During January 2008, China experienced its heaviest snowfall in over a half century. Questions on global warming and extreme weather events have some thinking...
China's Winter Wonderland
Stories of winter storms plaguing China have been in the news recently. According to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), “severe winter weather, the worst in 50 years, affected much of China”. The hardest hit were areas in southern China because snowfall is rare in those areas. More than 80 people were reportedly killed, with economic and agricultural losses over $10 billion. Crops froze, roads closed and power outages went on for days, as the government was unable to respond as quickly as needed. A severe weather emergency alert was just lifted on February 6th by the China Meteorological Administration (Associated Press). The alert had been in effect since January 25th.
Much of Europe and the Middle East was also hit by winter storms, bringing snow to areas that had not seen any in almost a century. The NCDC reports that “Iran had its heaviest snowfall in more than a decade prompting numerous avalanches”.
Is Climate Change Causing More Extreme Weather?
Hearing about all these winter weather extremes this winter made me wonder if there’s a link between climate change, or global warming and these extreme weather events. I found one study, “Extreme Weather Trends vs. Dangerous Climate Change: A Need for Critical Reassessment” by Madhav L Khandekar, a meteorologist in Ontario, Canada that shed some light on the subject. The study found there is no “discernible” link between climate change and extreme weather events. Khandekar states that “the link appears to be more perception than reality”. Khandekar’s research found that extreme weather events are not increasing in number or intensity. The study also found that extreme weather events may not be increasing due to climate change, but rather occur because of El Niño and ENSO, increasing sea surface temperatures (SST).
