Arctic Thaw Tied to European, U.S. Heatwaves and Downpours: Study

A thaw of Arctic ice and snow is linked to worsening summer heatwaves and downpours thousands of miles south in Europe, the United States and other areas, underlying the scale of the threat posed by global warming, scientists said on Sunday.

Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, experts in China and the United States said they could not conclusively say the Arctic thaw caused more extreme weather, or vice versa.

But they said they had found evidence of a relationship between the two.  Rising temperatures over thawing snow on land and sea ice in the Arctic were changing atmospheric pressure and winds, the report said.

Judah Cohen, lead seasonal weather forecaster at AER, a weather and climate consulting firm, said the possibility that Arctic climate change is leading to more extreme weather patterns has initiated a flurry of new studies.  “I can tell you that I am busier now reviewing journal papers than I have ever been in my career and they are all on sea ice” he said in an email.  “I think this will be a dominant area of research and discourse for years to come.”

Arctic Thaw Tied to European, U.S. Heatwaves and Downpours: Study