By: Associated Press
Publication: Washington Post, February 19, 2013
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| http://spphoboken.com/wp-content/uploads/SnowStorm.jpg |
Picture: This is a picture of the snow storm that occurred in the North Eastern part of America on February 8, 2013. The snow in some areas was almost 40 inches deep. This was one of the biggest snow storms in this area's history. Scientists believe that these large blizzards, and the lack of smaller snow storms, have both been caused by global warming.
Summary:
Recently, we have been seeing a lot less snow than we expect in the winter, besides for the few gigantic snowstorms that we usually receive once a year. Scientists stated that the reasoning behind the less snowfall was because of global warming, but the one huge snow storm each year was also caused by global warming. The reasoning behind this is because when the atmosphere is warmer, it has the ability to hold and release more water, causing it to precipitate more frequently. This, along with the below-freezing temperatures, can cause all of the water coming out of the sky to be turned into snow, creating massive blizzards. Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said this while explaining how the winter season would be like from now on, “Shorter snow season, less snow overall, but the occasional knockout punch." This is a good summary of what has been happening in recent winters, especially this one. Chicago was also a good example of this when they went 335 days with less than an inch of snow and were later hit by a historic snow storm for that area. The increase in the temperature of the atmosphere has changed the amount of overall snowfall in recent years and the amount of snow that falls at a certain time.
Opinion/Reflection:
I have realized that in the most recent winter, which is still taking place right now, the North Eastern region in which I live has been hit with much less snow than usual. I never realized that global warming could be the thing that caused more blizzards, while still lowering the average amount of snow per year. I thought that the fact the global warming was making things hotter meant that it wouldn't be hot enough to snow, but I realized through this article that I was wrong. This issue directly affects me because recently my area was almost hit by a massive snow storm that just missed us and then hit places like Boston. It's also weird to think that the rest of the winters I will experience may follow the same pattern of just having one or two huge blizzards. This article really surprised me and showed me the light on how global warming has been affecting snowfall.
Questions:
- Will global warming ever make the Earth's atmosphere so warm that it doesn't snow in my area anymore? If so, when would this happen?
- How will these snowstorms interfere with the ecosystem that we live in?
- How would these storms affect people's everyday lives?
- How deep will the snow eventually get? What is the record for the highest snowfall in Pennsylvania so far?
I decided to email a columnist by the name of Ron Meador. I found one of his articles on this exact topic through the internet, and he works for MinnPost and has been in the science-track for 25 years. I thought he was a good choice because first of all, 25 years speaks for itself. Also, Meador has been critically acclaimed and given awards for his work. Last, I thought he was a good professional to pick because he seems to take global warming very seriously and actually seems to care. Here is a copy of the email I sent him:
ReplyDeleteHello!
My name is Jaimee Stoczko, and in my environmental science class this year we are all apart of a collaborative science blog over on BlogSpot. Our blog, named the Grass-Heads after an experiment we did, has to do with everything science. My classmate Ian just wrote a piece on the effect of global warming on major snowstorms, which I couldn’t help but notice you seem to specialize in. Our blog can be found here: http://grass-heads.blogspot.com/ Ian’s specific post can be found here: http://grass-heads.blogspot.com/2013/02/blog-post-3-ian-oshea.html
As part of the collaboration process, we figured it would be a good to get another expert’s opinion on this. If you wouldn’t mind finding time to help us out, we would just love if you could comment on Ian’s post and weigh in your opinion on this topic, as well as maybe correcting some of our facts. Also, it would just be really cool for someone so invested in the science-track to notice us!
Thank you so much!
Jaimee Stoczko and the Grass-Head’s Blog Group
This article really hit me as a surprise, and I had no idea that the effects of global warming could stretch so far. I think most people would assume the opposite, that global warming would cause more constant snowfall and less big storms. This article matters to me, because I've been getting kind of annoyed with how little snow fall we've been getting (basically none this year) until the massive blizzard that struck New England a few weeks ago. I'm glad Ian used this article, because now I know why these weather events are happening. To me, this is really just another reason to be environmentally friendly, because it's not good to have irregular weather patterns. It was pretty interesting to read this blog post, and to be further enlightened on this topic
ReplyDelete1. If we help to reduce the greenhouse gases we are releasing into the atmosphere, will the regular snowfall and storms balance back out?
2. Can you persuade people to be more environmentally friendly by using this example? Or is it not strong enough of an argument?
3. If we continue to pollute the atmosphere, how out-of-hand will the snow fall patterns get? Will we stop having regular snowfall altogether?
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120112193430.htm
ReplyDeleteThis is an article that gives more information about the heavier snowfalls. The warming atmosphere melts Arctic sea ice, which allows the atmosphere near the Arctic to hold more moisture, the cause of the more extreme snowstorms. Additional snow over Eurasia may affect the Arctic Oscillation, moving colder air to areas like the US and Northern Canada, and causing colder winters.
Questions From Ian's Post
ReplyDelete1) Theoretically, global warming could cause a large enough temperature change for this to happen. However, for climates to spike up that high, there would either have to be an extreme change in the climate, or it would happen over the course of many years.
4) As far as snowfall is concerned, it will vary with the amount of greenhouse gasses are put into the air. On the topic of record breaking snowfalls, the greatest amount in Pennsylvania was 38.0 inches taken by the Morgantown weather station on March 20, 1958 (http://www.currentresults.com/Weather-Extremes/US/snowiest-day.php).
Questions From Ryan's Post
1) Yes; if we begin to not only stop producing excess greenhouse, but begin to actually decrease the amount of greenhouse gasses, then regular snowfall and snowstorms would begin to balance out. However, the danger in doing this would be that we would need to monitor the greenhouse gasses in Earth's atmosphere very closely to ensure that we have a stable amount of greenhouse gasses to keep Earth from getting too cold. Either way this would be very difficult to do, simply because of the amounts that are produced and being able to convince enough people to join the cause.