In what seems irony weather, global warming can lead, for a time, colder winters in parts of the world. The complexity of the climate system makes a change causes another and so on, in a domino effect that can lead to unexpected results somewhat.
The major loss of Arctic sea ice as a result of climate change is an example of it, lest it lead in future increased chance of having extreme winters too cold in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes.
Recently, Charles H. Greene and Bruce C. Monger, both from the department of earth sciences and atmospheric of Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, have analyzed this phenomenon.
A warmer Earth has a higher rate of Arctic ice melting during the summer, exposing the underlying waters, which are darker, the incident radiation. This phenomenon leads to greater absorption of solar radiation and additional summer warming of the ocean, further accelerating the melting of the ice. The heat is not retained is released to the atmosphere, especially during the fall, leading to decreases in atmospheric pressure gradients and temperature, between the Arctic and middle latitudes.
A latitudinal gradient of lower pressure is always associated with a weakening of the winds associated with the Polar Vortex and Jet Stream. As the Polar Vortex normally retains the cold polar masses above the Arctic Circle, weakening allows cold air masses invade lower latitudes.
From recent observations, there is a shift in the behavior of the Arctic Oscillation, a pattern of natural climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere. Before human industrial activity began to warm the planet, the Arctic climate system ranged naturally between favorable and unfavorable conditions for the cold fronts that carry with them the arctic air masses.
What happens now is that we humans are changing climate system, especially in the Arctic, and this change anthropogenic increases the chances that the conditions that favor cold fronts and winter extremes.
