Texas cold crisis early this year linked to melting Arctic sea ice

Environment 2 September 2021

By Adam Vaughan

Map showing the utmost acold associated with the Arctic aerial mass, with the darkest bluish regions indicating aboveground temperatures of -35°C

Goddard Earth Observing System/NASA

The utmost acold drawback that near millions of radical successful Texas without powerfulness past wintertime appears to person been made much apt by melting Arctic oversea crystal thousands of kilometres away, probe suggests.

For the past decade, evidence has been building successful enactment of the counterintuitive thought that immoderate of the caller acold wintertime spells astatine mid-latitudes successful North America and Eurasia are linked to the Arctic warming faster than the remainder of the satellite owed to clime change.

That nexus inactive isn’t afloat established. However, a radical led by Judah Cohen astatine the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recovered that vanishing oversea crystal and greater snowfall successful the Arctic implicit the past 40 years, effects caused by clime change, whitethorn beryllium driving acold wintertime upwind successful North America and Eurasia via the stratospheric polar vortex, the acold winds precocious supra the pole. The accelerated warming successful the Arctic appears to beryllium disrupting – that is, stretching – this vortex successful a mode that has a knock-on effect connected atmospheric circulations supra North America, generating unusually acold spells successful winter.

“If you expected planetary warming to assistance you retired with preparing for terrible wintertime weather, our insubstantial says the cautionary communicative is: don’t needfully expect clime alteration to lick that occupation for you,” says Cohen. “This is an unexpected interaction from clime alteration that we didn’t admit 20 years ago.”

The researchers arrived astatine their findings utilizing modelling of Arctic snowfall and oversea ice, arsenic good arsenic observations snowfall and oversea crystal from October 1980 to February 2021. They besides utilized information connected the polar vortex and somesthesia information for North America. Cohen and his colleagues accidental their investigation suggests that the cold that deed Texas successful February was apt a effect to disruption successful the stratospheric polar vortex successful the aforesaid month. “I deliberation it made it much likely,” helium says.

Jennifer Francis astatine the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution successful Falmouth, Massachusetts, says: “By analysing some observations and exemplary simulations, the conclusions are good supported and assistance explicate however utmost acold spells similar the debilitating 1 successful Texas this past February are inactive apt – and possibly much truthful – arsenic the clime situation unfolds.”

Journal reference: Science, DOI: 10.1126/science.abi9167

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More connected these topics:

• clime change
• arctic oversea ice
• northbound america
• texas
• acold weather