While this blog is devoted to the climate of the Southeast, we can’t help but look at what is happening in other parts of the world. All of the world’s weather and climate is linked together by the great fluid atmosphere (and the oceans, too) where what happens in one place can affect what happens downstream. We see that often here in the Southeast with the well-known impacts of the ENSO signal in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Changes in the Arctic, including both changes in sea and land ice, are changing the climate of other parts of the world too. This article from Yale Climate Connections based on a recent NOAA report discusses the problems that the Arctic is having with warming at a much faster rate than other parts of the world due to loss of reflective ice, among other things. One take-away quote that ends the article: “Nearly everything in the Arctic, from ice and snow to human activity, is changing so quickly that there is no reason to believe that much of anything in 30 years will be as it is today.” What will the Southeast be like in 30 years?
