Kind: captions
Language: en
when I was a kid I cherished snowy
Winters filled with sledding and snow
forts recent Winters however have
started to seem distinctly less snowy I
live in New England a region known for
its blizzards but I can't remember the
last time I stepped out into the winter
wonderland I remember from my childhood
and I'm not the only one who's noticed
this are winters truly becoming less
snowy well Winters are getting warmer
and they're also getting shorter by
nearly 2 weeks since 1972 so we're
getting less snow right not
quite these are annual snowfall totals
from my hometown of Boston going back to
1970 if my memory is accurate there
should be a clear downward Trend but
there isn't there is no correlation
negative or positive between snowfall
and time how could this be how is
snowfall staying the same while
temperatures increase you can get warmer
and we have and it can still snow a lot
because the temperature still remains
below freezing and it's just less below
freezing snowfall is responding you know
not just to temperature it's also
responding to how much moisture is
available it turns out that warmer
temperatures have varied effects on
snowfall rates some areas of Alaska the
fastest warming US state have seen
record smashing roof crushing amounts of
snow this year while in parts of the
Southwest Southeast and Midwest snowfall
has been in steep decline in Boston the
impact of rising temperatures can be
counterintuitive
one reason is that hotter air can hold
more moisture which will fall as snow
when it's cold enough and rain when it's
not this also means that winter storms
when they occur may actually bring more
snow than they used to it's been found
that more of our precipitation is
falling in large events not necessarily
that we're getting more when it rains it
pours is essentially what looks like
this could explain the anomalous winter
season in Anchorage Alaska the 49th
state is getting warmer and warmer but
it's still cold enough to
snow today is
Christmas it's nearly 50° F in Boston
and I'm uncomfortable in my thick winter
coat I've barely seen a single snowflake
this entire fall and having lived here
my whole life this just feels weird but
there is another measurement of snoow
that may have some answers the number of
days each winter with snow on the ground
or snow covered days this graph shows
snow covered days in Boston going back
to 1997 and although it may not look
like there's a trend here there is the
correlation between time and snow
covered days is negative and
statistically significant which means
that even though total snowfall may not
be decreasing it is melting faster and
bostonians are experiencing increasingly
bare Winters you can have less time with
snow cover and just as much snow
snowfall versus snow cover can tell
different stories so what is happening
to snoow in the US in some parts of the
country snowfall is decreasing in others
it is increasing and in Summit is
staying about the same despite the fact
that overall temperatures are rising
snow covered days paint a more
consistent picture across the us too
since 1972 they have decreased in the US
by an average of nearly 2 weeks and the
extent of snow coverage across North
America is shrinking as well in the end
the data does corroborate my memories
the Northeast like many other parts of
the US truly is getting less snowy and
personally that disappoints me for some
however increasing temperatures may not
be a bad thing they do after all mean
less snow shoveling and lower heating
bills whether you like white Winters or
not major changes are in store for our
ecosystem the snow itself is a habitat
there's this space between the snow pack
and the soil this space is an important
habitat for lots of organisms especially
um arthropods and insects when we lose
snow cover we lose that habit cat warmer
conditions could also allow certain
insects including lme disease carrying
ticks to live in places that were
previously too cold for them as we lose
cold temperatures we lose the killing
temperatures that um keep these insects
at there we can you know see more
mosquitoes that carry diseases like
Eastern equine and sephtis and West n
virus no matter where you live weather
patterns seem to be changing across the
US from drastic temperature swings
intense storms flooding and wildfires
this season looks different from years
past our Winters are changing really
fast and so we're witnessing these
phenomena in real time and it's not
clear who the winners and losers are in
this new warmer winter world