The
Gore Effect is an informal and satirical term which alleges a causal relationship between unseasonable cold weather phenomena and
global warming activism, with particular emphasis on events attended by former
Vice President of the United States and
Nobel Peace Prize recipient
Al Gore. Usage started when a speech of Al Gore on a global warming rally held in New York City met extremely cold winter weather in January 2004 and according
Andrew Bolt after another Gore speech took place on a strikingly cold day in Boston in the same year.
Reported global warming related events attended by Gore combined with
striking temperature minima respectively unexpected snowfall include visits in Australia, Italy and Peru. An opinion column in the
Ottawa Citizen then stated "Mr. Gore arrived in the late antipodean spring, together with a remarkable cold front and a late-season boon for the ski resorts." A Gore lecture at Harvard University on an October day 2008 with exceptionally low temperatures is frequently mentioned. When Gore testified about global warming before the
Senate committee in January 2009 the local schools had a snow day. The Gore effect is mentioned as well at events without attendance of Gore, so when
Nancy Pelosi had to cancel an appearance at a global warming rally in March 2009 due to a snowstorm and when the
2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference coincided with a severe snow storm in Denmark. During Gore's July visit to Australia in 2014, meteorologist
Joe Bastardi noted that his presence coincided with
Brisbane recording its coldest temperature in over one hundred years.