Europe, US to see snowy cold winters - expert
Europe, North America and east Asia can expect more cold, moist and snowy winters such as the one just passed, a top scientist said today.
While it may seem counter-intuitive, warmer Arctic climes caused by climate change influence air pressure at the North Pole, shifting wind patterns in such a way as to boost cooling over adjacent swathes of the planet.
"Cold and snowy winters will be the rule rather than the exception," said James Overland of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Continued rapid loss of ice will be an important driver of major change in the world's climate system in the coming years, he said at an Olso meeting of scientists reviewing research from the two-year International Polar Year 2007-2008.
The exceptionally chilly winter of 2009-2010 in temperate zones of the northern hemisphere were connected to unique physical processes in the Arctic, he said.
"The emerging impact of greenhouse gases in an important factor in the changing Arctic," he explained in a statement.
"What was not fully recognized until now is that a combination of an unusual warm period due to natural variability, loss of sea ice reflectivity, ocean heat storage, and changing wind patterns all working together to disrupt the memory and stability of the Arctic climate system," he said.
The region is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet, a phenomenon known as Arctic amplification.
Resulting ice loss is significantly greater than earlier climate models predicted.
The polar ice cap shrank to its smallest surface since records have been kept in 2007, and early data suggests it could become even smaller this summer.
"It is unlikely that the Arctic can return to its previous condition," Overland said. "The changes are irreversible."
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Bernard Cachia Zammit
Jun 12th 2010, 11:54
Can't people read the article properly? This phenomenon is the result of global warming. The increasing global temperatures will disrupt climates and climate change will occur. This will lead to temperature extremes. Winters will become more severe, as what happened this year. Britain has seen severe winters. Here in Malta, if you haven't noticed, the climate was much warmer and rains took longer to come. That is the result of global warming.
Alex Ellul
Jun 12th 2010, 10:32
@Franco Farrugia: oes your oven cool down when you turn it on? Neither can the planet cool down during global warming. It is either global warming or global cooling. The planet has not warmed up for 15 years and it has cooled a bit for thelast ten. The seaonal variablity is just natural. Go and do some research and do not believe straightforward what you read on the newspapers and the mainstream media. These are just news pedlers ready to sell their hyped-up news to the gulls. Read the fien, but check them out. Sciece is not made out of belief, it is made of scepticsm. Not believing what others say but checking things out for oneself. Archemedis was a sceptic, Galileo too, Einstein, Bohr, all the great one wee sceptical. Those who believed ht others said just fell into the gutter of scientific history.
Alex Ellul
Jun 12th 2010, 10:26
Latest reports on North Pole sea ice cover is that while the area is at alow, the thickness is INCREASING, while this winter, the northern hemisphere experinecd a record land snow cover. Climateologists had seen this coming and it is mostly due to the solar cycle, the current solar cycle is being compared to the Maunder minimum that casued Europe to freeze up three centuries ago. The sun has seen one of its lowest sunspot activity for a hunderd years, and it is still low. If it continues, solar scientist predict another little ice age. So much for global warming.
Alex Ellul
Jun 12th 2010, 10:18
Years ago the warmists told us thatthe planet will get warmer. IT DID NOT. So now that it is getting colder (see what is happening now at the southern hemisphere winter, New Zealand record freezing, again) the liers are telling us that the freezing is due to the warming. The warmists are always changing the goalposts of climate science to suit their political ends. Anyone interested in climate science and the truth has to read the skeptical scientists' peer reviwed reports, including CERN scientists and there one will find the science behind the warmings and coolings that our planet goes through. The major fprcings on our climate are:
Solar cycles, oceans' cycles and currentss, planetary mechanics and cosmic radiation. Those scientists who blame CO2 for climate change are dwindling down to a handful, mostly those who are being paid by our taxes. They keep on finding catastrophic climate change so that their grant money, millions of it, keeps on coming, while the politicians find an excuse to tax our electricity, fuels, and generally make us poorer.
malcolm seychell
Jun 11th 2010, 22:25
Hehe u l kommunisti u l greens jghidulna li kollox qed jishon :)
Bernard Cachia Zammit
Jun 12th 2010, 11:56
What has communism got to do with global warming? Could you enlighten me?
K.Littlejohn
Jun 11th 2010, 19:43
So much for Global warming
Franco Farrugia
Jun 11th 2010, 20:02
This IS an effect of global warming!
ASpiteri
Jun 11th 2010, 20:50
@farrugia...this actually proves that global warming is indeed a hoax!
Bernard Cachia Zammit
Jun 11th 2010, 23:47
@ ASpiteri
Global warming is not a hoax, it is a reality that is going to affect us and the natural environment. The global warming will cause drastic climatic changes, which in turn would lead to temperature extremes. Areas where cold winters dominate, the winters will become colder. Don't live under The impression that global warming is a hoax. You are rejecting the realities around you.
Alex Ellul
Jun 11th 2010, 19:39
What this scientist did not tell us is that the total global ice cover is at a record maxium. The south pole is at a record maximum ice cover. This is all due to solar activity