Kudzai Jakachira
While climate change is first and foremost known for increasing global temperatures, it can also contribute to more intense and
repeated cold weather events.
This transpires due to several factors, including a wilting jet stream, changes in sea ice and snow cover, and the potential for more stubborn cold snaps.
There is a direct connection between human-caused climate change and increased occurrences of extreme cold.
Specifically warming temperatures are unsettling the polar vortex and pushing cold air into non-traditional areas.
While cold weather does not directly cause a cold, the viruses that cause colds may spread more easily in lower temperatures. Various
steps can help a person avoid getting sick during the colder months.
In this article, we examine the connection between cold and wet weather and the common cold.
But these sustained periods of winter cold are getting shorter as our climate warms, according to new Climate Central analysis that looks at how the longest winter cold streaks have changed.
Seasonally, winter has the coldest months because the Earth’s tilt is away from the sun.
This lowers the angle and amount of solar radiation that reaches the earth’s surface.
This tilt also produces a large temperature differences, as the rate of cooling is higher in the polar region compared to the equator
The warmer temperatures are having effects in the Arctic region, sea ice is melting, frozen ground (called permafrost) is melting, and
habitat is dwindling for wildlife that rely on cold temperatures.
Arctic sea ice cover is shrinking at a rate of 13% per decade.
In the winter, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, which means that the Sun’s rays hit this part of the Earth in a more
oblique or slanted manner.
Since there is less direct sunshine, less energy is absorbed by the surface and the temperature is lower.
Instead of four seasons of equal length, the year will be dominated by just two seasons: winter and summer.
It’s also clear that sufficient global warming could trigger an abrupt cooling in at least two ways — by increasing high-latitude rainfall or
by melting Greenland’s ice, both of which could put enough fresh water into the ocean surface to suppress flushing.
Changes in the climate affect the air we breathe both indoors and outdoors. Warmer temperatures and shifting weather patterns can worsen air quality, which can lead to asthma attacks and other respiratory and cardiovascular health effects.
Humidity and wind chill are among the two most important factors that “can make an otherwise neutral temperature feel much hotter or colder than it is,” says Marshall Shepherd, an atmospheric scientist at the
University of Georgia.