Demand for sweaters up?

New Zealand (remember, it's summer over there) is having a cold wet one:

Snow, frost, hail and a tornado marked the first month of summer, with the coldest temperatures recorded in December since 1945.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research figures for last month show it was the fifth coldest since records were established in 1853. The national average temperature was just 13.4C - 2.2C below normal and more like spring than summer.

The record-breaking low temperatures not only kept the summer clothes in the cupboard but slowed the growth and ripening of berries, stone fruit and crops. (emphasis added)

Canada and much of the US prairies also had a very cool wet summer in 2004, following on a cold winter. There was an August frost that severely impacted crops in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. But it wasn't all bad:

Phillips credited that chill with giving Canada the only "good-news" weather event on his list: a halt in the spread of West Nile disease, which took the No. 10 spot.

The disease is spread by mosquitoes, but insect numbers were way down because of the cold temperatures, Phillips said.

M.O.M. predicts an increase in environmentalists speaking earnestly and intently about one of the cardinal signs of global warming - an increase in the variability in weather. Graphs will follow, shortly followed by other graphs pointing out that the weather does not, in fact, appear to have become more variable, unless you construct your graph over a very short period.

M.O.M also predicts that the first set of graphs will receive far more media coverage than the second set. It's great having a crystal ball.