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Arctic melting disrupts 'temperate' climates

Tim Radford

22nd December 2013


The link, the scientists say, could be changes in atmospheric circulation triggered by the loss of snow cover.

The shrinking Arctic sea ice - a loss of 8% per decade during the last 30 years - isn't just bad news for polar bears. It could be bad news for citizens of Europe and the United States who like to think they live in a temperate zone.


Recent years have been marked by devastating extremes of heat in Russia, Europe and the US, and by unprecedented floods in the UK and in East Asia. Over the same period, snow cover and sea ice in the Arctic have been in retreat.


There are perfectly good reasons to expect some impact on weather systems from a retreat of the snow line. In the first place, snow and ice are white - that is, they reflect sunlight, and its warmth - while ocean and forest and tundra are dark, and absorb heat.

Closer link established






Hotter future


That could be because much of the northern hemisphere snow cover is over land which is forested anyway - that is, partly dark - whereas the Arctic sea can only be white or dark.

The link is not certain - they are putting the idea out there for others to challenge or confirm, which is the way science advances - but the three authors argue that their research builds on studies by others which spell out the same conclusion.

And they don't see things getting better, either for polar bears who need the sea ice to hunt, or for farmers in the great plains of the US or city dwellers on floodplains and river estuaries in the temperate world.




Tim Radford writes for Climate News Network.



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