It’s going to be very cold in the Southeast for the next few days. Climatologists are already bracing themselves for people to say “I could use a little global warming about now.” Besides demonstrating that they don’t understand the differences between weather and climate, it shows a disdain for the science behind predictions of how climate is likely to change in the future.
Winter is not going away even in a warmer future, but it might change how it behaves. Some climate statistics like average winter temperatures are directly related to greenhouse warming. Other things like last spring frost date have a less direct connection because freeze events are driven by short-term weather patterns that can still occur even in a warmer climate. In fact, some studies show that more extremes in weather in the winter may be more likely in the future because temperature differences between the poles and the equator are decreasing. This may be leading to wavier patterns in the atmosphere that drive extreme warmth and cold through midlatitudes, leading to more extreme swings in weather. You can read more about this in Forbes in an article written by my colleague Dr. Marshall Shepherd of UGA at https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2024/01/14/warming-climate-and-cold-days-explained/. CNN also has a good explanation at https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/15/climate/why-extreme-cold-during-global-warming/index.htm.
