Here come the climate trolls: Why the descending blizzard doesn't disprove global warming
SalonIt is a truth universally acknowledged that, as snow begins to fall on their little corner of the world, Twitter trolls somehow manage to convince themselves that the winter weather says something about the long-term shift in global climate: As always, weather is not climate, and a local snow day -- even what could potentially be "one of the largest snowstorms in the history of" New York City itself -- neither proves nor disproves the very real phenomenon of global climate change. Climate experts explain that we'll probably see less snow overall, and a shorter snow season, as warming advances. As Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer succinctly sums it up: "Shorter snow season, less snow overall, but the occasional knockout punch." Here, via the National Climate Assessment, is how the amount of precipitation falling during the heaviest one percent of precipitation events increased in the Northeast from 1958 to 2012: And it's worth noting, as Mashable's Andrew Freedman does, that, while we have records of major storms going back to the Great Blizzard of 1888, a solid half of New York City's biggest snowstorms have occurred since 2000.
History of this topic
Spring snowpack has shrunk significantly over the last 40 years due to warming
LA Times
Snowfall is changing across the globe, new maps show
CNN
This Winter’s Weird Weather Goes Beyond Climate Change
Slate
The government is back -- and it's debunking Trump’s dumb tweets
Raw Story
A warmer world makes hurricanes wetter and more intense
Associated Press
Studies fault warming in much of 2013 wild weather
Associated Press
Climate contradiction: Less snow, more blizzards
Associated Press
Heavy European Snowfall Caused by 'Weather Collision'
Wired
Get This: Warming Planet Can Mean More Snow
NPRDiscover Related
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