LITTLE ROCK — What happened to global warming? I’m freezing! Sitting at my desk with fingers that are almost too cold to type, I feel like I could use a little global warming.

As an Arkansas girl, I don’t know how people farther north handle the cold. After spending my teenage summers working outdoors on a horse farm, I seem to have adjusted to the heat and it doesn’t bother me. On the other hand, I don’t know if there’s anything worse than feeling cold.

My husband would disagree, and it’s hard for me to understand his point of view. While I’m shivering away, bundled in sweaters and coats on a brisk fall day, he’s wearing a short sleeved Tshirt and saying, “It feels great out here.”

When I passed the bank on Friday morning, the sign read 3 degrees. I stopped and took a picture. Later a friend told me it read zero when she passed by earlier in the day.

We’ve already experienced a white Christmas and another snowfall to usher in the new year. While the snow is fun, I don’t care for cold. It seems this year has been cooler and wetter than usual. In July, swimming was a little chilly with highs in the lower 80s rather than upper 90s, and August - usually the hottest, driest month - was actually pretty damp.

So has this arctic air brought record-breaking temperatures? Here are a few local statistics I gathered fromthe National Weather Service in Tulsa.

The coldest temperature recorded in Tulsa since 1905 was negative 16 degrees in 1930. The coldest temperature recorded in Fort Smith since 1882 was negative 15 degrees in 1899.

Seven of the top 10 coldest temperatures in Tulsa since 1905 all occurred before 1930. Likewise in Fort Smith, seven of the top 10 coldest temperatures since 1882 occurred before 1930.

Even so, I’m not the only one asking what happened to global warming. A quick search on Google brings up a long list of articles with the same title, ranging from Mother Earth News to the Associated Press.

According to news reports, Beijing recently had its coldest morning in almost 40 years and its biggest snowfall since 1951. Britain has also experienced the longest cold snap since 1981.

Experts claim that one cold snap or even a colder than usual year doesn’t disprove global warming, because global warming is about longterm trends. There will continue to be cold snaps, they will just happen less and less frequently, they say.

NASA says 2005 was the warmest year on record. According to NASA scientists, the five warmest years since the 1880s are in descending order 2005, 1998, 2002, 2003 and 2006. Charts and animated maps showing temperature change over the past100 years can be viewed at www.nasa.gov.

The amount of debate over global warming makes my head swim. Beyond greenhouse gases, there are theories on how solar cycles and ocean currents play into climate change. Some claim that global warming isn’t happening, or is happening but isn’t caused by human interference.

Others cry for urgent action to save the planet. In my mind it stands to reason that global warming is happening, but it seems only the future will prove who is right.

In the mean time, here is a recipe for snow ice cream. If the weather continues in this pattern, you may have plenty of opportunity to try it out before spring.

When snow begins to fall, set a pan or cooking bowl out on a high point, such as on top of the car, and let it fill with snow. Or, on the morning after a snow, carefully scoop snow off of a clean surface - we used the picnic table on the back deck. Be sure to watch for bird droppings and other contaminates. Use only the freshest snow. The snow will compact as you make ice cream so collect at least three times as much snow as the amount of ice cream you wish to make.

You can store fresh snow in the freezer for a few days until you are ready to make ice cream. Add milk to the snow and stir until you get the right consistency. Be careful, too much milk and you’ll have snow soup. Add sugar and vanilla to taste. Serve and eat right away because snow ice cream stored in the freezer becomes a block of ice.

Children especially enjoy the process of collecting, making and eating snow ice cream and it’s a special treat adults can enjoy too.

Opinion, Pages 5 on 01/13/2010