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Thursday, February 9, 2012 – Daily News Cold weather, snow in short supply WASHINGT ON (MCT) — Winter's been so mild in much of the United States this year that you can slip out some sunny afternoons to the golf course or bike path. Many snow shovels have stayed in storage. Heating bills have fallen. Meanwhile, Europe's suffering a brutal win- ter. But in the United States — in the East, Midwest, Texas, the Plains and parts of the West — the average mean temperature was 5 degrees or more above normal over the past 30 days. Only Washington state and parts of Ore- gon showed cooler- than-average tempera- tures then. It remains to be seen, however, whether U.S. winter records will be broken. "We'll have to wait until February is over," said Kathryn Vreeland, a climatologist at the Northeast Regional Cli- mate Center. Mike Halpert, the deputy director of the government's Climate Prediction Center, said the U.S. had had a num- ber of warm winters recently. But the last two were cold across much of the country, and that's fresh in every- one's mind, he said. Part of the explana- tion for this year's mild- ness stems from the Arctic Oscillation — atmospheric pressure patterns in the Arctic and northern-middle lat- itudes. The Arctic Oscilla- tion has been in a warm or positive phase recent- ly, meaning the polar jet stream is stronger than average and has shifted poleward, Halpert said. "Basically, that keeps cold air bottled up over the pole." The last two winters were the opposite: A negative phase allowed cold air to drop down. That brought heavy snow to New York and New England last year, and the big snows in the mid-Atlantic in 2010. Record keeping on the Arctic Oscillation began around 1950, Halpert said. In the 1950s, '60s and '70s, there often was a nega- tive phase, bringing colder winters. In the 1980s, '90s and 2000s, many winters had a pos- itive AO. 3B States try to help veterans find jobs WASHINGTON (MCT) — Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, visiting troops in Afghanistan recently, was taken aback by the answer he got when he asked a soldier suiting up to go on patrol what concerned him most. "He didn't say he was most worried about facing the enemy that night," Nixon said last month. "He looked me in the eyes and said, 'Governor, I'm worried about whether there will be a job for me when I get home.' " There's good reason for that soldier to be worried. The unemployment rate for veterans who have served in the military since 2001 is 11.5 percent, higher than the national average, which is now 8.3 percent. But the situa- tion is much bleaker for veterans aged 18 to 24 _ they averaged a staggering 30 percent unemployment rate in 2011, according to unpublished data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With U.S combat troops slated to leave Afghanistan next year and U.S. forces already out of Iraq, states are preparing to welcome back a large number of returning troops, many of whom will be seeking work. Nixon was among several governors who used recent state of the state addresses to outline plans to help make it easier for veterans to find jobs. "Every veteran who needs a job should be able to get one," Nixon said. State governments commit more than $4 billion of their own resources annually to support the country's esti- mated 22 million veterans and their families, according to the National Association of State Departments of Veter- ans Affairs. The benefits range from tuition assistance to helping veterans buy homes. In Missouri, Nixon, a Democrat, pledged to expand his The Arctic Oscilla- tion is part of the plan- et's natural cycle, Halpert said; it's too early to tell whether cli- mate change is having an impact on it. In the last couple of weeks, the Arctic Oscil- lation turned negative again, bringing severe cold to Europe and Asia, but not to the United States. That's partly due to another pattern of pressure, the North Atlantic Oscillation, Halpert said. That's remained positive. It's also a La Nina winter, when cooler temperatures in the Pacific typically result in cooler temperatures in the Northwest. La Nina also directs storm tracks, shifting them away from the Southeast toward the west and north, Halpert said. While weather varies with each season and year, climate scientists worldwide have observed a longer-term global warming trend. They've reached a con- sensus that it can be explained only by the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mainly as a result of burning fossil fuels. Some climate research aims to see whether there are links between global warming and changes in the Arc- tic Oscillation. Ex-CA mayor admits stealing mixer to make pizza LOS ANGELES (AP) — The former mayor of a Los Angeles suburb has pleaded guilty to stealing a commercial food mixer from the local school dis- trict so he could make dough for his home pizza oven. Los Angeles County prosecutors say Larry Guidi entered the plea Wednesday to a felony count of grand theft. He was sentenced to 100 hours of com- munity service and one year's probation. A com- mercial burglary charge was dismissed. Guidi was a warehouse operations manager for the Hawthorne School District until he was