Re: Climategate
Global warming is determined by taking the average temperature of every place on earth, over, for example, a year's time, and then comparing that to previous years. So, you can have certain places at certain times of the year actually being colder, but overall the numbers can still show an increase in global temperature.
Also, I remember reading something a while back about how increased CO2 in the atmosphere contributes to colder winters. Heat from the sun is a lot like radio signals. As you may know, sometimes the weaker radio signals can bounce off the ionosphere, causing you to pick up radio station much farther than normal. From what I rememeber, CO2 strengthens the ionosphere and when the heat from the sun hits it at an angle (i.e. wintertime) , more heat is reflected back into space and never gets down here to heat the earth.
Something like that, anyways.