 |
| Yes, it's cold this week in eastern North America (blue shading) But it's warm in much of the rest of the world (orange). Donald Trunp would have you scoff that the northeastern U.S. cold disproves climate change. Don't believe it He's either dumb, lying or gaslighting. |
Last night he said on Twitter: "Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS - Whatever happened to Global Warming?"
I'm not sure why Trump is obsessed with improperly placed capital letters but I'll leave the argument for another day, or just call the grammar police.
He's done this kind of false climate tweet before but it still irks me.
For the record: Yes, anybody who steps outside this morning and the rest of today anywhere in the Northeast knows it's friggin' cold outside. Awful. Some record low temperatures for the date will be set, if they haven't been set already.
I'm in Rutland, Vermont this morning and the temperature as I write this is 1 below zero. Being originally from Rutland, I don't remember the last time it was below zero this early in the season.
So yes, it's quite a cold wave. But no. ALL RECORDS, as Trump put it, won't be shattered. There have certainly been worse cold spells than today's. This is not an extended "Cold Blast." It started yesterday evening and will be over with by Friday night. That's a pretty brief cold spell, all things considered.
Most importantly, and we have to say this over and over again: A cold spell in one corner of the world tells us absolutely nothing about global warming, one way or another. I think even the most ardent ciimate change skeptics would tell you that. So would so-called climate change alarmists.
The immediate cause of this cold snap is a well placed, sharp southward dip in the jet stream. Most often, cold waves come down from Canada across the northern Great Plains then move eastward. The air warms up a little bit by the time it gets to the Northeast. That means places like here in Vermont get cold, but not unreasonably so.
This time, the jet stream aligned so that we got a straight shot of Arctic air coming down from near the North Pole, then across snow- covered Quebec and Ontario and down on us. There wasn't really time for the air to modify on its trip south.
The air had even less time to get warmer than it otherwise would because strong winds between high pressure in Ontario and western Quebec and low pressure in eastern Quebec propelled the bitter air quickly down on New England.
As for why the jet stream and other weather systems aligned themselves this way to give us this cold shot, who knows? I suppose one could make an argument that climate change is making the jet stream screwy, creating extreme weather events like this cold wave. But I have no way of knowing that.
Likely, this cold wave is just a random, chance event. A fluke. Climate change doesn't cancel out a lot of the natural variability of weather. Remember, weather is akin to a person's mood. Climate is like a guy or gal's personality.
A mood, and weather is transitory. Climate, and personality are a long term thing.
If this cold wave is a sign that there's an absense of global warming, as Trump suggests, how do you explain the record heat that gripped the Northeast this past July? Again, a heat wave in one corner of the world does not tell you much about climate change.
But by Trump's logic, there must have been intense global warming last summer, but a new ice age now in November. See? He's making absolutely no sense.
By the way, as we shiver here in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada, much of the world is pretty warm this week. As the map above in this post shows, forecasts for the current week we're in does show some pretty cold air over the eastern half of Canada and the northeastern United States.
It also shows it to be vaguely chilly in central South America and in a few areas of Europe. But look at all the orange, which signifies above normal temperatures. The majority of places are quite warm, including western North America, most of Africa and Asia, Antarctica and the Arctic, particularly Greenland.
One week in one year of the world's weather doesn't prove or disprove climate change either. But at least by taking the whole globe into account, it shows that what happens in the Northeastern United States doesn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.
I suspect Trump knows all this. He's gaslighting us again, because that's what he does. He sows doubt and division and makes us question reality by inventing "alternative realities"
We really just need to keep relying on the experts and let them inform us. Question the experts, yes. Challenge them. Ask for evidence. Don't take them at their word. But if there's a convincing argument, like there is from the scientists on climate change, we need to pay attention.
The world might depend on it. Meanwhile, somebody really needs to hide Donald Trump's phone.
No comments:
Post a Comment