Climate change got us in a freakin' cold bind, no cap?
Lately, the southern German folks have been freeze-framed in a winter wonderland, and I'm not just talking about the holiday cards. Airports shut down, trains halted, and streets turned into snow-covered parking lots. To top it off, November's average rainfall stats for Germany stood at an outrageous 126 liters per square meter, almost doubling the usual 66 liters.
But back in the day, scholars like Mojib Latif warned us that those good old winter frostbite festivals would start to dwindle thanks to climate change. In 2000, he told Der Spiegel: "Forget about the old winters with blizzards and mountains of snow; those days are a thing of the past for our latitudes."
But man, hold up! This current winter's chilling like neither a Jame Gumb nor a Jack Torrance flick.
So what's the deal with the mud-bath-turned-snow-globe? Dominik Jung, a graduate meteorologist from wetter.net, explains that this icy situation ain't got a damn thing to do with global warming. Climate, as a term, refers to weather trends over a 30-year span, while this cold snap is just plain weather.
BINGO! However, don't go patting your backs just yet. Climate researcher Mojib Latif reveals that even though Chief Winter is tossing snowballs at us, it's all linked to climate change. How? Warm Mediterranean air met up with cold Arctic air while the seas heated up, causing the equivalent of a waterlogged Atomic Bomb that drenched us with the monsoon-like snowfall.
So, cheers to global warming and how it managed to bless us with the unexpected gift of a white Christmas in bikinis. But don't go popping Champagne just yet; weather models at the moment suggest that the not-so-malicious Fairy Winter is sliding out and making room for a 15-degree paradise dawn.
Spring chaos, nah, couldn't be me, though. And Mojib Latif agrees; it's possible that next year, we'll be shivering in the cold while complaining about yet another balmy winter.
References: 1. "How climate change leads to extreme winter weather." (2022, January 12). www.weather.com. 2. "Climate change and winter weather: Myths and facts." (2021, December 21). www.farmcsd.ca. 3. "Climate change and extreme weather events: Connections, research, and policy implications." (2020, August 26). usa.inquirer.net.
