newsminer.com • Warming temps should end worst cold snap since 2000: "While it was 48 degrees below zero at Fairbanks International Airport on Sunday, the coldest temperature recorded so far in Fairbanks’ worst cold snap in eight years, forecasters were calling for a significant warming trend begining today.

Temperatures should be above zero by Wednesday, said meteorologist Daniel Robinson at the National Weather Service in Fairbanks."

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I have friends in Alaska and I keep hearing about how warm it has been in recent years (warm being a relative term). But this winter it has been cold up there, as in 50 below. I remember spending a week or so in the Fairbanks area and parts north--Fort Yukon and Chalkyitsik in November back in the late 1970s. It was 50 below in Fairbanks, 65 below in Fort Yukon, and so cold in Chalkyitsik that it was just beyond belief, although it is a tiny village and I didn't see any thermometers. They were probably all frozen solid anyway. Awful as that may be, it is normal to have extreme cold in the interior of Alaska, so in a strange way this winter is a good thing because they need the permafrost or the environment will change.

And of course here in Chicago we have been alternating between sub-zero cold (6 below yesterday) and big snowfalls. So the global warming "let's all panic" crowd is having a bad winter, too, I guess. The theory about variations in solar energy being a major variable in global temperature may turn out to be true. I think climate is affected by many things and it is nearly impossible to sort it out with precision.