Huffington Post - James Warner
Here are some of this year’s most extreme weather events caused, in part, by climate change.
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| Large chunks of ice melt in the sun near the Hornkees glacier in Austria on Aug. 26. Sean Gallup via Getty Images |
EXETER, England ― This past
year was full of weather extremes across the world, and the Earth
entered new territory in terms of climate change and weather patterns.
And 2016 is about to be
crowned
the warmest year since records began. Anthropogenic climate change
continues to warm the planet year after year, and scientists and
meteorologists have repeatedly
expressed concern that this will cause the number of extreme weather events to increase.
Of course, there have always been extreme weather events. But the
probability of these extremes is higher now, due to climate change. And
the frequency, intensity, timing or duration of these events is having a
bigger impact on society. Some of the fastest-changing parts of the
planet, such as the Arctic, are highly likely to endure increased warm
extremes due to climate change, and as more ice melts, more sunlight
gets absorbed, amplifying the changes.
Here, in a series of data visualizations and images, are some of this year’s wildest weather events.
1. Hurricane Alex, the strongest January hurricane on record
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| Hurricane Alex passes over the Azores on Jan. 15. NASA/NOAA/Jeff Schmaltz |
Hurricane Alex was the first
hurricane to form in the Atlantic since Hurricane Alice in 1955, and it
became the strongest January hurricane on record, with winds
reaching
an estimated 85 mph. The North Atlantic hurricane season typically
starts around early June and ends in November, so it was unusual for a
hurricane to form so late out of season.
Hurricanes are confined to
this season because they require warm sea surface temperatures to form.
Questions around whether this event can be attributed to climate change
or if it was influenced by other components of the climate system, such
as the recent El Nino, still need to be fully investigated. It was most
likely a combination of factors. As Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the
U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,
told Popular Science, “It’s extremely unusual but not unprecedented.”
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| Hurricane Alex visualized using precipitable water (a measure of the total amount of water in the atmospheric column) to the west of North Africa. (Data: Climate Forecast System Reanalysis) via GIPHY |
2. The blizzard that slammed the U.S. East Coast in January
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| This image from NASA’s Aqua satellite shows post-storm snow on the ground across the eastern U.S. on Jan. 24. NASA Goddard MODIS Rapid Response |
Back in January, a major
blizzard
affected the U.S. Northeast, bringing almost three feet of snow in some
places. Strong winds accompanying it caused more problems ―
approximately 103 million people and 13,000 flights were affected. It
was ranked as a Category 5 extreme weather event in the Northeast, with
estimated losses of up to $3 billion.
The storm system, which initially formed over Texas, also led to severe thunderstorms and produced
tornados.
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| Precipitation accumulation (liquid equivalent) from Jan. 21-23. (Data: CFSR) via GIPHY |
3. Record heat in India and the Middle East
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| In the sweltering heat in Bundelkhand, a region in central India, a man and his wife remove silt from the bottom of a dried-out pond. Vivek Singh for the WorldPost |
May saw yet more records broken around the globe. In India, temperatures
reached
an incredible 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit) in Rajasthan,
breaking the previous record high. Severe drought followed the extreme
heat ― at least 330 million people were without sufficient water.
The heat and drought compounded the misery for many people, especially in
rural parts of the country,
who were already dealing with several years of below-average monsoons,
which are becoming more erratic because of climate change.
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| Temperature at two meters above the Earth’s surface from May 18-22, over the Middle East, Africa and India. (Data: CFSR) via GIPHY |
4. Antarctic ice reaching significant lows
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| A frozen section of the Ross Sea at the Scott Base in Antarctica on Nov. 12. MARK RALSTON via Getty Images |
Antarctic sea ice this year took a sharp deviation from its usual yearly cycle,
dropping below
its usual range for over 60 days. The gray area in the graphic below
represents the typical year-to-year variability of Antarctica’s ice
extent. For ice extent to be outside this region is unusual.
For much of the year in the
Antarctic, unlike in the Arctic, ice has been near average. So this
sudden change has prompted attention from the scientific community. It
is particularly noteworthy given recent years of
record high sea ice around the Antarctic.
5. Soaring temperatures in the Arctic
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| The Blomstrand glacier in Ny-Alesund, Norway, on June 16. AFP via Getty Images |
While the Antarctic was
undergoing unusually low ice during the last quarter of 2016, up in the
north, temperatures were soaring up to 30 degrees Celsius above seasonal
average.
With record low sea ice
already, persistent heat over November and December further prevented
sea ice from recovering to usual levels. Even though the Arctic has seen
its sea ice extent decreasing over the last decade, it is the
first time in history that both Arctic and Antarctic ice are at record lows.
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| Two-meter surface temperature anomaly (the difference from normal
temperature) over the Arctic. (Data: Global Forecast System, CFSR) via GIPHY |
6. Extreme cold in Siberia
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| A food vendor sits beside a basket of frozen fish in the Krestyansky open air market in Yakutsk, Russia, on Feb. 17. Bloomberg via Getty Images |
Extreme cold was also record-breaking this year, such as in Siberia over the past month. Temperatures
plummeted to minus-50 degrees Celsius, with some areas falling to minus-60 degrees Celsius.
While temperatures are typically well below-freezing at this time of year, such severe cold is unusual and may be
tied to earlier-than-usual snowfall over the region.
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| Two-meter temperature anomaly. (Data: GFS, CFSR) via GIPHY |
7. For Arctic ice, another record low
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| Arctic sea ice was at a record low wintertime maximum extent for the second straight year. At 5,607 million square miles, it is the lowest maximum extent in the satellite record, and 431,000 square miles below the 1981 to 2010 average maximum extent. NASA Goddards Scientific Visualization Studio/C Starr |
Arctic sea ice, which has
continued to break records over the past few decades, reached a new low
in 2016. Eighty-six percent of the entire year was spent below 2
standard deviations of the mean (which accounts for 95 percent of
natural year-to-year variability). In other words, for 309 of 365 days,
the Arctic had less ice than is normal for that time of year.
With temperatures well above normal for this time of year, ice is prevented from refreezing.
Each corner of the planet is
affected differently by climate change. This past year saw both record
warmth and cold as well as drought and rain and snowfall. Unfortunately,
as global temperatures continue to rise, it appears likely that we’re
even more extreme weather is likely in 2017.
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