© AP Photo/Becky Bohrer
The study by researchers from Dartmouth College, the University of Maine and the University of New Hampshire, shows modern snowfall levels in the Alaska Range at the highest in at least 1,200 years, averaging some 18 feet per year from around 8 feet per year from 1600-1840.
"We were shocked when we first saw how much snowfall has increased," said Erich Osterberg, an assistant professor of earth sciences at Dartmouth College and principal investigator for the research. "We had to check and double-check our results to make sure of the findings."
The research was based on an analysis of two ice core samples collected at 13,000 feet from Mount Hunter in Alaska's Denali National Park. The study suggests that warming tropical oceans have driven the increased snowfall by strengthening the northward flow of warm, moist air.
Comment: It's worth noting that Ice Ages begin with warming oceans which trigger increased precipitation in northern regions. Interested readers should check out Pierre Lescaudron's excellent book Earth Changes and the Human-Cosmic Connection.
The research builds on a previous study using the same ice cores that showed an intensification of winter storm activity in Alaska and Northwestern Canada, driven by the same strengthening "Aleutian Low" system.
"Everywhere we look in the North Pacific, we're seeing this same fingerprint from warming tropical oceans," said Dominic Winski, a research assistant at Dartmouth and lead author of the report. "Wintertime climate in the North Pacific is very different than it was 200 years ago."
Scientists have long concluded that carbon dioxide and other emissions from industry are driving planetary warming, leading to floods, droughts, and more frequent powerful storms.
Comment: We are certainly seeing climate change on our planet. But 'Anthropogenic Global Warming', the idea that the Earth is warming because of what humans are doing, is not the cause. We are seeing climate change on an extreme level for sure, just check out our monthly Earth Changes summaries for proof of that. It's just not about us humans, but rather the natural changes our planet goes through. The Powers That Be don't want people to be informed on where our climate is going, so they create all this agitation about AGW to distract them from what's really happening - the Earth is likely heading into a period where we'll see rapid cooling in the northern hemisphere, a mini Ice Age or possibly a full blown Ice Age, caused by a period of warming.
But researchers have only more recently begun detailing how climate change can boost regional precipitation patterns, in some cases with devastating consequences.
A group of scientists led by non-profit scientific research group Climate Central published a report earlier this month saying climate change contributed significantly to rainfall from Hurricane Harvey, which flooded Houston in August and September and caused billions of dollars in damage.
Every nation in the world except the United States has joined a global pact to fight climate change. President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement in June, saying it was too costly for the U.S. economy.
Source: Reuters
