Winter has gone missing across the Midwest and Great Lakes, and time is running out to find it. Dozens of cities are on track for one of the warmest winters on record, making snow and ice rare commodities.

Several cities are missing feet of snow compared to a typical winter, ice on the Great Lakes is near record-low levels and the springlike temperatures have even spawned rare wintertime severe thunderstorms.

A classic El Niño pattern coupled with the effects of a warming climate are to blame for this “non-winter” winter, said Pete Boulay, a climatologist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Winter has become the fastest-warming season for nearly 75% of the US and snowfall is declining around the globe as temperatures rise because of human-caused climate change.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    -1311 months ago

    Just to offer this thought: the Roman calendar was very messed up around the time of Julius Caesar. Because of its inaccuracies the seasons would slide around calendar.

    So perhaps along with us destroying the environment and the climate’s response it could be our calendar is missing some variable that pushes things around seemingly randomly.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1411 months ago

      This is a flat-earth style take but for the climate.

      our calendar […] pushes things around

      Is your proposal to find the missing snow by looking at another month then?

    • Turun
      link
      fedilink
      111 months ago

      Indeed, the Julian calendar would shift. That’s why we are on the Gregorian calendar now. The fix some few hundred years ago did involve skipping 11 days though!