Weather Bulletin: People Freeze While Climate Alarmists Fiddle

by H. Sterling Burnett

Severe winter weather continues to pound the United States and, amazingly, the Middle East. The Weather Channel reports one of the worst winter storms in more than a decade hit Lebanon on January 7, killing two Syrian refugees and leaving hundreds of thousands in tents with little in the way of heat.

Disaster was narrowly averted in the Scottish highlands, where temperatures dropped to -11°C and icy conditions caused a commuter jet carrying 47 passengers to slide off the tarmac and into the grass at Inverness Airport.

On January 18 in New Jersey, what had been expected to be a fairly routine rain storm turned into a dangerous ice storm as lower-than-expected temperatures resulted in as much as a quarter of an inch of freezing rain. The New Jersey State Police reported 428 accidents and 186 calls for aid through Sunday afternoon.

Cold air from Canada delivered frigid conditions to much of the United States. Cold temperatures resulted in delayed school openings in North Carolina and school closings in Minnesota, New England, and throughout the Midwest.

With wind chill readings between 25 and 45 degrees below zero and heavy snowfall in some areas, conditions on many of the nation’s highways were deadly. An 18-vehicle pileup in Western Pennsylvania resulted in three deaths.

While climate pontificators blather on about whether 2014 was the warmest year on record, outside of the ivory towers, people around the world are shivering as winter continues its deadly, icy grip.

H. Sterling Burnett, Ph.D is the Managing Editor for Heartland's Environment and Climate News and a research fellow for environment and energy policy at The Heartland Institute.  Burnett worked at the National Center for Policy Analysis for 18 years, most recently as a senior fellow in charge of NCPA’s environmental policy program. He has held various positions in professional and public policy organizations, including serving as a member of the Environment and Natural Resources Task Force in the Texas Comptroller’s e-Texas commission.  The Heartland Institute is a 30-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems.