Dec 18, 2024 08:47 PM
https://www.splinter.com/the-world-is-losing-winter
INTRO: Across the world, winter is shrinking. A new analysis from Climate Central found that dozens of countries and hundreds of cities have lost entire weeks and more of days below freezing, throwing everything from winter sports to seasonal allergies into upheaval.
“The coldest time of the year sustains snow and ice for winter recreation and other activities, and it replenishes the snowpack that supplies freshwater,” the non-profit’s researchers wrote. “Winter chill also plays a critical role in plant, animal, and insect life cycles, influencing ecosystems throughout the rest of the year.”
As a general concept, of course, this isn’t all that surprising: the world has warmed by more than 1.2 degrees Celsius at this point (the past year crossed the 1.5-degree Paris Agreement target, but we will need a bunch of years in a row at that level for scientists to consider that threshold fully behind us), and a warmer baseline means the cold days will start to diminish. But it is stark to see some of the numbers on this pinned down.
Climate Central analyzed the December-February daily minimum temperatures across 123 countries. They found that a third of them — 44 countries — saw at least one extra week with days above freezing per year during the 2014 to 2023 decade than previously, thanks to human-caused warming.
And some places had it worse than that... (MORE - details)
INTRO: Across the world, winter is shrinking. A new analysis from Climate Central found that dozens of countries and hundreds of cities have lost entire weeks and more of days below freezing, throwing everything from winter sports to seasonal allergies into upheaval.
“The coldest time of the year sustains snow and ice for winter recreation and other activities, and it replenishes the snowpack that supplies freshwater,” the non-profit’s researchers wrote. “Winter chill also plays a critical role in plant, animal, and insect life cycles, influencing ecosystems throughout the rest of the year.”
As a general concept, of course, this isn’t all that surprising: the world has warmed by more than 1.2 degrees Celsius at this point (the past year crossed the 1.5-degree Paris Agreement target, but we will need a bunch of years in a row at that level for scientists to consider that threshold fully behind us), and a warmer baseline means the cold days will start to diminish. But it is stark to see some of the numbers on this pinned down.
Climate Central analyzed the December-February daily minimum temperatures across 123 countries. They found that a third of them — 44 countries — saw at least one extra week with days above freezing per year during the 2014 to 2023 decade than previously, thanks to human-caused warming.
And some places had it worse than that... (MORE - details)
