Hottest year on record in DC, likely the hottest year on record in Richmond, the greatest U.S. drought since the Dust Bowl year of 1939 … and New Scientist warns that because global warming is melting Arctic sea ice, 2013 could see even more extreme weather:
Predictions that a major El Niño warming event – and the coming solar maximum – would help make next year the warmest on record now seem wide of the mark. All eyes will probably be on the Arctic instead. Some say the record loss of sea ice in summer 2012 was a one-off, others that it was the start of a runaway collapse. If the latter, summer sea ice could virtually disappear as early as 2016. What is certain is that the ice reforming now will be the thinnest on record, priming it for destruction next summer. […]
Research in 2012 implicated the fast-warming Arctic in a slowing of the jet stream. This is bringing extreme weather to mid-latitudes, including prolonged cold spells in Europe, Russia’s 2010 heatwave, and record droughts in the US in 2011 and 2012. Watch out for more weird weather in 2013.
Learn more about how global warming is fueling extreme weather.
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