Record Cold in the Midwest While the Northwest is Warm and Dry

 It is often useful to get the big picture when understanding the meteorological situation, particularly when thinking about the potential of climate change.

The Northwest has experienced a very warm/dry period of late.  There is no doubt about that.

But just the opposite is occurring east of the Rockies, where record cold and snow are occurring.

 It is often useful to get the big picture when understanding the meteorological situation Record Cold in the Midwest While the Northwest is Warm and Dry

A number of locations had daily record lows and some locations MONTHLY record lows (see below).


So how can the eastern portion of the country have a historic coldwave while the Northwest is much warmer than normal?  

The answer is that the upper-level wave pattern became amplified, with a ridge of high pressure over the west and a trough  of low pressure over the east (see upper-level map for this morning at 5AM)

There is no evidence that such amplification has anything to do with global warming.  

Is the globe 1-2F warmer due to increasing greenhouse gases?  Quite possibly.  

But does global warming explain the extreme cold and warm events that the U.S. has experienced recently?

The answer is clearly no, with a deep scientific literature to support this statement.



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