Tropicalrainforests’s Blog

Does global warming have anything to do with the British snowfalls?

February 9, 2009

These snowfalls that we are now experiencing in Britain do make you wonder about the climate patterns throughout the world.

On the one hand, Australia is experiencing an extreme heat wave which is now suspected to have contributed to the wildfires as well.

On the other hand, Britain is experiencing an extreme cold weather event, with snow heavily falling all over the country and disrupting tons of services.

(Well, at least for me. I live in the west of Scotland and because of heavy snow I could not drive my son to his granny today, and he was very disappointed! But at least we made a lovely snowman instead , so no worries. )

I am now trying to compare climates of the countries that I am familiar with.

I am originally from Turkmenistan (ex-Soviet country to the south of Russia). So I am not quite familiar with the historical weather in Britain.

I asked my husband and he told me that it is not that unusual to have snow in this country but the period of the year when it happens has moved (forward). He said, it used to snow more around Christmas time but now it’s February … .

I suspect that it is not only  the change in timing but in the intensity and amount of snowfall here as well.

I also remember reading about snow falling in Moscow in June (which apparently occurs every 25 – 30 years). Obviously, not the kind of snow you’d expect in winter but still …

As for Turkmenistan (my relatives till living there are telling me), then the weather has also changed there.

My mom tells me it can be quite warm during the new year period, and unusually cold during other times  of the year when it should normally not be that cold.

Now, you don’t want to know the summer weather in Turkmenistan.

Apparently, during the last several summers it has become so hot that people don’t even remember having such hot summers before (I certainly don’t though I do remember generally hot summers).

The Turkmen summer temperature may now easily reach above 50 – 55 °C (122 °F) and above. I remember the temperature being 40 – 45 °C (104 – 113 °F) but not more.

It is a safety hazard to be outside in this temperature so everyone stays at home and tries to keep themselves cool any way they can (I remember our conditioners getting disconnected all the time because of the electricity supply failure during peak times).

Any way, when I was preparing my global warming effects article, I wrote about predictions of extreme weather events such as unusually severe heat waves, cold winters as well as changes in timings of different weather related events etc.

It is sort of developing in front of my eyes now …

We really need to try to do something about it, asap.

If you want, you can learn more about what is global warming on my site here.

Entry Filed under: Global Warming. Tags: global warming effects, snow in Britain, what is global warming.