Snow and Climate

February 13, 2008

Another snow day here on the seacoast, the fourth already this winter. Unfortunately the snow has turned to freezing rain so it’s not a great day for sledding or snowmen, and the driving is too sloppy to sneak in a ski day. I’d rather have my kids in school today since at this rate, they won’t finish the school year until late in June. But if you love winter, this has been a winter to love.

Does a good snowy winter like winters of old mean that climate change isn’t happening? To answer that, you have to look beyond the immediate weather and look at long-term trends – that’s the difference between the weather and the climate. Also, you have to look beyond your own back yard.

I asked Cam Wake, a good friend of Now or Never and a research associate professor at University of New Hampshire’s Institute for Earth, Oceans and Space, how he answers this question. He just finished a study on changes in winter climate across the Northeast US using the most comprehensive analysis done to date. The data show that winters have been warming over the past four decades at an average of .77 degrees F per decade, and that snow-covered days have been decreasing at a rate of 2.6 days per decade. That adds up to about 3 degrees and 10 fewer snow days over in my 40+ year lifespan. I’ll let you know what Cam has to say when I hear from him.

So I’m really treasuring this winter, and so are my kids. We love to ski, to be outside when it’s cold, to skate on nearby ponds, to listen to the silence of snow falling in the woods, even to lose power at home (if it doesn’t last too long!) when the cold icy winds knock trees down on nearby power lines. It brings us back to the basics of being New Englanders.

MP