Good Bye To Extremely Hot And Dangerously Cold Year 2019

The 2019 has witnessed extreme weather in many parts of the world including India. The year started with dangerous and extreme cold in North America and heavy snowfall in the Alps and Himalayas.The year has also witnessed record heat, wildfires and rainfall in South America and Australasia.Its ending with The bitterly cold temperatures the world over.Indian capital Delhi has is going through the second-coldest December since 1901.

The metrological experts say the extreme cold weather is caused by the influence of the Polar Vortex- a large area of low pressure and cold air surrounding the North Pole. Globally, temperatures were a little over 0.4°C warmer than the average January from 1981-2010, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Australia continued to experience exceptionally hot conditions. Middle East and eastern Siberia, Mongolia and northeastern also experienced above than normal temperatures. Europe saw temperatures close to or just below average.

All scientific organizations agree that human activities are primarily responsible for global warming. Two years back in 201, the European Environment Agency in its report, had warned of the threat of rising sea levels and more extreme weather, such as more frequent and more intense heatwaves, flooding, droughts, and storms due to climate change.

The report — updated every four years — said climate-related extreme events in EEA member countries have accounted for more than 400 billion euros in economic losses since 1980.

One of the important new findings of the report was that there was no global warming pause between 1998 and 2012. The Alps experienced much above average snowfall. Along the northern parts of eastern Mediterranean and the northwest of Spain rainfall was much above average, leading to several rivers overflowing and a number of fatalities.

Australia, southern Africa and eastern Brazil saw very dry conditions. Madagascar and northern Argentina saw much wetter than average conditions. The latter was severely affected by flooding, according to Copernicus Climate Change Service.In between there was a period of unusually frigid weather witnessed in December 2017, when parts of the United States were 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit colder than average, but the world as a whole was about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1979-2000 average.

Some recent cold spells have been caused by a dreaded weather system called the polar vortex. There’s growing evidence to suggest that the polar vortex is appearing outside the Arctic more frequently, because of changes in the jet stream that are attributed to the warming atmosphere.

Now the big question is: How can the temperature still tumble so low? The answer lies the difference between local weather and climate, according to NYT.

"Climate refers to how the atmosphere acts over a long period of time, while weather describes what’s happening on a much shorter time scale. The climate can be thought of, in a way, as the sum of long periods of weather.Or, to use an analogy, weather is how much money you have in your pocket today, whereas climate is your net worth. Sp What matters is what happens over the long term.

A period of unusually frigid weather was witnessed in December 2017, when parts of the United States were 15 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit colder than average, On the contrary. the world as a whole was about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the 1979-2000 average.

While climate scientists expect that the world could warm, on average, roughly two to seven degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century — depending on how quickly greenhouse-gas emissions rise. Record low temperatures will occur; they’ll just become rarer over time.

(Chander Sharma With Inputs From NYT)