The shocking Arctic ice melt witnessed this year may bring about an extra-cold and snowy winter to some areas in the Northern Hemisphere, scientists are now warning.
Satellites have observed an unprecedented melting of the Arctic ice sheet this year, far exceeding any forecast that computer models had calculated. The Greenland ice sheet melted by a staggering 90% over the course of four days, an event that was not believed to be theoretically possible. Scientists and climatologists are now scrambling to analyze data that has made practically all of their research over the past decade useless.
Scientists and experts must now try to make sense of the accelerated nature of the dramatic and undeniable events rapidly transforming our planet into an unrecognizable eco-system that is happening before our very eyes. The massive melting of the Arctic ice sheet has occurred in relatively normal weather conditions, with only one strong summer storm to hasten the break-up of the pack ice.
Scientists now believe that the shifting of the ice pack and the release of fresh water into the oceans will have a dramatic impact on global weather patterns. When there's less ice in the ocean, atmospheric pressure gradients change, claims one researcher. That means less of the wind that carries warmer air into the atmosphere, where it would ordinarily disperse over land masses, bringing a natural thaw to certain locations during the dead of winter. This could mean an extra-cold and snowy winter for parts of the Northern Hemisphere, with possible record-breaking snow storms paralyzing entire regions.
Climate experts are still scratching their heads to explain this year's unprecedented heat wave that saw summer like temperatures for a large part of the northern US and Canada during the winter months that lead into a scorching summer heat wave and record-breaking drought that parched a significant area of the United States.
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