Featured Question: Frequency of Dec. 2 Snow

Today's featured featured question arrives via email:

What is the frequency of snow falling on December 2 over the past 70 years [in Washington]?

Since 1940, there have been 8 instances of frozen precipitation reported at Washington National on Dec. 2, but only 2 of these were measurable. Only one was over 1" (1.8" in 1952, which is also the all-time record for the date going back to 1888). There was also 1" in 1936.

One More 2010-11 Winter Weather Outlook (Topper Shutt/Howard Bernstein)

See here for other seasonal forecasts.

WUSA-TV (Channel 9) meteorologists Topper Shutt and Howard Bernstein have joined the La Niña bandwagon with their winter weather outlook this evening (warmer than average and less than average snowfall).

In living color:

Yet Another Winter 2010-11 Outlook (Doug Hill)

See here for other seasonal forecasts.

Doug Hill's (WJLA-TV, Channel 7) 2010-11 Washington/Maryland/Virginia winter outlook also calls for a La Niña pattern of warmer than average temperatures and lower than average snowfall:

Hill predicts the metro area will see 12 inches to 14 inches of snow, while Southern Maryland sees 10 inches and the mountains of Western Maryland, 25.

Here's the video (audio volume is low):

Wegman's: A Supermarket of Denialism

Nov. 24 Update: The commenters at Rabett Run point out that even the Daily Mail has got a clue:
Influential climate change report 'was copied from Wikipedia'

The WaPo, in whose backyard this business all transpired, is of course literally out to lunch, still focused on 80-pound cheese wheels.

Nov. 23 Update: USA Today's Vergano discusses the latest Wegmania this PM at his Science Fair blog: Wegman report round-up.
(h/t to John Mashey's comment at Herr Hare's)

Original Post:
To the WaPo, Wegman is just the name of a supermarket (Alec Baldwin: Paid to like Wegmans), while the Real Climategate continues to evolve in its own backyard at the suburban campus of George Mason University. USA Today follows up yesterday's report of an investigation into documented allegations of rampant plagiarism in the so-called Wegman Report to Congress (Experts claim 2006 climate report plagiarized) with a non-denial denial by the denialist:

Offered the chance to further respond to plagiarism allegations, reported Monday in USA TODAY, George Mason University statistician Edward Wegman said in an e-mail that "these attacks are unprecedented in my 42 years as an academic and scholar."

See Climate science critic responds to allegations for the full story.

Other coverage:

• Salon: Joe Barton's climate report was plagiarized
• Gawker: Report Questioning Climate Change Turns Out to Be Plagiarized
• UPI: Plagiarism charged in Congress report
• Climate Progress: Wegman exposed: Experts find “shocking” plagiarism in 2006 climate report requested by Joe Barton (R-TX)

Another 2010-11 Winter Weather Outlook: "Brutal Winter?" Kammerer Says No

See here for other seasonal forecasts.

WRC-TV (NBC 4) Chief Meteorologist Doug Kammerer issues his first Washington DC winter outlook, posted tonight. He calls for temperatures to be at least 2° above average each month and snowfall significantly below average, 8-14".

If It Limps Like a Duck . . . Congressional Committee's Climate Change Confab

Nov. 17 Update: Santer smacks down misleading Michaels
Here are the archived CSPAN videos of the hearing:
Panel 1 (begins at end of Cicerone testimony)
Panel 2
Panel 3

Ben Santer smacks down Pat Michaels starting at 35:15 in Panel 2: "Dr. Michaels' analysis is wrong; sorry, it's just completely incorrect."

Original Post:
The lame-duck Congress will take testimony on the climate change issue on Wednesday, November 17. The hearing of the House Science and Technology Committee's Subcommittee on Energy & Environment is titled "A Rational Discussion of Climate Change: the Science, the Evidence, the Response". The current witness list includes:

Panel I

• Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone, President, National Academy of Sciences
• Dr. Heidi M. Cullen, CEO and Director of Communications, Climate Central
• Dr. Gerald A. Meehl, Senior Scientist, Climate and Global Dynamics Division, National Center for Atmospheric Research
• Dr. Richard Lindzen, Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Meteorology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Panel II

• Dr. Benjamin D. Santer, Atmospheric Scientist, Program for Climate Model Diagnosis and Intercomparison, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Dr. Richard B. Alley, Evan Pugh Professor, Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, The Pennsylvania State University
• Dr. Richard A. Feely, Senior Scientist, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, NOAA
• Dr. Patrick J. Michaels, Senior Fellow in Environmental Studies, Cato Institute

Panel III

• Rear Admiral David W. Titley, Oceanographer and Navigator of the Navy, United States Department of the Navy
• Mr. James Lopez, Senior Advisor to the Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• Mr. William Geer, Director of the Center for Western Lands, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership
• Dr. Judith Curry, Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology

Lindzen, Michaels, and Curry were all added today to the list originally distributed last week.

The hearing is scheduled to be webcast at the committee's website from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The CSPAN schedule has not yet been posted.

Ellen's Weather Report Analysis

Ellen Degeneres critiques the weathercast (h/t weathermatrix):