As I sit here watching the snow coverage, it becomes clear to me these recent snowstorms are evidence of global warming.This is the worst snowstorm that I have ever seen in my life.It looks like 63% of the country (USA) is blanketed with snow (DC,Philadelphia,New York). The rest is getting either too much rain, mudslides, flooding or nothing at all.Who can forget last year’s floods in the Phillipines and Tanzania, the unexpected earthquakes in Haiti and last night’s earthquake in Illinois and yet some places like Vancouver, the Canadian city still has not seen any snow, and it is the host city for the Winter 2010 Olympics.
Have we been warned? Is it global warming? Looks like there have been hints that it was coming. The 2009 U.S. Climate Impacts Report found that large-scale cold-weather storm systems have gradually tracked to the north in the U.S. over the past 50 years. While the frequency of storms in the middle latitudes has decreased as the climate has warmed, the intensity of those storms has increased.That’s in part because of global warming – hotter air can hold more moisture, so when a storm gathers it can unleash massive amounts of snow.Climate models also suggest that while global warming may not make hurricanes more common, it could well intensify the storms that do occur and make them more destructive.
The nor’easter began blanketing the Washington area overnight and strengthened as it continued to move northward through Baltimore, southeast Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York, where 10 to 17 inches could fall by evening. The National Weather Service issued blizzard warnings across the region, warning that wind gusts exceeding 45 mph could prompt dangerous whiteout conditions later in the day and snow drifts of up to 4 feet.
