The rapid heating of the Arctic may have contributed to the anomalous low temperatures in the southern US state of Texas, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, citing scientists
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th February, 2021) The rapid heating of the Arctic may have contributed to the anomalous low temperatures in the southern US state of Texas, The Guardian reported on Wednesday, citing scientists.
Freezing temperatures�battered the United States' south and heartland this week, leaving more than 20 people killed, with millions of Texan households left without power.
"The current conditions in Texas are historical, certainly generational. But this can't be hand-waved away as if it's entirely natural. This is happening not in spite of climate change, it's in part due to climate change," Judah Cohen, the seasonal forecasting director at Atmospheric and Environmental Research, said, as quoted by the newspaper.
Cohen believes that the winter freeze may have something to do with the rapid Arctic warming, which is pushing cold air from the north pole further south.
"The energy escaping from the jet stream bangs into the polar vortex so it starts to wobble and move all over the place. Where the polar vortex goes, so goes the cold air," Cohen explained.
Jennifer Francis, a senior scientist at the Massachusetts-based Woodwell Climate Research Center, elaborated that the vortex can elongate, stretch into different shapes and even split.
"I'd say the situation this winter is consistent with research that has connected what's happening in the Arctic with extreme weather patterns in the mid latitudes," the scientist was quoted as saying.
Describing the possible correlation between the Arctic warming and cold weather further south as an "active area of research," Francis stressed that there was yet no consensus on the matter among scientists.
