Yes, Virginia, there is 'climate change' ... the earth is cooling off!

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), global temperatures have cooled, not warmed, since the late 1990s, particularly since our 'sun went silent' in 2007 and sea-surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean regions declined from previous levels a decade ago.

As I've said repeatedly for many years now, the 20-year period of global warming between the late 1970s and the late 1990s was caused by natural forces. It was not 'manmade,' but we certainly made things worse with our polluting ways, especially in the urban 'heat islands' of concrete and asphalt.

But, I should likewise mention that both the Roman Period after Christ and the Medieval Period that preceded the Renaissance were each much warmer than the 1980s and 1990s. Remember, the Vikings were successfully farming a verdant Greenland prior to the so-called 'Little Ice Age,' when global temperatures plunged four degrees between the late 1300s and 1850.

Glaciers that were in full retreat a thousand years ago, suddenly began advancing worldwide at an alarming rate. We are now beginning to see a similar trend toward advancement of glaciers, particularly in southern Chile in South America, Norway and Alaska.

Antarctica's sea ice volume, which represents 90 percent of the world's ice and 70 percent of its fresh water, was at an all-time high by 2008, at least 17 percent greater in size than a decade earlier.

As I've mentioned in previous 'Gems' columns, in October and early November of 2008, the icepack in the northern Arctic regions grew at the fastest rate ever recorded, an amazing 43,804 square miles per day.

I believe that our all-time back-to-back snowy winters of 2007-08 and 2008-09, that produced a total of 318 inches of the white stuff in Coeur d'Alene, were closely related to the rapid expansion of ice in the polar regions. Dozens of buildings collapsed due to the tremendous weight of the heavy, wet snows across North Idaho and eastern Washington.

Last winter, in February of 2010, the Northern Hemisphere had its second largest area of snow cover ever recorded. In fact, the last 12 winters combined were the snowiest since at least the 1600s around the globe, even in the Southern Hemisphere.

The winter of 2010 was the coldest on record in Australia and New Zealand. Argentina saw its coldest winter in at least 200 years. There were many deaths in Argentina, Peru and Chile from the record cold.

In New Zealand, hundreds of thousands of sheep were killed this past winter by the record low temperatures and the much heavier than normal snowfalls.

Nearly 1,000 rare penguins starved to death when unusually cold waters killed off the krill and shrimp that they normally feed on north of Antarctica. Their emaciated bodies washed up on the beaches of both South Africa and South America.

December 2010 was the coldest month since records began in 1649 in parts of northern England, Ireland and Scotland. Blizzards produced record snows in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Belgium that literally crippled travel and essential services.

Let us not forget that locally, both Spokane and Coeur d'Alene measured all-time record November 2010 snowfalls and 'rare' November subzero temperatures, down to minus-15 degrees in some outlying areas. We surpassed our normal snowfall levels for an entire winter season by early January. Thank God that we've seen more rain than snow lately due to the warmer temperatures that we expected during the second half of the winter of 2010-11.

Just this past week, minus-50 degree wind-chill factors gripped the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada. Friends of mine in Vermont, where Sharon and I spent more than eight years enjoying the Green Mountain State, reported actual air temperatures last Monday morning near minus-30 degrees. Our friend had to walk to work when his car wouldn't start. Schools cancelled classes. Some businesses closed. Al Gore was nowhere in sight.

Next week in 'Gems,' I'll explain the probable SOLAR IMPACT on the current cycle of global cooling and just what may happen next weatherwise and otherwise. Remember, I'm still expecting WIDESPREAD FAMINE in most continents by late 2011 or early to mid 2012. (Maybe the Mayans will be right after all!)

NORTH IDAHO WEATHER REVIEW AND LONG-RANGE OUTLOOKS

As of noon on Thursday, Jan. 27, we had received more than four inches of precipitation in Coeur d'Alene, Hayden, Rathdrum and other stations in North Idaho during the month. Hayden gauged more than an inch of rain on Monday, Jan. 24 alone.

We should be glad that most of the moisture this month at elevations below 3,000 feet fell as rain rather than as snow like during the first half of the winter of 2010-11, when we measured a whopping 70 inches of the white stuff that included an all-time November dump in town of 38.3 inches. The previous November snowfall mark since 1895 in Coeur d'Alene was 31.6 inches in 1973. Our new 115-year seasonal snowfall average since 1895 is 69.8 inches. Last winter, during a warm and dry 'El Nino' sea-surface temperature event, we gauged only 18.4 inches of snow the entire winter of 2009-10, a drop of more than 127 inches from the previous snowy winter of 2008-09.

Our record snowfall in November continued into December before pushing eastward toward the Atlantic Coastline in mid December. Since December 16, there have been a record 8 snowstorms in New York City that have closed schools and airports.

Nearly 19 inches of snow fell overnight on Wednesday again crippling the 'Big Apple.' The three feet of snow this month alone in New York City makes January of 2011 the snowiest month on record. By noon on Thursday, the city had already measured 55 inches for the 2010-11 season. The normal for an entire winter in New York City is just 21 inches.

Temperatures earlier this past week plunged to near minus-30 degrees in Vermont, where Sharon and I lived for more than 8 years from 1995 to 2003 before returning home to Camelot. I don't miss the bitter cold and the blizzards of New England or the sky-high taxes on property.

The cold and snowy weather during the past six weeks in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada has been caused by what is called "the North Atlantic Oscillation," a phenomenon common with 'La Nina' and sometimes with 'El Nino.'

While we see a huge warm ridge of high pressure west of the Rockies, areas to the east and northeast, by extreme contrast, are locked in a deep, cold low pressure 'trough' that has produced one big snowstorm after another, especially across New England and the northern Mid-Atlantic states.

This is why Randy Mann and I earlier predicted that the second half of the winter of 2010-11 would be far less severe across the Inland Northwest, but a real 'bearcat' over the Northeast and, at times, even across much of Dixie, which saw its first White Christmas in decades.

Will we see a shift of the heavy snows back to our neck of the woods by February or March. I doubt it. But, anything is possible weatherwise in this cycle of Wide Weather 'Extremes.' Stay tuned.

Cliff Harris is a climatologist who writes a weekly column for The Press. His opinions are his own. E-mail sfharris@roadrunner.com