Freak storms, flooding in some places, devastating droughts in others are all part of climate change’s modus operandi. And this winter, it has turned some weather patterns topsy-turvy.
My hometown near Boston has experienced all-time record snowfalls within a 14-, 20-, and 30-day period. Meanwhile, in Alaska, where one would expect the mountains of snow and frigid temperatures that we are experiencing here, things have warmed up dramatically.
So much so, that planners for the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race have altered its route for only the second time in its 43-year history because snow is a no-show, making conditions on the traditional trail unsafe for mushers and their dogs.
As Kevin Trenberth, an atmospheric scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, told National Geographic,
“We always experience some regions with below normal temperatures and others above normal, as comes naturally from weather patterns. But on top of that is a global warming component. Under the right circumstances it can boost snows, as in New England, but in other circumstances, the snow melts and some precipitation even falls as rain.”
Winter temperatures in Alaska have increased by an average of 6.3˚F over the past 50 years, twice as fast as the rest of the United States. In 2014, Anchorage temperatures did not drop below zero for the first time in recorded history.
This year, the starting line for the Iditarod has been moved north from its normal location in Anchorage to Fairbanks. Parts of the trail near Willow, Alaska were deemed unsafe. And this change of venue due to warming conditions is stressing Willow’s economy, depriving it of revenues from the race that it normally relies on.
Here in the Boston area, too much snow is having a similar impact. When I recently ventured from my suburban home west of Boston into Cambridge, enormous piles of plowed snow had reduced many roads to one lane and eliminated much of the on-street parking. The stores I entered seemed unusually empty — in some cases I was the only customer — and business owners admitted that things had been slow.
In his op-ed about Boston in the New York Times, contributor E.J. Graff writes that because people are unable to go out or get to work due to school closings, treacherous road conditions, and shutdowns of public transportation,
“Businesses have been hammered: Who’s going out to eat, shop or see a movie? How can businesses manufacture and deliver products or arrange deals if their workers just can’t show up?”
While global warming may mean warmer temperatures and less snow in Alaska, it won’t prevent massive snowstorms in places like Boston. Paul O’Gorman, an associate professor of atmospheric science at MIT recently told the Boston Globe,
“In some regions, fairly cold regions, you could have a decrease in the average snowfall in a year, but actually an intensification of the snowfall extremes.”
Climate change is definitely having opposing effects on Boston and Anchorage this winter. As Trenberth quipped to National Geographic,
“Perhaps, they should move it [the Iditarod] to Boston.”