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coldcat

SnowJapan Member
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Posts posted by coldcat

  1. Okay, I don't know if posting this link will fit with the rules and policy of the forums, but I do think that it's quite related to the topic and of general interest to everyone who likes snowboarding and noboarding. Noboarding still lives in Japan, but it lived in Turkey too, 150 years ago! You can read the full article here with some really cool pics too.

     

    Hope you enjoy and hope it doesn't get deleted confused

  2. By the way, answering your questions. The first one is obvious if you study a little of metereology as its a well known fact. The second one, yes I know how some of those models work cos I have worked with them in the past as a volunteer (my field is computer science).

     

    (If you want to know more details we can talk with private messages, as I wouldn't like to say anything else about me in a public forum.)

     

    Peace.

  3. I do not have a degree on metereology and I'm no scholar if that's what you are asking. I am sorry you got the false impression that I am trying to look like a proffesional metereologist. I've done a few courses on metereology, yes. But that doesn't make me a professional or scholar. I do know a small bit about GW cos I've been interested in it for many years. I just express my views, and as far as I remember have never claimed they are the undeniable truth.

  4. Originally Posted By: Go Native
    coldcat Hokkaido is most of the country as far as I'm concerned and the only part I care about snow conditions biggrin


    That's exactly what I thought, you live in Hokkaido and you sure are pretty lucky to do biggrin

    Anyway,unfortunately, they don't have a record of the long term predictions they do each year at the JMA site, although it'd be interesting in order to be able to compare them with the actual data to see how accurate or not accurate they are. In any case, we have to be satisfied with our memory and what I remember and you remember seems to be different. I might be wrong.

    And about not paying atttention to reason and facts, I think it's the other way around, but hey this has been discussed somewhere else, so lest people start getting bored of coldcat's skeptic posts on GW, i'll just shut up smile

    Like everything else, time will tell.
  5. Anyway, I'd just like to advise people not to stress too much about weather. Like many people have said in this post it's impossible to predict weather accurately. Professionals say the threadshold from which you can start speaking of reliable prediction is 3 days in advance. Anything else has a lot of magic and very little science. Moreover, my experience tells me that we can't speak of cold or warm winters in Japan, rather some years December is cold, January average and february warm, or any other combination. For example, last year January and February was colder than average, and March was extremely hotter than average. In 2007, 2 years ago, January and February were warmer than average but March and April were colder than average.

     

    That's the story, this is the real world and fortunately or unfortunately things are way to complex to adapt to such simplified forecasts.

  6. GoNative, average temperatures for most of the country??? Either we are looking at different maps or your "most of"-concept is quite different from what I would normally mean by "most of".

     

    temp-30.png

     

    As I understand this map, it actually says warmer than average for everything except for Hokkaido and Northerm Japan and that's what most people will understand by seing the map of japan in red. Then if you look at the numbers, there's the same chance (40%) of having a warm winter than a normal winter which it's like saying nothing at all so that's why it's ridiculous.

     

    By they way, every year they do the same. Like banks that never err on your side, JMA always err on the side of GW.

     

    And as far as last season goes, if they always say it's going to be warmer than average like they've been doing, it's logical that some times they will be right, but that doesn't say anything good about their way of predicting weather.

  7. I agree with skidaisuki, JMA forecasts and the percentage thing they have going on are ridiculous.

     

    In fact, for as far as I remember all their forecasts are alwasy for warmer than normal winter temperatures and less than average snowfalls, and that hasn't been the story always. Unless they are comparing with the especially cold winters of the 70s I don't understand why always they say warmer than normal. Well, maybe I do understand but this is not the place to go into political debates ;-)

     

    At the end of the day, nobody can predict the weather with any degree of accuracy as of today. This holds especially true for long term weather forecasts like the one I have given above. They are almost useless but like someone has said fun to discuss about when all resorsts are still closed and everyone is looking forward to the snow.

  8. Sorry Oyuki, I didn't realise that there was already a discussion about it. I myself am quite skeptical about the whole man-made global warming issue so after I saw the video I was quite excited to show it to everyone.

     

    Anyway the scientist you talk about is not the only scientist in the video, for example there is the director of the international artic research center who is Japanese, think his name is akasofu something, and who is quite against man-made climatic change.

     

    I feel the film was picked on just for being against the main views on global warming prevalent on the media now. If you scrutinise other films, for example an inconvenient truth, to the point that this film was examined you are sure to find as many or more mistakes.

     

    Regardless of which side you take on this issue, I think the film make some good points and many of the scientists in it do hold, quite boldly, their disagreement views.

     

    Whenever someone base their argument on the consensus of a comunity, whether it be a comunity of scientists or a comunity of religious scholars, I am wary of the argument, since that "consensus" is usually quite subjective and more often than not is used to impose some idea or course of action on people.

     

    Anyway, I wouldn't want to start a debate on this, like I wouldn't want to debate with a Christian person about his religious beliefs because there is not going to be an end.

     

    Just let others know that there are also people (including scientists) who don't agree with the idea of man-made global warming.

  9. I kind of agree with Thursday. I can't say about the offensive part because apparently it has been edited, but about what he is denouncing I completely agree. And it is true that ski resorts struggle to pay for the costs. More so in Japan where there are so many ski resorts.

     

    If you are an honest person you pay for your ticket, whether you can cheat or not.

     

    Regardless of whether you are honest or not, if you care about skiing or snowboarding you will want to pay, as you wouldn't want your favourite resort closing down because of bankruptcy.

     

    I agree that it is also the resorts' responsibility to make sure that all loopholes are properly closed, but even if they are not, it doesn't give you the right to use their installations without paying. If you really don't want to pay just hike up.

     

    When people take offense about something that hasn't been directed to them in the first place, it USUALLY means that they are involved.

     

    I felt really sorry for Thursday and how hard people have taken on him. From what I know of him, he isn't a troll.

  10. Not too much actually. Check ANA website. It costed me 14000yen(one way) from Western Japan which is much more far away from Hokkaido than Tokyo. Depends when you are traveling and that stuff. Also the sooner you book the more chances to find a cheap deal.

     

    Yes, there is a shinkansen (bullet train) to Hokkaido as far as I know. I don't know about the prices from Tokyo though.

     

    Hope it helps.

  11. BushPig,

    actually, I might be there on Monday. Weather forecast says snow Fri,Sat,Sun,Mon and continuing as far as the forecast goes, so maybe Mon will be a good day. So far it's not bad at all. All courses are open. Last time I was there the snow in Kokusai was powdery in some places and hard-packed in other. Mind you, that was 2 weeks ago, I didn't bother going last week as it was crazily warm so I supposed the snow must have gone through a freeze-thaw process. Anyhow, they've managed to keep all the courses open, and if the snow falls this weekend it should be quite good on Monday. I hope they have a good time.

  12. When I was there earlier this month, the locals were saying that there hadn't been a season with so little snow in 15 years. However, when I look at the daily reports here in SJ for December '03 & January '04, there was less snow that year than this year. In 2003, Januray 23rd report says they had 230cm, today's report says 280cm. What do the locals mean when they say there hasn't been a season like this in 15 years?

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