Climate Change By Mia Weinberg
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Snowfall
Waking up on winter day to a shimmering, white landscape outside of our windows is the essence of winter here in the northeastern United States. Businesses and schools shut down as the snow places our society on hold until we can access roads and vehicles again. This was a memorable and exciting part of growing up in New Jersey for many. However, as anthropogenic climate change continues to alter our planet’s weather systems, it is hard to ignore the changes in snowfall in New Jersey and the broader Northeast region. These changes can be attributed to a number of factors, and are not as simple as an annual decline in snowfall. The effects of shifting snowfall patterns will affect not only our winters but the ecosystems of countless organisms, and surprisingly, the temperature of our planet. As global temperatures continue to rise by about 0.32°F each decade, the rate at which temperatures are rising is also increasing (Lindsey, 1). Across the United States, winters are the fastest warming season. With this comes a reduction in days below 32°F, and a predictable decrease in precipitation falling as snow. In New Jersey, this decrease in snowstorms, especially major ones, has been noticeable during the last several winters. However, in many parts of the Northeast the very opposite is being observed. Over the past several years, many cities in the Northeast have seen recordbreaking levels of snowfall even in the face of annual temperature increases. This can be attributed to climatic changes in Arctic regions. The Arctic is experiencing the most rapid rate of warming, at almost three times the average global rate (WWF, 1). This is affecting a force known as the polar vortex, which is a strong jet stream of cold air encircling the North Pole that keeps the cold from escaping to lower latitudes. As temperatures between the North Pole and North America are become closer together, the polar vortex the cold spells and unusually large snow storms observed in New England and southern New Jersey this year. The seemingly contradictory nature of rising global temperatures and freezing polar temperatures moving to North America are creating an unusual cocktail of snow patterns in our region. When the polar vortex is more stable, we can expect to see less snow, just as we have in many regions of New Jersey. This, in turn, accelerates climate change because snow itself has a cooling effect on the planet. This is due to a property called albedo, or the ability of a surface to reflect sunlight. Grassland has a relatively low albedo, typically reflecting about 10 to 25% of solar radiation, and absorbing the rest, which warms the surface of the planet (Dobos, 1). Snow, especially when it is The Trail│12
