Snow -- Could this be global warming?
It may well be, says a Drexel University biology professor.
Snow -- Could this be global warming?
Intuitively, the atmosphere over Philadelphia appears to making an argument against global warming. Quite the contrary, counters Jim Spotila, a biology professor at Drexel University.
While he stops short of saying the two mega-storms this season represent smoking ice cubes, increased storm intensity is "consistent" with higher worldwide temperatures. Increased greenhouse gases would mean more water vapor to fuel storms, something he attributes to "simple physics."
The people who forecast the weather are more reluctant to bring global warming into the discussion; they have enough problems with tomorrow's weather.
Wes Junker, a former chief forecaster at National Weather Service headquarters and an expert in precipitation, cautioned that it one cannot draw conclusions from what happens in one season on one dot of the planet.
A few other cautionary notes:
The folks in snow-starved New York and southern New England are not complaining about increased storminess. (Although they might be by Wednesday.)
The mega-snowstorms this season have been extreme and unprecedented around here, and the region has never had two giant snowfalls within four days, as the forecasts are suggesting.
However, other winters have had a special pick on certain parts of the country. The winter of 1977-78, for example, hammered Boston; and two winters later, Norfolk, Va., got its turn.
Speaking of January 1978, the region had three substantial snowfall from the 13th to the 20th and two months' worth of precipitation in that week.
All that duly noted, Spotila says that at the very least the heightened storminess is "consistent" with what would be expected from a warming world.
"That's the key," he said.
Comments (35)
Obama blamed the Washington snow on Global Warming, so it must be true! http://www.climatejournal.org/— climatejournal.org
when did every F^^^^NG discussion in america become the conservatives verses the liberals? It's like people suddenly took notice of politics and used what they learned from watching sports and applied their knowledge. I dont anyone clearly is a devout of either.— selophane43- Absolutely global warming is a scam. In the 1960s it was the coming ice age. Now it's global warming. Nature goes in cycles of thousands or millions of years. It's all to line their pockets with money. It's a theory, not fact. Actually a scam by politicians and scientists to get grants and more and more of our money for nonsense. Stay safe.— mas215
- mwm-- Sorry, you can't have a "science-denying" threat until y'all bring some science. "Science-denying" means denial *of* science. All I'm denying is that you have any. The whole liberal "you must be dumb if you don't agree with me" line is getting just as threadbare as the "everything is Bush's fault" strategy. "Global warming" was just a quaintly looney theory until the Soros "civil society" quangocracy crowd latched onto it as an excuse to rape anybody who wasn't "a third -world country, the most vulnerable" and take a hefty slice of the profits as the money went by.— MaggieL
- that should have been comment not comet sorry— jr23
- why a comet from a biology teacher and not a meteorologist???? if you looked at the "scientists" that signed the original letter of gw most were unrelated specialty's and HS teachers with unrelated degrees— jr23
- If there's no such thing as global warming, how is it that they are sailing cargo ships in open waters that never were open before? I love the way that you look out your window and see what's 10 feet in front of you, and ignore the rest of the world!
- We really need to help this global warming cause because, I'm sick of this cold weather. Lets heat this planet up and rid it of all its cold places!— Jborg10
- "Quite the contrary, counters Jim Spotila, a biology professor " Why would a biology professor be your lead quote on an article discussing atmospheric science. With all due respect to Mr. Spotila, this is akin to asking a dentist to offer his professional opinion on whether a patient should have heart surgery.— UCityGardener
- All I know is that I would rather have my kids deal with "Global Warming" than another Ice Age.— charladan
- I think the dramatically increasing stupidity level among philly.com comments is proof of global Foxing. Yikes!— jpb
- On one side we have Al Gore, on the other we have Exxon-Mobil and trillion dollar business interests. So of course it must be Gore who is evil, you know, being a Democrat and all. We should agree with Exxon and its buddies science with no questions asked. How dumb are right wingers?— JonKap
- teksys, your post was so stupid its easy to see who the real dope is. Some countries and companies will get very rich off of alternative energy, the ball is already rolling and will not stop. Republicans like you have insured the money will go elsewhere. Your hatred for Obama just continues to harm America. Great job dimbo.— JonKap
- amc312, you remind me of one of those Boston know-it alls wearing a bow-tie and telling us what is good for us. As a kid in the 1960's, I remember huge storms, and that was before SUV's and China. All you know it alls stop and leave us alone!!— chak06880
Man-made global warming is a religion, not science. Anyone with common sense knows this. Ice ages and warming periods come and go. But blaming it on man can make you rich and powerful.— Mr. Underhill- GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What DOESN'T prove global warming these days?— tjm333126
- It comes down to this. Big business has lots of reasons to deny global warming, but what exactly do the world's scientists have to gain from promoting fears of global warming? Did they all just come up with this big conspiracy because they don't like heating, air conditioning and transportation?— dartvader
- Very entertaining how the pro-global warming crowd chooses to ignore any data that contradicts their crackpot theory, yet accuses those who rely on long-term climate data as "science denying." The truth is, it is global warming skeptics who have been relying on scientific data, and global warming proponents who have been relying on "theory" (you know, stuff like, well if the earth gets warmer, theoretically it could cause extreme cold and lots of snow. Really, it could.) BTW, amc312, you are aware there are hundreds of scientists who actually study climatology and meteorology for a living who disagree with you, right? Typical of someone on your side though to drag politics (i.e. Sarah Palin, who I am not a big fan of) into a supposedly scientific debate. Just shows this global warming concept is driven by politics, not science. Thanks for proving that point.— realisticobserver
Comment removed.- @mwm, I understand that there is a warming trend these past few decades, and I understand that it's part of a cyclical trend of global warming and cooling that goes on (and not a graph looking like a hockey stick). I doubt that most, or all, of the warming trend can be explained solely by human causes, especially considering phenomena that we barely understand, like Pacific and Atlantic decadal oscillations. How does this equal denying science?— bryancti
- Like our great leader said in the state of union, it doesn't matter whether you believe in global warming or not. Flipping our economy upside down, forward and backward in the methods we produce and use energy in this country is a good thing. What a dope we have in a president. Geez!— teksys
- i suspect this story was posted solely to provoke a hilarious science-denying comment thread. it has succeeded.— mwm
- I barely made it out of High Schools and therefore I know thems scientists be lyin. Fox News told me that the liberals would try an make me feel the stupid and use the science on me with them Globals Warning. Next they says earth go round moon and ocean not have mermainds.— Economics
- And the Donner Party screamed global warming (or should it be climate change) the winter of 1846. Imagine, if no global warming (due to the covered wagons), they would have made it over the Sierra's.— teksys
- Comment removed.
