General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsScientists: Long winter in U.S. the result of melting Arctic ice cap
Climate scientists have linked the massive snowstorms and bitter spring weather now being experienced across Britain and large parts of Europe and north America to the dramatic loss of Arctic sea ice.
Both the extent and the volume of the sea ice that forms and melts each year in the Arctic ocean fell to an historic low last autumn, and satellite records published on Monday by the National Snow and Ice Data Centre (NSIDC) in Boulder, Colorado, show the ice extent is close to the minimum recorded for this time of year.
The sea ice is going rapidly. Its 80% less than it was just 30 years ago. There has been a dramatic loss. This is a symptom of global warming and it contributes to enhanced warming of the Arctic, said Jennifer Francis, research professor with the Rutgers Institute of Coastal and Marine Science .
According to Francis and a growing body of other researchers, the Arctic ice loss adds heat to the ocean and atmosphere which shifts the position of the jet stream the high-altitude river of air that steers storm systems and governs most weather in northern hemisphere.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/25/scientists-long-winter-in-u-s-the-result-of-melting-arctic-ice-cap/
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)means our spring weather gets colder.
I get it, I really do.
But on the surface, seems weird, so I can understand why shallow thinkers would be confused.
Meanwhile, it is end of March and we are still getting very cold nights here....pout pout.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)we may actually be heading into another Ice Age.
LiberalFighter
(50,504 posts)wouldn't there be an increase in other extreme weather related issues?
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)With the lovely wild fires as well
tanyev
(42,360 posts)According to one of my esteemed Facebook friends.
dipsydoodle
(42,239 posts)the jet stream is further south than it normally be at this time of the year so cold air is getting sucked in from Scandinavia.
Last time this happened was forty years ago - a cricket match had to be scrubbed in late May due to snow.
1963 was the real bastard. Started snowing at Christmas and snow was still there late March. See here for pictures :
Google uk winter 1963 for more images
tanyev
(42,360 posts)I wonder if that inspired Susan Cooper's winter imagery in her classic children's book The Dark Is Rising. I read it every year at midwinter. When you live in Texas, you need some help feeling like it's truly winter.
jambo101
(797 posts)Last edited Tue Mar 26, 2013, 02:30 PM - Edit history (1)
My ultra rightwing brother assures me global warming is a hoax perpetrated on the American people by a liberal media machine that only tells lies.
He never does tell me why the American government along with its controlled media would want to deceive its people so much but i'm sure it ties in with the coming invasion of the drones, why else would they be closing all the control towers?
distantearlywarning
(4,475 posts)Normally around this time we'd start seeing temps in the 50s and cool rain. Stuff would start growing again. The tulips and daffodils would be blooming by now.
Instead, this year we've basically had mid-January for 3 entire months now - freezing cold temps (it was in the single digits for several days last week!), bleak skies, snow. It sucks ass. March 26th and it's snowing. It's supposed to snow for another 5 days before we see any more sun. No spring bulbs, no green things, just an endless parade of grey skies and cold windy days.
It's actually making me extremely depressed this year. I'm not normally prone to SAD, but after months and months of nothing but greyness, freezing cold, and wet with no apparent end in sight and it's April already, I am fucking done this year. DONE. Fuck global warming.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)I hear ya..for the first time in decades, I have been feeling blah, like I used to feel in the Pac NW in winter.
I moved down here for the sunshine, which is usually plentiful during the winter.
but week after week, clouds, even when the forecast says sun, we wake to clouds.
And wind....normally we have little wind, this winter many north windy days.
Usually there will be 2-3 north wind days, then we get the warmer Gulf winds.
Not so this year.
warrior1
(12,325 posts)we've been above normal on our temps. and we haven't gotten a lot of rain like would normally.