#Big weather fluctuations in the past plus

More than a hundred people died, and the storms caused an estimated $295 billion in damage. They felt able to say with confidence that the Earth would warm by about 3C in the next century, plus or minus 50 (that is, we would see warming between 1. In 2021, record-breaking snowstorms knocked out power for nearly 4.5 million homes in Texas as icy conditions and heating demands overwhelmed much of the region’s power supply. The last of these ice age glaciations peaked around 20,000 years ago. Droughts are becoming longer and more extreme around the. Earth has experienced cold periods (informally referred to as ice ages, or 'glacials') and warm periods (interglacials) on roughly 100,000-year cycles for at least the last 1 million years. When those bands break down, icy air can escape south in the form of freezing winters. Temperatures are rising world-wide due to greenhouse gases trapping more heat in the atmosphere. The polar vortex refers to bands of wind and low air pressure near the North Pole, which normally lock cold air over Arctic. As the warming atmosphere traps water vapor later and later into the year, that precipitation leads to heavier snowfall when the temperatures do drop.Īnother factor is the rapidly warming Arctic, which some scientists believe is weakening the jet stream and causing disruptions of the polar vortex. While it may seem contradictory, climate change may be contributing to more extreme winter weather. Overall, winters are getting milder and shorter but recent winters have brought intense snowstorms and record-breaking frost.Īs a result, average global sea level has increased eight inches in the last 150 years. Experts are warning that widespread drought across the West will fuel another dangerous fire season in 2021.Įven as climate change raises average global temperatures, that doesn’t spell the end of winters. Oregon, Washington, and Colorado have also seen explosive fires that have forced thousands to evacuate, claimed lives, and destroyed homes and businesses. The Camp Fire in 2018 - California’s most destructive, and deadliest, wildfire in history - destroyed an average of one football field worth of land every three seconds and killed 68 people, according to CAL FIRE.Īnd it’s not just California. The five largest fires on record in California have occurred in the last three years. With record dry, hot conditions across the state, seasonal high winds (known as Diablo in Northern California and Santa Ana in the southern part of the state) caused destructive wildfires to grow and spread at an unprecedented rate.Ĭalifornia wildfires burned more than 4 million acres in 2020 - an area larger than Connecticut - making 2020 the biggest fire season in state history. 5 These greenhouse gas emissions have increased the greenhouse effect and caused the earth’s surface temperature to rise. In recent years, California has become ground zero for meteorological turmoil. Carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide concentrations are now more abundant in the earth’s atmosphere than any time in the last 800,000 years. However, as this region grows hotter and drier, wildfires are growing in size, ferocity, and speed. Wildfires have always been a natural part of life in the western United States.

Big weather fluctuations in the past