The link between Carbon emissions and global warming has been discredited. I would like to see the science that still claims to support the "hockey stick" graph scenario, which was what was behind the mentality that there was no further time to research or discuss the issue.- The earth is 4 billion years old. Any person, scientist or not, who thinks the temperature patterns of the last 200 years really mean anything is a complete idiot. 200 years is like a nanosecond in the history of the earth. The hubris of people who believe humankind is the cause of a fluctuation of a degree here and there is ridiculous. Do these fools know that 10,000 years ago (again a blip on the radar screen) that most of North America was under a sheet of ice? Was that caused by man too? Must have been all that flint put into the air after man made all of those stone hammers. Right.— Grill
- There were a couple of good points in this article. Remember that a warming trend is just that, a trend. That means that more often than not, the average temps across the planet increase. It does not mean that they go up every year, without exception. Data from every (yes, every) weather station across the globe has shown that temperatures are trending up. Also, remember that just because it is colder and snowier in one location does not mean that it is like that everywhere. Get out of the bubble, Philly. In the Rocky Mountain west, temperatures have been well above normal, with much lower snowfall amounts than average. The writer aptly points out upstate NY and New England as being two areas that are seeing less snow than usual. One season does not a trend make.
- AGW is so discredited it's not even worth discussing anymore. Spotila's comment discredits it further. Only diehard ideologues believe it has any merit. It takes extraordinary faith to believe in something that all evidence contradicts and which is proven to be fabricated. That aside, this upcoming storm will likely be the nastiest so far this winter as temperatures fall into the teens and winds pick up to 40-50 mph.— tonygiar
- Realisticobserver you are right on. Previous to this year, we haven't had a significant snow storm in years and that was due to global warming. Now we have a series of prolific storms and that is global warming too. No matter what weather oddity occurs, it must be global warming right? Could you imagine if a dust bowl occured these days? We'd all be forced to ride bikes to work, throw out all of our electrical appliances and perhaps stop exhaling outdoors for fear of cruelty to the earth. Somehow the earth overcame that and I have a feeling we will overcome this too - whatever it is we are supposed to be overcoming.— guyguy4
- realisticobserver, there's actually an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence that our current warming trend goes far beyond the natural cycles of warming and cooling that have historically occurred. Even the oil companies (begrudgingly) acknowledge that now. To not accept that scientific consensus could mean one of only two things: either you're being willfully ignorant, or you are former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (and I do realize the two are not mutually exclusive).— amc312
- The "GLOBAL WARMING SCAM" has been exposed- can we all agree it is a joke now? I know the Liberals loved it and Al Gore plays a Scientist on TV- buT come on! ...If there was Global Warming the scientists would not have had to falsify data and flat out lie- while silencing critics- it's illogical- but Liberals do lack the "LOGIC GENE".— Manny Trillo
- Jim Spotila, you take your facts and science and get right out of town. Philly.com is no place for such notions.— Cromulents
- STOP IT!! Please. Sheesh. It's warmer than normal? Must be global warming. It's colder than normal? Must be global warming. More snow? Yep, global warming. These people just can't give up. There is NO long-term scientific evidence that ANY current climate pattern or trend is anything more than a typical climatological cycle. The earth periodically warms, it periodically cools. We have mild winters and we have snowy winters. Stop it with the "climate change" nonsense.— realisticobserver
Everyone knows that snowmen cause global warming!— verve
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Tony Wood has been writing about the atmosphere for The Inquirer for 26 years.
For Inquirer.com. Portions of this blog may also be found in the Inquirer's Sunday Health Section
Reach Anthony at twood@phillynews.com.
Anthony Wood
Inquirer Weather Columnist
For Inquirer.com. Portions of this blog may also be found in the Inquirer's Sunday Health Section
Reach Anthony at twood@phillynews.com.
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