Should the human race be concerned when the Behring Strait is warmer than Nashville, Tennessee? While climate change deniers talk themselves blue in the face about how global warming is a hoax given how cold it is in America, columnist Patrik Etschmayer of Switzerland’s News writes that global warming isn’t the issue at hand, but increasingly dangerous and unpredictable weather patterns that bring both cold and heat, and floods and drought, to places that almost never saw such weather events before.
For Switzerland’s News, Patrik Etschmayer starts off this way:
The U.S. is being taken over by the North Pole. Or at least, by the air that usually sits up there and is responsible for the proverbial polar climate. Meanwhile, in the Arctic Circle, the odd polar bear might be wondering why his winter den is melting.
Bethel, Alaska is located at nearly 61 degrees north latitude and usually enjoys average daily temperature of 12.3º Fahrenheit [-10.9º Celsius]. For the last few days, however, overnight temperatures there have been above freezing, with the mercury not likely to fall below freezing [32º F or 0º C] until tomorrow. Other parts of Alaska are still frozen, but it’s pretty strange when the Behring Strait in winter is 10 degrees warmer than Nashville Tennessee, where prevailing temperatures are a frosty 3.2º F [-16º C].
Anyone who has ever been on the road in American South and has seen the homes – frequently trailers, and is familiar with their insulation, would be immediately concerned about the people there now trying to bring their dwellings up to livable temperatures. The air conditioners that are absolutely essential in the summer provide no relief now, and the danger that storms could bring down local aboveground power lines, therefore eliminating the only available option for heat, is more than an abstract nightmare scenario.
An exchange of Arctic and temperate air masses in winter is actually normal – only on a much smaller scale. Normally, smaller systems shift in a southeasterly direction from the circling mass of air over the Arctic (the polar vortex), bringing winter weather to America and Europe. This time, however, the smaller systems were blocked in their push eastward (in our direction, that is) by a stable high-pressure system over Greenland and northeastern Canada. Add to that, the fact that the Arctic vortex of cold air has become more and more unstable over recent years. Apparently, what we are currently seeing fits perfectly with the “Arctic Paradox,” which leads to a warmer Arctic and colder winters on the continents.
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