Is the next Ice Age here?

Haven't been on ATS for a while - nothing to say really! Been thinking, the last week or two, is the next Ice Age upon us? Look at the recent severe weather in Japan, Russia, Scandinavia, Central and Southern Europe, the Balkans, Turkey and now the NE USA - doesnt leave a lot left in the N North hemisphere does it? Well maybe NW USA, but they've had a lot of rain lately haven't they? I remember reading a fiction book in the 70's where the premise was that the formation of a "blocking high pressure" over Europe would trigger the next Ice Age - complete with ice tornadoes, 50 ft. of snow falling on Chicago in two days etc. Cant remember the name of the book - was one of my favourites too! If I remember, I'll post it later. The already strange weather seems to be even more strange lately, and I can't help wondering! There was also the recent film Day after tomorrow as well.........Anyone thought this as well?

I deffinately think the weather is major screwed up,you might be right hope your wrong though BTW I dont think this is natural check out HAARP.

Hi SoLar, think you could be right, I don't think we as a species are doing anything good to our world! I also think that the weird weather is presaging something much worse! ( Hope I'm wrong, I really do!) Just to elaborate on the plot of the book I mentioned above, current thinking in the 70's was that any Ice Age would gradually arrive over a hundred, two hundred years or so - the book postulated that it would happen in weeks or at most months - something would happen that would just tip the balance and BAM - Ice Age! We have seen recently just how powerful Mother Nature can be, and projects like HAARP are the equivalent of poking a stick in a hornets' nest aren't they? If only we weren't so greedy, arrogant and stupid as a species then we may have had a chance.......

All I know is that Glacial periods happened before there was any significant interference by mankind. Being so arrogant, we are just as likely to think that we can stop or delay the onset of the next Glacial - maybe they know it's on the way and HAARP, refusal to really embrace the concept of reduced carbon emissions, chemtrails etc. are the way the US and other governments are trying to delay or stop the onset of the next Ice Age. They sure as hell won't ever tell us though will they? Imagine the traffic and wealth going South across the Mexican border - wouldn't do a lot for the economy would it? Same in Europe - all those Brits heading for their holiday homes in the S of France, Cyprus and Spain - for keeps!

I thought most of the US was and has been much warmer than normal since sometime in December. I just heard the other day that Russia and parts of Europe were colder than normal. Seems like the weather is balancing out. I haven't been complaining about record heat in January though. The normal high where I live at is normally around 50 or so degrees F. in January. It hit the 70's on one day and the upper 60's on several days. I take it that the weather is much colder where you guys are posting from. Is it much below normal?

Hi Orion, not really too cold here in the S of England at the moment - 7.30 am, maybe zero or minus 1, with high forecast at 6. This I would say is pretty "normal" for January here. However, in the 60's, 70's and early 80's it was much more "seasonal", with colder winters, more snowfall etc. Obviously this wouldn't hold true for the rest of the world, but it's an indication that things have been changing. Last week for instance we had temps of 14-15 - not really usual for January. My point is that recently we have seen a large proportion of the Northern hemisphere experiencing extremely cold conditions - obviously there have been local exceptions - maybe the effects of HAARP - thanks for that SoLar! Maybe the weakening Gulf stream or other factors are at work, but something is happening. We have seen recently just how vulnerable we are when Mother Nature strikes back - just think what would happen if the next Ice Age does come.........it would make the effects of Katrina et al look benign!

Finally remembered the name of the book - The Sixth Winter by Douglas Orgill & John Gribben - been driving me nuts!!! Did a Google on it - there seems to be lots of stuff about it - seems it's out of print now though

If the next ice age has just started, we can expect to see a permanent ice sheet develop over Canada within the next few thousand years and, based on the last ice age, glaciers should reach New York City around 82,000AD

If we get winters like this continuously over the next few decades then we may, indeed, be experiencing a climate shift.

But climatologically, the fact that last year was the warmest ever recorded in the Northern Hemisphere is far more signifcant than this winter being a tad chilly in a few spots - well within, incidently, the parameters of natural variability. And, in any case, the prime factor behind the build up of ice sheets is cool summers - doesn't matter how much snow we get in winter if it all goes and melts again come spring

Well personaly i will agree with the statements about the weird weather, even down in australia we are having odd hot weather.

Anyway i dont think that we are going through another ice age what so ever. Also firstly you have to remember ice ages do not happen overnight, like it was portrayed in the movie "Day after tommorow" it is a slow process that will take a life time or maybe more. Which could be happening at the moment, but i doubt it myself.

What i think is more likely is that we at the moment are having a pole shift. This is when the magnetic field that protects the planet, shifts its positive and negative enegry around. Hence the north pole becomes the south pole and the south pole the north. So at the end of the shift if you looked at a compass it would be reversed.

Again this does happen over along peroid, and it will take a life time. THe problem is when the magnetic energies are shifting, the field becomes weaker, which means less protection from solar radiation.
I have explained the best as i can he his a reference to wikipedia.
Earths Magnetic Field

Hope this helps.


[edit on 063131p://upThursday by wang]

Its the middle of winter here. Everyday I here someone joke about the lovely spring weather weve been having. its been abnormaly warm all winter with only one snow. I watched a show on PBS about the Earths core shifting which in turn alters the magnetic field they used computer models to show that a gradual change in the core is normal but that the model showed an acceleration in this shift. The major scenario they were pointing to was a pole shift followed by an ice age that just kind of drops on us. Now this could still take some time but when speaking in cosmic terms of time its a blink of the eye.
P.S. Maldives01 I will deffinately look for that book thanks

NE US has been very warm for this time of year. I had my house windows open for 2 days straight last week. Normally this time of year I won't even go outside.

