FALSE: GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL, DESPITE BEING COLD OUTSIDE
Written by Odhiambo Shem on October 18, 2022
A twitter post claiming that there is no global warming since it’s cold outside is false.
“Yes it’s summer and it’s hot outside. It’s supposed to be hot, that’s why it’s summer, that’s what it’s all about! There is no Global Warming taking place or so-called climate change. It’s supposed to be hot in the summer, cold in the Winter, warm in the Spring and cool in the Fall, okay!” states the claim.
According to the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, Zack Labe, a doctoral candidate studying Earth systems science at the University of California, Irvine, says that, “Climate change will not occur evenly from place-to-place. While your backyard may be having an intense cold snap, others may be having unseasonably warm temperatures. Climate is all about long-term trends.” He goes ahead to state that, “we can still expect periods of very cold temperatures, snowstorms, and even days of record low temperatures. However, climate change continues to shift the odds towards more periods of warmer weather and less so for colder weather.”
Yale Climate Connections argue that cold extremes are occurring over a smaller fraction of the global surface area than above-average temperatures. In other words, what happens locally, or over short periods of time, is not necessarily representative of what’s happening nationally and globally.
Jason Furtado, an assistant professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma also says that one cold day doesn’t suddenly mean that the general trend in global climate change is suddenly going in the opposite direction. His sentiments are echoed by Carl Shreck, an atmospheric scientist at North Carolina State University’s Institute for Climate Studies who says that cold snaps don’t disprove global warming, but just mean that weather and seasons still happen.
On the other hand, the warming climate hasn’t eradicated winter. However, Carl Shreck says that although winter persists, global climate change has made winters less harsh overall.
According to the National Geographic, high altitude, east-to-west winds known as jet streams rely on the difference between cold Arctic air and warm tropical air to propel them forward. As the air in the Arctic warms, those jet streams slow and prevent normal weather patterns from circulating—floods last longer and droughts become more persistent. One study published in Science Advances last October predicted extreme, deadly weather events could increase by as much as 50 percent by 2100.
We looked into this claim stating that global warming isn’t real since it’s cold outside and found it to be false. This misleads and misguides the public.
This fact-check was produced by Sky 106.1 FM with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, International Fact-Checking Network, and African Fact Checking Alliance network.
