{"id":310324,"date":"2024-03-19T09:54:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T08:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=310324"},"modified":"2024-03-19T09:54:14","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T08:54:14","slug":"wrong-nbc-news-climate-change-doesnt-threaten-minnesota-ice-fishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=310324","title":{"rendered":"Wrong, NBC News, Climate Change Doesn\u2019t Threaten Minnesota Ice Fishing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A broadcast by NBC News, titled \u201cIce fishing threatened by climate change<\/a>,\u201d claims that warmer winters, particularly the 2023\/2024 winter, is affecting the ice fishing season due to supposed influences from climate change. This is false. Climate change does not make such localized effects in a short time, and it is well established that the warmer weather pattern this winter is a result of El Ni\u00f1o patterns in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story begins stating:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NBC News\u2019 Jesse Kirsch explores how warmer temperatures are impacting a winter tradition. Business owners near Minnesota\u2019s Mille Lacs Lake who rely on the cold weather say they\u2019re having a slow season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video then proceeds with interviews of ice fishermen and local business owners who are the bemoaning the fact that they are having a slow season. In the video they say \u201cover the past 50 years Minnesota has lost 10 to 14 days of lake ice\u201d but they did not back that up with any scientific citation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, it has to be said that any single winter having warmer than normal temperatures and the resultant less ice is in fact due to short term weather patterns not long-term climate change. It is well defined that climate change takes place over 30 years. As discussed in Climate at a Glance: Weather vs. Climate<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) defines<\/a> climate as \u201c\u2026the average weather conditions for a particular location and over a long period of time.\u201d To create a climate record, 30 years of weather data is averaged to create a \u201cnormal\u201d climate expectation for a location or region. What we experience on a day-to-day basis are weather events, not climate events. Weather is not climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, the 2023\/2024 winter is cannot be attributed to climate change unless it is indicative of a long-term trend, but no evidence of such a sustained trend is found in the record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is already well established that the warmer temperatures of the 2023\/2024 winter are a direct result of a significant El Ni\u00f1o pattern in the Pacific Ocean, affecting much of the United States. For example this report from Fox weather details the connection in US just had its warmest winter in history thanks to El Nino.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story goes on to say:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEl Ni\u00f1o played a large role in the record heat,\u201d said FOX Forecast Center Meteorologist Cody Braud. \u201cThe pattern for El Ni\u00f1o<\/a> typically means a strong Pacific Jet, which displaces the Polar Jet<\/a> farther to the North. There are obviously other facets to the story, but this largely keeps the coldest air trapped out of the Lower 48.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is clearly a short-term weather pattern, not climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contrary to this year\u2019s pattern, back in the winter of 2019 it was significantly colder and Minnesota had one of their biggest ice fishing tournaments ever with over 10,000 people on the ice in a single lake. As outlined in this story in Men\u2019s Health<\/a> titled: \u201cIce fishing event expects enormous crowd, More than 10,000 people will gather on frozen ice of Gull Lake, Minnesota, for world\u2019s largest charitable ice fishing contest Saturday.\u201d The story includes photographs of the lake covered by thousands of people and ice huts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, in January 2022, ice was thick enough to support vehicles in addition to the usual fishing huts as the photo below shows.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Vehicles towing ice houses drive on Lake of the Woods in Minnesota in January 2022. Credit: Kerem Yucel\/AFP via Getty Images.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Clearly, prior to the 2023\/2024 winter ice fishing seemed to be doing quite well in Minnesota. One bad year is not evidence of climate change. This winter\u2019s low and thin ice is a result of weather patterns this year that created a warmer winter in the United States, and of course, Minnesota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just as likely that next year Minnesota may find a record cold and a longer than normal ice fishing season next year because that is how variations in weather patterns work.  Discussing this point, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a> writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some examples of this longer time-scale variability might include a series of abnormally mild or exceptionally severe winters, and even a mild winter followed by a severe winter. Such year-to-year variations in the weather patterns are often associated with changes in the wind, air pressure, storm tracks, and jet streams that enclose areas far larger than that of your particular region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Minnesota has a banner ice fishing season next year, it is doubtful NBC News will send a reporter to cover it and correct its story from this year. This sort of singling out of particular weather events is part of a troubling pattern in which the media tries to link virtually anything that might be thought of as abnormal weather to climate change even when no long-term trend is evident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the media, pushing the climate alarm narrative seems to be more important than reporting factually on a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A broadcast by NBC News, titled \u201cIce fishing threatened by climate change,\u201d claims that warmer winters, particularly the 2023\/2024 winter, is affecting the ice fishing season due to supposed influences from climate change. This is false. Climate change does not make such localized effects in a short time, and it is well established that the warmer weather pattern this winter is a result of El Ni\u00f1o patterns in the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":310329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"A broadcast by NBC News, titled \u201cIce fishing threatened by climate change,\u201d claims that warmer winters, particularly the 2023\/2024 winter, is affecting the ice fishing season due to supposed influences from climate change. This is false. Climate change do","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691818056,691819287,691827696,691827695,691824077,691827694],"class_list":["post-310324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change","tag-el-nino-2","tag-ice-fishing","tag-mille-lacs-lake","tag-minnesota","tag-nbc-news","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/0drone-ice-5.webp?fit=1500%2C844&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1iJe","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":418336,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=418336","url_meta":{"origin":310324,"position":0},"title":"No, NPR, CBS, and NBC, Climate Change Isn\u2019t a Proven Cause of Arctic Warming","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"12\/23\/2025","format":false,"excerpt":"National Public Radio (NPR) recently published an article titled \u201cOrange rivers and melting glaciers: federal report shows rapid change in the Arctic.\u201d Simultaneously, CBS News published \u201cArctic temperatures increasing at over double the global rate since 2006, NOAA report says,\u201d while NBC News published \u201cArctic is again the hottest it\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Arctic sea ice trends\"","block_context":{"text":"Arctic sea ice trends","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=arctic-sea-ice-trends"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OIGP.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OIGP.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OIGP.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/OIGP.jpeg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":260981,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=260981","url_meta":{"origin":310324,"position":1},"title":"Wrong, NBC News, Climate Change Is Enhancing Wheat Production, Not Threatening It","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"06\/06\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"A story on NBC News cites worst case scenarios to claim that climate change threatens global wheat production. 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Debunking claims of climate causing \u2018less healthy\u2019 food \u2013 Melting ice will NOT \u2018drown millions\u2019 \u2013 Droughts NOT caused by fossil fuels \u2013 Earth is NOT\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0may-fact-check.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0may-fact-check.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0may-fact-check.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0may-fact-check.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0may-fact-check.jpg?fit=1200%2C672&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=310324"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":310330,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310324\/revisions\/310330"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/310329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=310324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=310324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=310324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}