What happened to global warming? That was the question that ran as a headline on a BBC report on climate that the British news agency published on October 9.

"This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998," the report noted. In fact, it continued, "For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures."

This won't shock too many people in the Poconos or anywhere in northern Pennsylvania. To see the cooling trend, residents there just need to look out their windows.

On October 16, Philly.com reported that the earliest snow on record, as much as in 9 inches in some locations, blanketed parts of the state, including the Penn State campus.

The early snow storm started on Thursday, October 15. According to reports, trees and power lines are down all over State College, PA, leaving pedestrians to worry about falling limbs. "You can actually hear them snapping as you walk underneath them," reported National Weather Service meteorologist Aaron Tyburski, who warned, "we may see another one or two inches tomorrow."

Despite the early cold and snowy weather afflicting Pennsylvania, and the unusually cool weather stretching back west across the nation's midsection, it's important to note that one local or regional weather anomaly does not indicate that there is a major trend in the climate.

That said, and despite the fact that warming alarmists in the mainstream media keep up the rhetoric about man-made global warming every time a summer day reaches 90 degrees, the previous two winters have been very cool, corresponding with the BBC report about the apparent cooling trend.

How might winter be shaping up this year across America? Cold, if October is any indication. Take a look at some of the weather headlines from around the country:

• Oct. 10, Sauk Prairie Eagle, Wisconsin: “Break out the winter coats this weekend”
• Oct. 10, Examiner.com: “Denver breaks 104 year old cold temperature record as Arctic chill sets in”
• Oct. 11, The Missoulian, Montana: “Western Montana shatters cold-weather records, with more on the way”
• Oct. 11, DesMoinesRegister.com, Iowa: “Chilly weather follows record early snowfall”
• Oct. 16, Omaha World Herald, Nebraska: “So far, it’s been Octobrrr”

And it is not just in the U.S. — From Europe and Australia:

• Oct. 8, WeatherZone: “Adelaid’s coldest start to October in half a century.”
• Oct. 16, Reuters: “European cold snap kills four in Poland”

Despite the cold start, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts warmer than normal winter in the U.S. because of El Nino. Noted Accuweather long-range forecaster Joe Bastardi, though, has predicted that winter will be stormier and colder than in recent years with a weakening El Nino, according to Reuters.

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