Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) has, once and for all, disproven climate change. While "eggheads" at "science laboratories" were busy worrying about how the increase in heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere was leading to a long-term upward shift in temperatures and increased atmospheric moisture, Inhofe happened to notice that it was cold outside. Weirdly cold outside. So cold, in fact, that water falling from the sky had frozen solid. 
 
 So he brought some of this frozen water into the Capitol and onto the Senate floor to show everyone, but mostly to show the eggheads. 
 
 Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) brought a real snowball onto the Senate floor to discusses climate change. (C-SPAN) 
 
 He referred back to the time that his kids made an igloo -- and then dropped his bombshell: "It's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable." Inhofe, who is also chairman of the Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, then turned to his prop for a bit of "scientific analysis." 
 
 "So," he said, throwing the snowball to the sitting Senate president, "catch this." Whether the snowball was caught was not known at the time of writing. 
 
 How cold is it out? It is below freezing! Last week it was even colder, so cold that records in the region were being broken. Today? Eh, not so much. Especially compared to the history of temperatures on this day. 
 
 Now, global warming skepticism skeptics might argue that Inhofe, the author of a book about global warming called "The Greatest Hoax," is using one bit of weather-related data to try to disprove a well-established, very long-term trend. They might note that temperatures in February are supposed to be cold in the Northern Hemisphere since it is a season called "winter." They might point out that at the same time D.C. was very cold, the West Coast was very warm, which is less expected during "winter." And they might note that the government did indeed declare 2014 to be the warmest year on record, a detail that is not disproven by a snowball in the year 2015. (The sad irony of that, though: Much of the eastern U.S. recorded colder than normal temperatures -- and that is where Inhofe goes to work.) 
 
 But those skepticism skeptics are wrong. Why? Look at that snowball. 
 
 Game over. ||||| Sen. Jim Inhofe James (Jim) Mountain InhofeThe Hill's Morning Report — Sponsored by Better Medicare Alliance — Anticipation builds for Trump’s SCOTUS pick Incoming EPA chief 'humbled and honored' to take post after Pruitt exit Who is Andrew Wheeler, EPA's new acting chief? MORE (R-Okla.) threw a snowball on the Senate floor Thursday in an effort to disprove what he sees as alarmist conclusions about man-made climate change. 
 
 Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, said the snowball was from outside in Washington, which he used to argue against claims that the earth’s temperature is rising due to greenhouse gas emissions. 
 
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 “In case we have forgotten, because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, do you know what this is,” Inhofe said to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who was presiding over the Senate’s debate, as he removed the snowball from a plastic bag. 
 
 “It’s a snowball. And it’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out. Very unseasonable.” 
 
 He then warned Cassidy before throwing the snowball at him. 
 
 An Inhofe aide said the snowball was caught by a congressional page. 
 
 “We hear the perpetual headline that 2014 has been the warmest year on record,” he said, referring to a report last month from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 
 
 “But now the script has flipped,” he said of the unseasonably cold weather. 
 
 Inhofe later realized that Senate rules require unanimous consent to use props during debate. He retroactively asked for unanimous consent to use the snowball, which Cassidy granted. 
 
 Inhofe listed many news stories and studies over recent decades that he said used alarmism to scare the American people about extreme weather. 
 
 “This is something that has been happening over a long period of time,” he said. “And every time it does, everyone tries to say that the world’s coming to an end and somehow man is important and so powerful that he can change that.” 
 
 Inhofe also chided Obama for his recent remarks that climate change is a greater threat to most Americans than terrorism. 
 
 He listed various terrorist attacks of recent decades to demonstrate the atrocity of the United States’ enemies, both terrorists and nations like Russia and North Korea. 
 
 “It’s just another illustration that the president and his administration are detached from the realities that we are facing today and into the future,” he said. “His repeated failure to understand the real threat to our national security and his inability to establish a coherent national security strategy has put this nation at a level of risk that has been unknown for decades.” 
 
 Inhofe, one of the Senate’s most vocal skeptics of climate change, convinced all but one Republican in the Senate earlier this month to vote for an amendment saying that climate change is real. 
 
 He saw it as an opportunity to demonstrate his position that the earth’s climate has always changed, and man-made emissions have little impact.
– The chair of the Senate Environment Committee offered the chamber some compelling evidence yesterday against man-made climate change: a snowball. "Because we keep hearing that 2014 has been the warmest year on record, I ask the chair, do you know what this is?" Sen. Jim Inhofe said to fellow Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy as he produced the snowball, the Hill reports. "It's a snowball. And it's just from outside here. So it's very, very cold out. Very unseasonable," Inhofe said before chucking the snowball in Cassidy's direction. The Oklahoman, one of the most vocal climate-change deniers in the Senate, went on to denounce "alarmism" on the subject and accuse President Obama of being "detached from reality" for claiming that climate change is a bigger threat than terrorism. Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse rebutted Inhofe's claims, starting by saying he wanted "to respond to the presentation by one of the Republican senators suggesting that the continued existence of snow disproves climate change," CNN reports. At the Washington Post, Philip Bump writes that those not completely convinced by Inhofe's evidence might argue that he's using "one bit of weather-related data to try to disprove a well-established, very long-term trend. Bump also notes that "temperatures in February are supposed to be cold in the Northern Hemisphere since it is a season called 'winter'" and points out that one snowball doesn't change the fact that 2014 was indeed the warmest year on record, according to NASA and the NOAA.