Don’t overestimate global warming effects

When it comes to weather, our perspectives are local and our memories are short. Those people in Monday’s newspaper who were sunbathing on Coney Island pondering global warming are already forgetting that New York last year completed its first recorded run of four consecutive winters with 40 or more inches of snow. And the city is not yet a year removed from its largest 24-hour snowfall on record.

Every winter weather pattern consists of blobs of relatively mild and cold air circling the north pole. Sometimes, the blobs get stuck for a while, and one area basks while another shivers. While we’ve been wearing shorts and short sleeves, some parts of Alaska and eastern Asia have been in the throes of temperatures below minus 30.
Global warming suggests that, over many years, cold snaps may gradually become less frequent, less severe and shorter, while warm spells may gradually become more frequent, more intense and longer.

Gradual is the key word. Short-term weather makes big jumps up and down. Global warming is more insidious and is mostly seen in a gradual creep upward in average low temperatures rather than in dramatic spikes upward in high temperatures.

Roanoke Times