As I predicted, climate change has been blamed for the recent New England blizzard (e.g. from Bloomberg here). During that storm, Boston tied its 24-hr snowfall record at 23.6 inches.
Yet, as recently as January 6, we were told by USAToday that Boston’s lengthy 316-day streak *without* one inch of snowfall as of January 1st was caused by global warming.
So, which is it? Does global warming cause less snow or more snow?
When science produces contradictory claims, is it really science?
What’s coming up next is a snow and ice storm that will stretch all the way from the southern Rockies to northern New England. Here are NAM model forecast totals of snow, ice pellets, and freezing rain (respectively) from Tuesday evening through Thursday evening. All of the forecast models I follow (ECMWF, GFS, NAM, and Canadian) are in general agreement, with some variation in the north-south positioning:
Not shown is the westward extension of this into NW Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Also not shown is the eastward spreading of this mess into northern New England through Friday.
If anything like this forecast verifies, it’s going to cause huge disruptions.
This piece originally appeared at DrRoySpencer.com and has been republished here with permission.
Jeff Green says
For 1*C of earth’s average temperature increase there is 7% increase in humidity. With 93% of the global warming going into the oceans this is an easy connection to be able to see. The argo buoys have noticed the increased temperature in the oceans. The more energetic molecules leave the ocean’s surface and carry themselves across the continents of the world. More water vapor, more energy for the storms, more snow for the snow storms.