EXAMPLES:

In the winter of 2009-10, the mid-Atlantic

region of the U.S. had its snowiest season on

record as one monster storm after another

buried Washington D.C. and other cities,

shutting down travel, school, and work.

Meteorologists calculate that, historically, a

winter like that should only happen every 625

years, but climate change seems to be shift-

ing those odds.4

1. http://www.springerlink.com/content/0008xl84w0743102/fulltext.html#CR272. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-171432693. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/warming-arctic-playing-critical-role-in-causing-cold-snowy-winters-study-sa/ 4. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=14265. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1735 6. http://www.climatecentral.org/blogs/whats-causing-the-deadly-cold-in-europe/7. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=andes-extreme-cold-extracts-bitter-toll

Exceptionally cold and snowy conditions hit

much of the Eastern U.S. in the winters of

2010 and 2011. During these two extreme

winters, New York City recorded three of its

top-ten snowstorms since 1869, and Philadel-

phia recorded four of its top-ten snowstorms

since 1884.5

Global warming has increased the amount of

moisture in the atmosphere—since warm air holds

more water than cold, the atmosphere is on

average 4% wetter than during the 1970s.1

This has increased deluge and flood—and when

the temperature dips below freezing, deluge and

flood come as blizzard and drift. Plus, the

shrinking of Arctic sea ice is bringing colder,

snowier winters to the UK and other areas of

Europe, North America and China.

Recent scientific research on the impact of the

shrinking Arctic ice sheet has shown that as less of

the ocean is covered in ice, the strength of the

northern jet stream that usually brings milder,

wetter winter weather to Europe, is reduced.2

Paradoxically,hotter tem-peratures can bring even harsher winter storms.**but shorter, milder winters overall

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