What’s up with all the snow in the Philly region? Climate scientists explain

This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.

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The winter storm dumped roughly 7 inches of snow on the Philadelphia region this weekend — the most measured for the area during a single storm in five years — and temperatures are expected to dip to the single digits Monday night.

This frigid weather makes it easy to forget that winter is the fastest-warming season on the East Coast.

“Global warming has not stopped,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. “You’re always going to see variable weather patterns, and that’s what we’ve got right now.”

Climate change is causing cold snaps to become more rare, said Matt Barlow, a professor of climate science at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

“But that doesn’t mean there are none of them,” Barlow said. “Just because we’re getting fewer of them doesn’t mean that we’re done with winter completely.”