We are in an Ice Age and have been for about 100 thousand years. You may be talking about a glaciation period the last of which was about 10 to 12 thousand years ago.
So, before the next Ice Age can prepare to arrive the one we're in must first end. lol
skep

I've been jumping around the web looking at weather reports. It looks like most of the Northern Hemisphere is colder than normal. The continental US seems to be the exception. We are having an ordinary winter up here in Alaska. Maybe even a little colder than normal. I don't think you judge the worlds temperature by one area. It has to be looked at as an average. It seems to me this in the US is similar to the period when the "Dust Bowl" occured. By the way, you want to take the stuff you hear about up here with a grain of salt. The politicians and special interests have misreported about the conditions up here for decades. Alaska is pristine!!!!

I wouldn't say ice age. In Rochester area NY we've had maybe 12 inches of snow so far this year and have been way above average temps. I bought a new snowmobile this year and havn't been able to ride it yet.

Sorry about the snowmobile I See You! Guess the excess baggage charges would be fairly high if you took it to snowier climes

Skep - thought we were in an interglacial? Thought the glacial periods were the Ice Ages?

Blaine - don't know where you're looking, but my guess would be that it was colder 4-5 days ago - generally. Just my guess. Seems to have warmed up a bit the last few days - not here, but based on news etc. I have read recently - BBC, CNN etc. Still think it seems to be trending towards colder than usual this year in the N of the Northern Hemisphere.

Just confirming Wangs previous post, yeah, down here in Australia, it was reported that last year the total average tempriture for that one year all over Australia was 1 degree higher than the total average upto that point! That is to say, 150 year average when records began in Australia, 2005 was 1 degree higher, if you ask me, that is a pretty major jump in tempriture for one year, and to add to that, this summer it has been reported is the hottest in 6 years. Off the top of my head, down here in Melbourne we've had something like 5 days over 40 degrees celcius so far with 6 weeks of summer left to go. I know Adelaide set a new record in the last two weeks with I think it was 13 or 14 consecutive days above 30 degrees celcius. The rest of the world is freezing it's balls off and ours are sweating off. We havn't had a regular rainfall pattern down here in Melbourne for just on 10 years now, and scientists are saying that this looks like the way it's gonna be so we should start to get used to it, Mate! it's getting #en dry here i tell ya!

So it is really cold in Siberia, scandinavia and europe. So what? It is normal at winter. I have to admit that in this case a severe winter, but still.. just winter.

Hi Nordman,

cold in winter? Yeah - you're right usually is! Thing is the point I was making was that there would seem to have been a bit more of the cold than usual - there was at one point a week ago an unusually large proportion of the N Hemisphere experiencing severe cold weather conditions. It hit hard and it hit fast. The book I referred to postulated that the next Ice Age could start much more suddenly than we had previously thought. Here's a link to some pics from Japan ( Hope I get this right - haven't done it before!)

newsimg.bbc.co.uk...

newsimg.bbc.co.uk...

Here's one from China

newsimg.bbc.co.uk...

And here's a news report

news.bbc.co.uk...

What if a similar situation occurs next winter and conditions are just right for the next one to begin? Remember all this weird weather this winter comes after Katrina, Rita and all the other ones I can't recall the names of? In addition there's also the really hot stuff going on Down Under - thanks for the heads up Wang and Kozak - more weird stuff! There was also the record rains that fell in the Pacific NW and also in Java or was it Sumatra where they had the landslides recently. I think with all these weather records being broken seemingly every other day there must be something up!

Phew *( wipes brow)* Got the links bit right!

Wang - Think you maybe right about the Pole shift thingy, been wondering about that for a couple of years now - vaguely remember people were tying it in with 2012. The Earths magnetic field has been weakening for a while as it makes it's way to the shift - maybe it's this that's giving us the weird stuff - maybe a stronger magnetic field somehow helps to maintain order weatherwise? Or maybe the Ice Age would already be here but for the increased cloud cover due to increased air traffic increasing/maintaining global warming? I think there are lots of ways to look at it, but the weather has been becoming increasingly severe one way or another in the last 30 years or so - records wouldn't continually be broken otherwise.

I moved to Iowa from Alabama. It's been the warmest "Winter" here since, well, practically forever. Very little snow, and the past week has looked like winter back home in Alabama. This far north (Spencer, IA. in the NW corner of the state) and still way off scale. It should be sleet and snow every day, 20-40 Degrees or lower. Instead, it's like freaking Fall.

I joke that it's because I'm so hot (I know, my girlfriend doesn't even buy into that 'theory') but I'm seriously concerned here!

Hello there in tropical Iowa Yeah - strange things happening. In the first two weeks of January here in UK it was grey - I mean grey! Noticeably darker everyday. Heard on the radio that it was the darkest month on record in UK ever - so far. The previous month, December, it was the lightest! Also from your neck of the woods there was the record rainfall in the SW, the record rainfall in the NW and the weird temperature variations you seem to be experiencing over there - 30 degrees in a few hours - anyone from over the pond recall anything like that from years gone by, or is this happening more frequently now? Another thing I noticed both in England and in Switzerland, the leaves did not fall until way into December - not only brown ones either, I saw an oak in December that still had green leaves! This may have been due to the month being unusually light, but this is not something I've seen in all my years. In Zurich at New Year, there were still linden (lime) trees with brown leaves on! Unheard of for Switzerland. There are still some trees here in England with brown leaves on even now at the end of January - weird.