Snow In Baghdad
The Associate Press gets it wrong right in the headline, which reads: A first! Snow falls in Baghdad. But at least the reporter, Christopher Chester, did not try to twist it around the way the AFP report did. More on that it a moment. (UPDATE: Sae AP story from MSNBC with a nice picture of an Iraqi man holding a child wondering at the snow.)
For the first time in memory, snow fell across Baghdad.
Although the white flakes quickly dissolved into gray puddles, they brought an emotion rarely expressed in this desert capital snarled by army checkpoints, divided by concrete walls and ravaged by sectarian killings — delight.
"For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, a 63-year-old retiree from the New Baghdad area.
"When I was young, I heard from my father that such rain had fallen in the early '40s on the outskirts of northern Baghdad," Abdul-Hussein said, referring to snow as a type of rain. "But snow falling in Baghdad in such a magnificent scene was beyond my imagination."
Morning temperatures uncharacteristically hovered around freezing, and the Baghdad airport was closed because of poor visibility. Snow is common in the mountainous Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, but residents of the capital and surrounding areas could remember just hail.
"I asked my mother, who is 80, whether she'd ever seen snow in Iraq before, and her answer was no," said Fawzi Karim, a 40-year-old father of five who runs a small restaurant in Hawr Rajab, a village six miles southeast of Baghdad.
The AFP trotted out global warming in their report, that at least did mention that it was the first time snow had fallen there in about 100 years:
Light snow fell in Baghdad early on Friday in what weather officials said was the first time in about a 100 years.
Rare snowfalls were also recorded in the west and centre of Iraq, plunging temperatures to zero degrees Centigrade (32 degrees Fahrenheit) and even colder, an official said.
The snow in Baghdad, which melted as it hit the ground, began falling before dawn and continued until after 9 am, residents said.
"Snow has fallen in Baghdad for the first time in about a century as a result of two air flows meeting," said a statement by the meteorology department.
"The first one was cold and dry and the second one was warm and humid. They met above Iraq."
The director of the meteorology department, Dawood Shakir, told AFP that climate change was possibly to blame for the unusual event.
So the snowfall about a century ago was likely caused by what? A visit from Al Gore? The snow is a result of it being cold enough to snow. That's all. Just like it was cold enough to snow 100 years ago. Rare? Sure. Unheard of? Not even close.
But the Iraqis enjoyed their brief snowfall in peace, just as the AP reports. No violence, just enjoyment of an unusual weather event.
Environment, World news | Gaius Friday, 11 January , 2008
By martian, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Notice that no one mentioned “global warming” in the report - the said “The director of the meteorology department, Dawood Shakir, told AFP that climate change was possibly to blame for the unusual event.” - Get that? Climate change - I refer you back to a comment I made on a post earlier this month - you heard it here first folks!
By NortonPete, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 1:37 pm
I remember the post martian. Don’t tell any of these short memory experts that snow is mentioned all over the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Job.
By Mwalimu Daudi, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 2:54 pm
I am surprised that the headline did not read “Experts: Drastic Climate Change In Baghdad Possible Result of 2003 Invasion”.
By sam, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 3:53 pm
I blame Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Halliburton. Did I leave anyone out?
By Mockin'bird, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 5:03 pm
I’m pinning this one on Al Gore.
By N. O'Brain, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Global warming.
Right.
By Bleepless, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 8:21 pm
Indeed, a cold day in Hell.
By feeblemind, Friday, 11 January , 2008 @ 10:47 pm
Heh heh. Well said, Bleepless! What the enviro-whackos are really saying here is, ‘pay no mind to that weather going on outside your window. Listen to us and be very afraid. WE know what is really going on.’
By Rich Horton, Saturday, 12 January , 2008 @ 12:02 am
Evidently, there is no kind of weather possible that isn’t an “example” of global warming. The theory seems to be “Who needs falsifiability anyway?”
By dalene, Saturday, 12 January , 2008 @ 3:20 am
my belief is sure we are polluting our planet to cause such as global warming,green house effect,venus our sister planet almost the same chemical makeup,carbon dioxide] it is always cloudy there,hottest planet in solar system,900degrees raining corrosive sulfuric acid,[it is the closest planet in makeup to ours]we could learn alot from venus,also the other reason this may be taking place is there is a new planet in our solar system by the name of sedna,as it gets closer to us we are seeing more and more of the unusual,many reasons come in affect,people we all need to see the big picture, and that is appreciate what you have,take care of it.because you dont know what you got till its gone.!and those guys in baghdad there praying,because there just might be a good reason to do so,god help us all.
By Straight8, Saturday, 12 January , 2008 @ 5:57 am
It’s beginning to look like AGW is self-correcting.
By Gaius, Saturday, 12 January , 2008 @ 7:48 am
dalene, ever heard of the inverse square law?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law
Holy smoke. Sedna? You’re joking.
http://www.gps.caltech.edu/~mbrown/sedna/sedna-orbit-big.tif.tiff
By NortonPete, Saturday, 12 January , 2008 @ 8:13 am
Dalene,
I’m listening to martian at this moment, look what happened to Mars, they banned SUV’s and the place froze up.
By feeblemind, Saturday, 12 January , 2008 @ 9:31 am
Dalene, if you have an open mind, please visit http://www.junkscience.com They have a wealth of facts, not projections, about Global warming.