Arctic Cold Hits NJ While the Planet Heats

Arctic air has been spilling down into New Jersey, bringing single digit temperatures and some puzzlement about how we could be experiencing such frigid weather if the planet is heating up. Part of the answer is that some areas of Canada and Greenland, meanwhile, are experiencing temperatures 20 degrees higher than normal. An article in the NY Times describes how changes in atmospheric pressure have allowed more arctic air than usual to spill down into the northeastern U.S., and how these changes may be driven in part by the substantial reduction in arctic sea ice over the past thirty years.

One has to be cautious about attributing unusual weather directly to climate change, but climate models have long predicted increases in extreme weather events, as overall warming magnifies instability.