The Gore Effect Explained

"The so-called Gore Effect happens when a global warming-related event....is marked by exceedingly cold weather or unseasonably winter weather." - Politico article

Chaos Theory to the Rescue: "The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. While the butterfly does not cause the tornado, the flap of its wings is an essential part of the initial conditions resulting in a tornado." Wikepedia article on Butterfly Effect

So there you have it. When cold weather totally out of the ordinary happens when there is a global warming event, you now know it was caused by Al Gore flapping his gums in Tennessee thereby setting up initial conditions in the weather system impacting the weather some place else. Computer models and scientific consensus agree with this statement in case you were wondering.

Source of photo and quote: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15931.html