No, Winter Storms Do Not Disprove the Science of Global Warming.

Posted By Levi

January 27th, 2015 2:10pm

Category: Global Warming

Whenever you have a snow storm such as the one today, there are those who question whether global warming is real. Some do so sincerely because they don’t understand the science. Here is a basic explanation. However, there are the denialists – those who outright reject the very idea that human activities are altering the global climate in ways that are having serious consequences for the world.

Yes, it is true that you cannot pin any particular weather event, such as today’s storm,  on climate change. However, these events fit the pattern scientists believe is likely to happen as the earth’s climate gets warmer. The World Meteorological Organization now says 2014 was the hottest year on record since 1880 as shown in this chart.

global temperatures

For denialists, science and data are inconvenient facts.  Here is the classic example.

donald trump

One of the mistakes Trump and others make is that they confuse weather with climate.

Weather is the conditions that exist in the atmosphere from day-to-day. It fluctuates and it is not the same everywhere. A very cold day or a very hot day doesn’t tell you much about the climate for a particular place. You can’t determine global warming by looking at the weather for a particular day or week.

Climate is the average weather pattern over many years. It is long-term.

Global warming refers to the average temperature of the earth. It refers not only to the United States but the entire planet. Keep in mind that the United States is less than 2 percent of the Earth’s surface.

Because global warming refers to the entire world, some parts of the earth will be hot while other parts cold simultaneously. In other words, while one part of the earth is experiencing winter and cold weather, other parts have very hot weather.

This is exactly what is happening now. Yes, the United States is freezing but at the same time other parts of the world is experiencing scorching temperatures.

There is no contradiction between heavy snow storms and global warming. As the earth’s temperature warms up more and more moisture is absorbed into the atmosphere. This results in the storms becoming stronger and more violent. .

This cartoon explains how it works.

global warming cartoon

Twitter: @Levianthony123

Leave a Reply