Climate change has this influence on current weather differences
Something amazing happened in Germany over the weekend. While there was a violent onset of winter in the north, it remained comparatively mild in the south. Fortunately, this seems to have turned out very lightly for us at the moment, but such extreme weather differences could soon be part of normality. Another reason is climate change.
But first let’s take a look at why these events occurred in the first place. A so-called polar vortex can be found around the North Pole in winter. It blows from west to east, but it can happen again and again that this vortex collapses and causes extreme temperature fluctuations. This does not always have an impact on the earth’s surface, but this year’s events meant that the cold air found its way to Europe.
The reason why southern Germany was spared from this was due to the warm air from the Sahara, which also moved to us. So the border between warm and cold air is somewhere in Germany these days. But where is the connection to climate change now? Studies from recent years show that the phases of weakness that lead to the collapse of the polar vortex have increased significantly in duration over the past four decades.
One of the reasons for this is that the Arctic continues to warm up, melting sea ice north of Scandinavia and Russia. The thawed ocean gives off more heat into the air and in this way can help determine the weather in the atmosphere and stratosphere. The polar winds that occur here are influenced by this additional heat, so polar vortices collapse more and more frequently.
Consequently, not only global warming, but also the occurrence of extreme winters is a result of climate change. Concerning the current studies, it should finally be said that the change in the climate can only be one factor that plays a role here (and not the main cause). Hopefully further investigations will enlighten us a little better in the future so that we can better prepare for such events.
Own opinion:
It is amazing to what extent the warming of our oceans can lead to such strong onset of winter. It has long been clear that natural disasters and extreme weather phenomena will increase in the next few decades, that Europe will be so badly affected by them, I would not really have thought. So it is up to us whether we will see pictures like this weekend more often in the future or whether we will go about our everyday life in a more life-friendly environment.
