3y ago
  Out of curiosity: how much of desertification in Africa and elsewhere is due to bad land management and how much is just due to changing weather as the climate changes?
madcaptenor 3y ago
I'd heard about this being a thing in Massachusetts but I didn't realize it went so far south as New Jersey!
Slava_Propanei 3y ago
[dead]
technotony 3y ago
This isn't just climate change though, that period was significantly colder than previous periods (google 'little ice age'). Not disputing man made climate change at all, but the earth naturally goes through warming and cooling phases and we shouldn't expect New York to be as cold as 1800 today even without climate change. Of course this kind of natural change is what gives ammunition to climate deniers!
- vlovich123 3y ago
  It’s important to remember that it’s really tough to separate this stuff out and properly attribute changes. There could be natural causes for the little ice age starting/ending but there’s also evidence pointing that decreased human activity resulted in cooling and increased activity resulted in heating. Aside from CO2 emissions, there’s deforestation, controlled burns, and other terraforming projects on a massive scale around that time period that could easily have contributed in a major way.
  - gunapologist99 3y ago
    Agreed. It might have been any of those things, or something else entirely. For example, in 1883, Krakatoa erupted, one of the most powerful volcano events in recorded history. The eruption of Krakatoa had a significant impact on global climate, with summer temperatures in 1883 falling by as much as 1.2°C (2.2°F) below normal in parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It changed the skies to various colors like blue, gold, green, and purple, "... more like inflamed flesh than the lucid reds of ordinary sunsets... the glow is intense; that is what strikes everyone; it has prolonged the daylight, and optically changed the season; it bathes the whole sky, it is mistaken for the reflection of a great fire." And that was just a single volcanic eruption, in the southeastern hemisphere, massively affecting temperatures on the opposite side of the planet. There have been other natural events, like a massive simultaneous triple-eruption, possibly in 536, that plunged the planet into a short ice age. Other interesting natural phenomena are things like solar storms that can cause a global increase in both wildfires and electrical storms (or the cooling effect during less active cycles) as well as the significant dust clouds that occur when a large meteor strikes the earth. An interesting one that didn't seem to cause any climate changes was the Tunguska event. In 1908 in Siberia, it was thought to have been a meteor, except for the total lack of an impact crater, and is now believed by leading scientists to have been a meteor air burst. (Of course scientific consensus always is, until it isn't.) This didn't seem to cause a significant dust cloud or changes in weather patterns, but there are many other documented cases of meteors and volcanoes massively changing the weather. It'd be very interesting to map the climate curves (such as they may be known) against various known natural phenomena over the centuries.
- 3y ago
joecool1029 3y ago
> I doubt a single lake in New Jersey has frozen enough to walk on in 30 years Not disputing the spirit of your comment but from Jan 2013 I have photos of myself walking on Budd Lake. It was the first time I had ever been on a frozen lake. So it does still happen inside that timeframe, but yes it's uncommon now.

hackerlight 3y ago

About a week ago there was a freak heatwave in West Africa that caused almost 100 excess deaths. These events are going to get more common near the equator, and this will drive climate refugees.

nerdponx 3y ago
Out of curiosity: how much of desertification in Africa and elsewhere is due to bad land management and how much is just due to changing weather as the climate changes?

madcaptenor 3y ago

I'd heard about this being a thing in Massachusetts but I didn't realize it went so far south as New Jersey!

Slava_Propanei 3y ago

[dead]

technotony 3y ago

This isn't just climate change though, that period was significantly colder than previous periods (google 'little ice age'). Not disputing man made climate change at all, but the earth naturally goes through warming and cooling phases and we shouldn't expect New York to be as cold as 1800 today even without climate change. Of course this kind of natural change is what gives ammunition to climate deniers!

vlovich123 3y ago
It’s important to remember that it’s really tough to separate this stuff out and properly attribute changes. There could be natural causes for the little ice age starting/ending but there’s also evidence pointing that decreased human activity resulted in cooling and increased activity resulted in heating. Aside from CO2 emissions, there’s deforestation, controlled burns, and other terraforming projects on a massive scale around that time period that could easily have contributed in a major way.
- gunapologist99 3y ago
  Agreed. It might have been any of those things, or something else entirely. For example, in 1883, Krakatoa erupted, one of the most powerful volcano events in recorded history. The eruption of Krakatoa had a significant impact on global climate, with summer temperatures in 1883 falling by as much as 1.2°C (2.2°F) below normal in parts of the Northern Hemisphere. It changed the skies to various colors like blue, gold, green, and purple, "... more like inflamed flesh than the lucid reds of ordinary sunsets... the glow is intense; that is what strikes everyone; it has prolonged the daylight, and optically changed the season; it bathes the whole sky, it is mistaken for the reflection of a great fire." And that was just a single volcanic eruption, in the southeastern hemisphere, massively affecting temperatures on the opposite side of the planet. There have been other natural events, like a massive simultaneous triple-eruption, possibly in 536, that plunged the planet into a short ice age. Other interesting natural phenomena are things like solar storms that can cause a global increase in both wildfires and electrical storms (or the cooling effect during less active cycles) as well as the significant dust clouds that occur when a large meteor strikes the earth. An interesting one that didn't seem to cause any climate changes was the Tunguska event. In 1908 in Siberia, it was thought to have been a meteor, except for the total lack of an impact crater, and is now believed by leading scientists to have been a meteor air burst. (Of course scientific consensus always is, until it isn't.) This didn't seem to cause a significant dust cloud or changes in weather patterns, but there are many other documented cases of meteors and volcanoes massively changing the weather. It'd be very interesting to map the climate curves (such as they may be known) against various known natural phenomena over the centuries.
3y ago

joecool1029 3y ago

> I doubt a single lake in New Jersey has frozen enough to walk on in 30 years Not disputing the spirit of your comment but from Jan 2013 I have photos of myself walking on Budd Lake. It was the first time I had ever been on a frozen lake. So it does still happen inside that timeframe, but yes it's uncommon now.