Climate change may have effected cold spurt

Residents of Wisconsin have felt some of the most drastically cold temperatures in recent history these past few weeks, with Jan. 22-25 hailing plummeting numbers which hadn’t been reached in nearly a decade. 

Temperatures reached as low as 29 degrees below zero with the windchill, and hospital visits spiked due to cold related ailments, demonstrating the severity of this aptly named “arctic blast.” 

Scientists around the nation, including professors at UW-Oshkosh, argued that a speculative link has been drawn between the patterns in polar vortexes that cause these extreme weather events and the effects of an unstable climate. 

UWO Biology and Environmental Studies professor Shannon Davis-Foust said that while there are many compounding factors that lead to cold snaps in certain regions, the weakening of the polar vortex could be the reason for the Midwest’s recent cold snap.

“The hypothesis is that, because the Arctic is warming faster than other regions, it destabilizes the polar vortex, which normally traps cold air in the Arctic,” Davis-Foust said. “This weakening of the polar vortex causes a ‘wobble’ in the cold, Arctic air over the North Pole. Note that Siberia experienced a major warming in January while much of North America was experiencing cold snaps.” 

UWO geology professor Timothy Paulsen said that it is important to remember that the climate does not equate to weather.

“Weather refers to short-term conditions,” Paulsen said. “Climate is the long-term average of weather conditions over many years. Many people believe that a cold snap like the recent chill we experienced means that global warming does not hold true, but this is not the case. This being said, climate change can lead to changes in weather patterns (storm intensities, number of cold days or heat waves, etc.) because of a number of different factors.” 

Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior research associate for climate science at Climate Central, said pacific waters south of the Baja California Peninsula were running 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit above average for late January — unusual warmth that’s been made 50 times more likely by carbon pollution.

The Gulf of Mexico is also abnormally warm, up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal conditions, made 10 to 30 times more likely by climate change. A warmer atmosphere is a thirstier atmosphere, capable of holding more moisture, and warmer oceans fuel greater evaporation, loading winter storms with additional moisture.

When that moisture falls into Arctic air, precipitation totals can increase — whether it falls as rain, sleet, or snow.

“Judging climate change by a cold storm is like judging a baseball season by a single inning,” Trudeau said. “But, climate change had a tangible impact on this storm.”