It’s Cold Out, but Climate Change is Still Real

It’s no secret that the Arctic came for a visit last week, when the wind chill was so far below zero degrees frostbite threatened fingers and toes after just minutes of exposure.

The cold came from a polar vortex, a term University of Wisconsin – Green Bay geology professor Steve Meyer hasn’t heard in the media before this year.

The vortex is a counter-clockwise spin that occurs in a low-pressure system. (Think of it like the spin that happens when water drains out of a bathtub or down a toilet.) That chilly vortex usually stays up around the North Pole. This year, some of it swooped down into the U.S.

From the National Weather Service.

It’s cold, the coldest weather Door County has seen since 1982, but it isn’t unheard of.

“We haven’t seen cold like this for quite a while, I’ll admit that, but I’m 55 and I do remember the winters of ’77 to ’78, and ’78 to ’79 when it was really, really cold, and the cold waves of 1983,” Meyer said. “These are instances that happen.”

This instance is not proof that climate change, or global warming, isn’t happening.

 “In terms of global warming, you have to remember what that very first word is,” Meyer said. “It’s global. It’s not Green Bay warming, it’s not Wisconsin warming, it’s not U.S. warming, it’s not northern hemisphere warming. It’s global warming… I hope people realize that you can’t [denounce] climate change just based on a short-term warm spell or cold spell.”

Plus, climate scientists often say climate change will cause more extreme, unpredictable weather.

“I’m not saying this cold event is caused by global warming, but it’s one of those symptoms of global warming that weather is going to be more variable, and this could very possibly be one of those examples.”