fired last year. Prosecutors say a security camera record- ed him loading the giant mixer and a cart into his pickup truck in 2010. The $1,300 mixer was later returned. Guidi was the mayor of Hawthorne for nearly 20 years but didn't run for re-election last year. One study released two weeks ago, for example, showed that the probability of cold winters and a lot of snow in central Europe increases when less sea ice covers the Arctic in summer. Scientists at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Germany said the shrinking summer ice changed air pressure zones in the Arctic, affecting the weather. The Arctic sea ice cover was low last sum- mer, the second lowest since satellite records began in 1979. But when the Wegener study was published Jan. 26, the cold spell hadn't hit Germany yet. "Many other factors naturally play a role in the complex climate system of our Earth, which overlap in part," Ralf Jaiser, the report's lead author, said in a news release. Jeff Masters, the director of meteorology for Weather Under- ground Inc., keeps track of weather events and research on climate change and blogs about it at wunderground.com. "In December, we had the most extreme atmospheric pressure pattern ever observed over the North Atlantic, with records going back to 1865," Masters said in an email. The pat- terns have been extreme in four of the last six Decembers, he added. This year, the strong jet stream has kept the cold air bottled up in Canada. The National Weather Service keeps snow data for 166 cities, and 157 of them have had below-average amounts, Masters said. In addition, a rare tropical disturbance brought heavy rain Monday to the Florida Keys. It's the kind of distur- bance usually seen in the summer hurricane season, "and something I've never seen in Febru- ary during my 30 years as a meteorologist," Masters said. All this and other extreme weather over the past two years is just too much to be an unusually long run of natural extremes, Mas- ters said. "Something is defi- nitely up with the weather, and it is clear to me that over the past two years, the climate has shifted to a new state capable of deliver- ing rare and unprece- dented weather events," he said. "Human emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide are the most likely cause of such a shift in the cli- mate." Show-Me Heroes initiative, launched last year, in which private employers agree to put military veterans at the front of the line when hiring. More than 1,000 veterans have found jobs through the program, the governor said. Missouri also is among more than a dozen states that offer some kind of preference for veteran-owned businesses in procuring state contracts, according to the National Vet- eran-Owned Business Association. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper would like his state to be on that list. The Democrat wants to give veterans preference in state hiring as part of his efforts to make Colorado "the most pro-military state." He also wants to make it easier for military spouses to use their occupa- tional licenses and credentials and work in Colorado if they are already licensed in another state. Oklahoma this year launched a new job market web- site, described by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin as "a comprehensive reemployment resource for returning mil- itary men and women who have bravely served us." Another new development involves offering tax breaks to private employers who hire veterans. Idaho launched a Hire One Vet program last April that gives a sliding-scale income tax credit to employers who pay $12 to $15 an hour or more plus benefits, and meet other criteria. "The Hire One Vet effort is more than the right thing to do," Republican Governor C.L. "Butch" Otter said last month when he encouraged employers to take advantage of the credit. "It is our responsibility to ensure that our troops have the tools they need to resume their productive civilian lives." In Minnesota, Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, wants to give a $3,000-per-employee tax credit to businesses that hire veterans. In New Mexico, Gov. Susana Martinez, a Republican, proposes a $1,000 tax credit for doing the same. "These men and women should not fight for our free- doms abroad only to be stuck on the unemployment line when they return home," Martinez said. President Barack Obama has made a big push to help veterans get jobs, including the creation of a Veterans Jobs Corps that will help communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters. Veterans issues were one of the few areas in which the president and Congress agreed last year. Just in time for Veterans Day last November, Con- gress passed legislation that provides federal tax credits to companies that hire vets. But not everyone agrees that tax credits actually help veterans find jobs. "Research suggests that the credit has not been effective in improving employment outcomes," according to a review by the Tax Policy Center, a joint effort of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY AGE VIEWS PER MONTH! OVER 300,000 P redbluffdailynews.com/jobs www.redbluffdailynews.com Now! Print Daily News subscribers enjoy unlimited FREE website access 24/7!