{"id":34078,"date":"2014-01-28T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=34078"},"modified":"2014-01-28T14:54:57","modified_gmt":"2014-01-28T20:54:57","slug":"why-we-could-see-more-cold-snaps-in-a-warming-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2014\/01\/28\/why-we-could-see-more-cold-snaps-in-a-warming-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Could See More Cold Snaps in a Warming World"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Central and South Texas see ice, sleet and freezes for the second time in a week, climate change skeptics have taken to Twitter<\/a> to express their disbelief:<\/p>\n

Y’all know how I know #GlobalWarming<\/a> (aka #ClimateChange<\/a>) isn’t real!? In Texas, we’re getting snow & ice w\/ in hours of 80 degree weather.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ydur (@YdurZatara) January 27, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s a shovel-full of @algore<\/a>‘s #GlobalWarming<\/a> BS on the Texas Gulf Coast. Finally warmed up to a toasty warm 31*! pic.twitter.com\/opAbOmmEKX<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Vern Demerest (@TxAv8r) January 24, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Possible snow here in Galveston County Texas tonight??? Must be global warming. Liberals really are idiots<\/p>\n

\u2014 Duane McConathy (@McConathyDuane) January 27, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Despite the dropping temperatures and extreme cold weather events like the Polar Vortex <\/a>earlier this month, the science hasn’t changed on global warming. University of Texas at Austin atmospheric scientist Dr. Ned Vizy<\/a> says that more extreme cold snaps are actually a predictable symptom of an warming climate.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past decade or so, you\u2019re seeing a greater occurrence of these extreme events such as cold snaps, the tornado outbreak up in Oklahoma, the droughts,” he says.\u00a0“In reality, this is what you\u2019d expect to see under a warmer climate state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"University<\/a>

Courtesy of Cornell University<\/p>

University of Texas atmospheric scientist Ned Vizy.<\/p><\/div>\n

Vizy’s work at UT’s Department of Geological Sciences<\/a> focuses on the relationship between extreme weather events and climate change.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re seeing signs of climate change that many scientists have identified and are continuing to work to better understand,\u201d he said of recent extreme weather.<\/p>\n

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2013 was the fourth warmest year since 1880<\/a>, when globally-averaged temperatures were first recorded. At the same time, December was the 21st<\/sup> coldest on record<\/a> for the United States and the coldest December since 2009.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t assign, for the entire globe, one set outcome,\u201d Vizy says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of smaller-scale structure that you have to understand, but in terms of an overall temperature pattern, globally, you\u2019re going to see a warming.\u00a0The regional implications of that vary quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

Courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/p>

A visualization of the significant weather and climate events in the U.S. in 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

Snow in Austin in January isn\u2019t a sign that climate scientists are wrong about rising global temperatures, so why are many people quick to dismiss global warming when the temperature dips below freezing?<\/p>\n

\u201cMost people are most familiar with weather, because that\u2019s what you see everyday,\u201d Vizy says. \u201cClimate is on a longer timescale; you\u2019re looking over decades to centuries to try to understand climate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though the tweets can be read in jest, Vizy says it\u2019s no laughing matter. Misinformation about the effects of climate change\u2014and what a cold snap actually means\u2014can be particularly dangerous while trying to plan for the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cSwaying the public opinion is very important in the U.S. You see that all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cClimate change is no different than that. If you have a lot of naysayers, it\u2019ll sway what actions get done or what funding resources are allocated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Central and South Texas see ice, sleet and freezes for the second time in a week, climate change skeptics have taken to Twitter to express their disbelief: Y’all know how I know #GlobalWarming (aka #ClimateChange) isn’t real!? In Texas, we’re getting snow & ice w\/ in hours of 80 degree weather. \u2014 Ydur (@YdurZatara) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[58],"tags":[122,212,262],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34078"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34117,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34078\/revisions\/34117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}