By Devin Powell
Global warming may be responsible for the Northern Hemisphere’s recent bout of severe winters. As Arctic sea ice melts, it funnels cold air toward the equator and sets the stage for snow, a new study finds.
“When we have a dramatic reduction in sea ice, we end up with more snow,” says climate scientist Jiping Liu of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and coauthor of the study, published online February 27 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Despite rising global temperatures, extreme winters have blasted much of the Northern Hemisphere during the last decade. Unusually large snowstorms pummeled the United States’ east coast during the winters of 2009 to 2010 and 2010 to 2011. Parts of Japan saw record levels of snow this winter, while in Europe both the Danube and Venice’s canals froze over, a rare sight.