EXAMPLES:
In the winter of 2009-10, the mid-Atlantic
region of the U.S. had its snowiest season on
record as one monster storm after another
buried Washington D.C. and other cities,
shutting down travel, school, and work.
Meteorologists calculate that, historically, a
winter like that should only happen every 625
years, but climate change seems to be shift-
ing those odds.4
1. http://www.springerlink.com/content/0008xl84w0743102/fulltext.html#CR272. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-171432693. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/warming-arctic-playing-critical-role-in-causing-cold-snowy-winters-study-sa/ 4. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=14265. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1735 6. http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/whats-causing-the-deadly-cold-in-europe/7. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=andes-extreme-cold-extracts-bitter-toll
Exceptionally cold and snowy conditions hit
much of the Eastern U.S. in the winters of
2010 and 2011. During these two extreme
winters, New York City recorded three of its
top-ten snowstorms since 1869, and Philadel-
phia recorded four of its top-ten snowstorms
since 1884.5
Global warming has increased the amount of
moisture in the atmosphere—since warm air holds
more water than cold, the atmosphere is on
average 4% wetter than during the 1970s.1
This has increased deluge and flood—and when
the temperature dips below freezing, deluge and
flood come as blizzard and drift. Plus, the
shrinking of Arctic sea ice is bringing colder,
snowier winters to the UK and other areas of
Europe, North America and China.
Recent scientific research on the impact of the
shrinking Arctic ice sheet has shown that as less of
the ocean is covered in ice, the strength of the
northern jet stream that usually brings milder,
wetter winter weather to Europe, is reduced.2
Paradoxically,hotter tem-peratures can bring even harsher winter storms.**but shorter, milder winters overall
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