Climate Change: Arctic warming pushes winter weather further south

Meteorologist Dave Eichorn explains how warming in the Arctic associated with climate change has resulted in colder temperatures and snowy weather much further south in segment two of a meteorologist's view on climate change.

About A meteorologist's view on climate change video series: 30 year veteran meteorologist Dave Eichorn explains climate science, climate change, and regional to national weather events through an environmental meteorological perspective.

[Broomedy]

There are only 2 things we can do and BOTH need to be done asap. 1. Cut our carbon emissions and not just in small ways. Stop buying stuff, buy local foods and eat seasonally. Grow every ounce of food you can and stop using your car unless you have to. 2. Get used to it. Climate change is here to stay. We have reached 400ppm and this signifies that we will see a 2.0C degree temperature minimum increase. Nothing can be done about that, not in our lifetime. All we can do is try to slow it.

[spvillano]

Add to the impact, the change in wind, in particular, the arctic jet stream, impacts arctic ocean currents. Lowering arctic ocean currents permits the fresh water that is under the ice cap to be released into the lower oceans (Pacific and Atlantic), which can influence the great oceanic currents.
Indeed, the larger effects of the little ice age in Europe was modeled to be from significant weakening of the gulf stream, which then failed to warm Europe, worsening the conditions there.

[itsmeee]

@SomeLittleShoe I'm just not sure where to start. You do understand the principals of precipitation and more specifically what causes snow?

[itsmeee]

@SomeLittleShoe I'd start with "Contemporary Changes of the Hydrological Cycle over the Contiguous United States: Trends Derived from In Situ Observations" and "Temporal and Spatial Characteristics of Snowstorms in the Contiguous United States" and then hit up Google Scholar which has a plethora of articles on the subject. I read a good article from their a few weeks ago about other possible explanations for the increases in snow fall which could help bolster your arguments in the future.

[Matiful]

i live on north USA so how should i understand that ? ....that i gonna have stronger winter and wormer summer or opposite way ? Im confused right now

[bernercold]

Polar Vortex: Is a low pressure system aloft associated with a pool of cold air. Westerly winds (jet stream) flow around it. Every winter, in the troposphere (lower atmosphere), there is usually at least one over the Northern Hemisphere, in particular, northern North America. (They are not limited to winter.) And, in winters when we have exceptional outbreaks of cold air, they are usually associated with a vortex that temporarily shifts south in latitude. A vortex shifted south in January 2003, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2013 among other years. When it is unusually warm at high latitudes, especially over Alaska or Greenland, the North American vortex shifts south. In the video above, when he says "not theory, this is measurably happening, " a mp comes up. The purple shading over SE Canada and the NE U.S. is in part due to a visit from the Polar Vortex. Look at the positive temperature anomaly at high latitudes. BY the way, the real polar vortex actually sits higher up in the stratosphere.

[mikeb]

the moon has no climate, and it has not gotten hotter. where did you get this information? there is no historical record of mars's past before the late 70's. we could not tell if it was warming even if we lived there.

[warminator]

Alot of people in Europe find this hard to acknowledge.
We`re expieriencing a severe winter at the moment. Snow & frost continue into March and maybe April. The AO Index is at a very negative sclae, and high pressure blocks are obeserved over Greenland since weeks with a core pressure over 1060hPa. This scenario is worrying and definatly an effect from the polar warming in my view.

[bernercold]

This is well done and insightful. A good deal of research is now coming forward on the potential relationships between Arctic sea ice loss and its effects on mid latitude circulation. (Overland and Wang) and Serreze, M.C., and R.G. Barry. 2011: Processes and impacts of Arctic Amplification: A research synthesis. Global and Planetary Change, 77, 85-96..

[montysanto]

Ms. Shepard. I would have liked to read the notes from the class you mentioned but they require a username and password which I assume are only for students of the course. That said, I am enjoying the links to the readings. Thanks.

[bernercold]

The Arctic anomaly referenced in this video has been prevalent much of this winter (2013) It's pretty extreme right now (March 2013). It is why it's colder in now (March 2013) in central Canada than in the Arctic. No matter what your position is on the subject, what is going on at high latitudes IS pretty amazing. If you are interested in some "neutral" concepts: Some key words to search: "Arctic Oscillation." "Teleconnections" Peace!

[itsmeee]

@SomeLittleShoe You should read the Wikipedia article on Climate Gate as well as the emails themselves. I'd link you but evidently I can't include links in the comment. Anyway after reading those let me know what issues or confusions still remain and I'd be happy to discuss those with you.

[weansardman]

Hey wait a minute. What ever happened to the runaway greenhouse effect?

[altagato]

What do you say to the trend in news lately trying to discredit this with the new information that 'solar cooling' of sunspots and flares is resulting in cooler temperatures and therefore greenhouse gasses isn't havingthe same effect and the potential for global warming on this scale isn't as large?

Likewise where can we find a similar but updated video since this was posted 4 yrs ago?

[itsmeee]

@SomeLittleShoe I would like some proper citation for this claim that global warming science is failing. Without backing your claims with any science I find your argument is lacking merit. If you just read the outline of some of what the UN's climate panel has put together you'll see many references to extreme weather

[itsmeee]

@SomeLittleShoe I'm not sure you understand how weather works. I'd link you to a wikipedia article that covers some of the basics but evidently people are changing all of those articles to fit their needs.

[itsmeee]

@SomeLittleShoe They actually do remark on the subject in a broader sense. They outline a number of extreme events that will become more common, namely dramatically increased precipitation in certain areas and increased heat, along with the natural season you get what Mr Eichorn is talking about. The IPCC reports I've read don't go into the details of the effect global warming will have on my local weather reports nor I assume your local weather reports.

[bernercold]

New Arctic sea ice minimum record this year. Looks like the sea ice melt will well exceed that of the record melt-year in 2007. Still a few weeks of melting to go. This and a moderate El Nino; could be a pretty interesting winter ahead. :)

[bernercold]

The previous comment is partly correct for the Arctic this past winter, but that part of the Arctic was local in extremity & within a normal range of geographical variation. Sea ice maximum last week (3/28/12) was more than two standard deviations below normal. A quality site to use as a primary source of Arctic information: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Another great site from NOAA: The Arctic Report Card. Regarding global temps, the comment below seems a little misguided.

[winterstellar]

Yes, it needs to go somewhere. It's a shame both for those who need the cold up north and for those who certainly don't need it further south. We'll be seeing lots of strange weather in the decades to come, no doubt, but since the planet is heating it will be mostly hot stuff, too hot stuff!: (