Climate Change and Snowstorms

Recently, there have been large snowstorms in the United States, and particularly large amounts of snowfall in the Northeast. Many “Climate Deniers”, or disbelievers in climate change, have used these as evidence in their arguments against the phenomenon climate change and global warming, when in fact, climate change has been a driving force behind many of the storms.

Global Warming has led to increased severity of snowstorms in the United States, by causing warmer surface temperatures year round, in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. These warmer temperatures cause the air to have a higher moisture content than normal (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association). The moist air is then carried by wind currents to the continent, where, upon reaching a mountain range, it is pushed upwards, to where the air is colder. The moisture then condenses and falls as snow. This phenomenon also takes place over lakes, causing already potent lake effect snow to become even more substantial, pounding nearby towns and cities with massive amounts of snow.

Development of severe snowstorms has also been augmented by rising temperatures in the Arctic Ocean, and loss of sea ice. These two factors create “ a greater prevalence of high pressure blocking patterns over the North Atlantic.” (N.O.A.A.) These blocking systems cause colder weather in the northeastern United States, and also serve to decelerate east, or north bound storms, allowing them to gain power over this region of the United States.

This phenomenon of rapidly changing, bi-polar weather will not stop, but rather become more and more severe as climate change progresses. Eventually leading to extremely warm winters with massive randomly spaced snowstorms, and hot, dry summers with short periods of torrential rain.