The Inconvenient Snow of 2015

As residents of Massachusetts contemplate the snowy landscapes around us in mid-February and rest from shoveling out from the blizzards of the last month, now is a logical time to ask what if anything the cold white stuff has to do with climate change and global warming.

For evidence that Boston’s climate is changing one need look no further than the banks of snow outside. Four of the five snowiest winters since records began in 1920 have happened in the last twelve years.  You don’t need to be a scientist to see that this is a change in the local climate.

But how could a change like more snow result from global warming? And didn't global average temperature reached a new record high in 2014?

As any TV meteorologist will tell you, big snowfalls occur when cold air meets moisture laden air over warm sea water, causing nor’easters or “ocean effect” snow events. And it happens that “The Gulf of Maine’s waters are warming — faster than almost any ocean waters on earth,” wreaking havoc on the stocks of fish in New England waters. This was reported by the New York Times’s Michael Wines and Jess Bidgood (Dec. 14, 2014).  

So now we can blame our own local warming for both the dearth of codfish in our waters and the abundance of snow in our streets.

We can also stop looking only to scientists or traveling reporters to tell us about the impacts of climate change. These are no longer all in remote regions or in the future for others to deal with. They’re here, now. They’re as real as the idle fishing boats in New Bedford harbor that moved Governor Baker to tears. And as real as the seemingly unending snows that move us lament the vagaries of the jet stream and the sorry state of our public transit system. 

Despite the best forecasts and all the warnings we have received from scientists, it seems inevitable that many changes that lie ahead will hit us like the inconvenient snows of 2015. They will surprise us and disrupt our lives in ways we can’t yet imagine.

And the biggest uncertainty about the future is one that no scientist can claim to predict. Will people here in Massachusetts and around the world just continue to muddle through the latest disruption? Or now that climate change is on our heads and in front of our noses will we summon the collective will to turn off the convenient flames in time to head off surprises that are worse than disruptive?