Global Warming Is Not Going To Stop Massive Snowstorms From Forming

According to a new study, global warming won’t stop massive snowstorms from forming, despite the many consequences the climate change has on the Earth. The research published recently in the Geophysical Research Letters journal estimated how global warming would affect the winter snowstorms in a world characterized by increased average global temperatures.

“The idea is we’ll have less total snowstorms in the future, but when you do have a snowstorm, it’s more likely it’ll be an intense snowstorm than a weak one,” explained Colin Zarzycki from the Penn State’s Department of Meteorology and Atmospheric Science, and the study’s leading author.

He analyzed 35 climate models simulations carried out by the National Center for Atmospheric Research to reach that conclusion. All the simulations were based on similar premises about the future climate of the Earth, but each model started from distinct conditions that led to different outcomes.

Global Warming Is Not Going To Stop Massive Snowstorms From Forming

As the new study reported, in the future, if we don’t tackle global warming, the winter snow storms would pour rain instead of snow, but when it would snow, the snow would form in piles even higher than today. Also, due to the warmer oceans around the world, snowstorms would have more fuel and would hit us as frequently as they do nowadays.

“The study points out the obvious, that as things warm, we are more apt to get rain rather than snow. But it also points out we can still get big snows. The oceans are warming and thus can readily supply plenty of moisture. Even in a warmer world, though, we still have winter, and it gets cold over land and to the North,” said Kevin Trenberth, an NCAR climate scientist.

“This looks at the big picture of snowfall, but some next-generation climate models might allow us to drill down on what this means for New York City or Philly,” Colin Zarzycki added.