One comment on “Rochester and Buffalo Storming The Snow Hill

  1. Hi Pat,

    I grew up in Syracuse, born in 1953, left for college and then some, but came back to live in 1992. I remember the 1966 snowstorm as a kid and the blizzard of 1993. The past several years have not been Syracuse winters, not even close to average Syracuse winters of the decades past, in terms of first real snowfall, temps, rain, etc. (I live in the Syracuse University area, and while I couldn’t find an up-to-date total snowfall this winter even though I searched for it several different ways online, the total we had was nowhere near 101.3″)

    The weather has been rather bizarre, especially in the number of warmer days, the total snow this year and the severe cold at times during this winter and last. Yes, El Nino plays a big part, but the underlying patterns are consistent with human activity-driven Global Warming/Climate Change, and I would love to see an overview in your blog of just how this has driven our weather in Syracuse and Central New York.

    Later, or less extensive, freezing of the Great Lakes means more precipitation, which we got mostly in rain. The deep freeze temps were the result of the Jet Stream influence by a rapidly warming Arctic: the Jet Stream is formed by the contrast in temps between the Arctic air mass and the air mass to its south. The stronger the difference in temps, the stronger and straighter around the Jet Stream is; as the temp differential lessens the Jet Stream meanders – it is this meandering that is the ‘polar vortex’ that brings frigid temps to us. (The Arctic air mass on average is warming but that doesn’t mean that it’s not still very cold compared to us.)

    Human activity-driven GW and CC are adding enormous amounts of energy – heat – to the oceans, making El Nino stronger, in turn driving effects that reach us here.

    The effects of GW and CC are, for the most part, compartmentalized in the media. While there is some coverage of how CC relates to the drought in California, in general it is not in depth, and there is very little coverage, if any, on the tie-in to what we’re seeing in Central NY. I did see our Meterologist Dave Eichorn describe this and how it related to Superstorm Sandy, and do an excellent job, but that was at a showing of the film “Chasing Ice” and not on television.

    GW and CC should not be compartmentalized; they need to be incorporated into every analysis of those things which are driven or strongly influenced by them. I’d love to see you include this in your fun and interesting blog and contest.

    Thanks!

    Sandra Porter
    Syracuse

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