I thought they were still in Memphis

This is another of those stories which is both misleading and difficult to prove. Perhaps the first thing that should be determined, is the observed climate change in Yellowstone caused by CO2? Of course it is assumed that there is both unnatural climate change in Yellowstone and that it is caused by CO2. First the headline and a couple of paragraphs.





Are Yellowstone National Park's Grizzlies Changing Denning Habits Due to Climate Change?

Are grizzlies in Yellowstone National Park altering their long winter's slumber due to a changing climate? Federal wildlife biologists think so, and want to take a closer look into this possibility.

"We've detected a slightly later period of denning in fall in male bears," Chuck Schwartz of the U.S. Geological Survey, who heads the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team, told the Great Falls Tribune. "We think that's related to climate warming.".....


So we learn that climate change is affecting the Grizzlies in Yellowstone. We have another couple of paragraphs about the changing climate in Yellowstone, snow and etc.(please read). Then we come to this:


...Unfortunately, there’s mounting evidence that Yellowstone’s winters are becoming milder and drier. During the past half-century snow depths across the park have steadily declined, particularly in the spring months, and temperatures have been on the rise. Driving these changes is the shifting El Nino Southern Oscillation away from the La Nina phase that produces colder, snowier winters, to the warmer, drier El Nino phase....

So in fact it is actually a natural, normal climate condition which has caused this. With the shift of the PDO this situation could very likely change anyway. Upon reading the entire article there is really nothing ominous about the whole issue anyway, but we have to get the climate change angle into the lead, oh well.

But out of curiosity I went to two weather stations in Yellowstone from the US Historical Climate Network Site and downloaded the graphs of average yearly mean temperatures in Yellowstone which go back a long way. Click on the links and you may feel less alarmed about the grizzlies.


West Yellowstone

Yellowstone Park Mammoth