The weather outside may be frightful, but the planet is still warming, scientists are saying. Hard to believe when school systems across the nation are running out of snow days and DC has been buried for most of the winter, but according to a professor in Monash University’s Geography and Environmental Science department (Melbourne), this January was the hottest on record. Likewise, last November. That’s based on satellite data taken starting back in 1979.

It’s been a tough season for climate change, what with Europe frozen over and errors recently unearthed in the IPCCC’s 2007 report. Easy enough to raise the eyebrow and smirk at Inconvenient Truthers these days, but scientists have always predicted that weather extremes – like the snow that Washington, Spain, and other supposed-to-be-warmish areas have seen this winter – would be part of climate change. Global weirding, right?  Those extremes have and will include heat, drought, flood, and yes, even cold.

So enjoy that snow – no telling what’s coming next.