Scientists: Global Warming could be Cause of Weird weather

A spat of unseasonal weather has hit the Northern Hemisphere, and some scientists think the answer may lie in the melting polar ice caps

The past two months, the United States and Europe have experienced two wildly different examples of what some people are calling “weather weirding.”

Earlier this month in U.S. a heat wave peaked across the nation only to be suddenly ended by a cold snap in the Northern states.

By contrast, much of Europe is just getting over a deadly bout of cold weather and is being met with a bizarre, out of the blue heat wave.

The Search For Answers

Some scientists are pointing to a usual suspect as the source of all this strange weather: global warming.

Scientists claim that the drastic decline of sea ice in the Arctic could be responsible for the recent wacky weather patterns. They say that more ice melting means that more energy and water vapor are entering the atmosphere, and that this affects weather systems.

“The question really is not whether the loss of the sea ice can be affecting the atmospheric circulation on a large scale,” says Jennifer A. Francis, a climate researcher from Rutgers University. “The question is, how can it not be, and what are the mechanisms?”

A report released Wednesday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change supports the global warming theory, stating “A changing climate leads to changes in frequency, intensity, special extent, duration and timing of extreme weather and climate events, and can result in unprecedented extreme weather and climate events.”

Anomalies and Enigmas

Global warming or not, the recent weather patterns have been setting records that show our world is heating up.

According to U.S. government scientists February was the 324^th consecutive month in which global temperatures exceeded their long-term averages. In a similar vein, Climate Central, a New Jersey based research group, found that the U.S. set 17 new daily highs for every daily low.

While it’s pretty easy for scientists to argue that global warming causes temperature increases, more extreme weather phenomena can be harder to explain. There aren’t many statistics that show an increase in tornadoes, and there’s little evidence to suggest that human’s had anything to do with the 2010 Russia heat wave.

Still, even scientists who don’t buy the global warming explanation, like Martin P. Hoerling have been forced to concede, “It’s been a stunning March.”