Yesterday, From Channel 8 in Michigan.
The 2.5″ of snow at Marquette was the earliest 2.5″ snowfall since 10/17/1976.
HERE
I know, I know.......more snow is from global warming despite what all the climatologists said 10 year ago.
Most don't see a contradiction between a warming world and lots of snow. That includes Kevin Trenberth, a prominent climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado.
"The fact that the oceans are warmer now than they were, say, 30 years ago means there's about on average 4 percent more water vapor lurking around over the oceans than there was, say, in the 1970s," he says.
Warmer water means more water vapor rises up into the air, and what goes up must come down.
"So one of the consequences of a warming ocean near a coastline like the East Coast and Washington, D.C., for instance, is that you can get dumped on with more snow partly as a consequence of global warming," he says.
To understand the relationship between climate change and intense snowfall, you first need to understand that global warming certainly doesn't do away with winter or the seasons. So it'll still be plenty cold enough for snow much of the time. Meanwhile, global warming loads the dice in favor of more intense precipitation through changes in atmospheric moisture content. "Warming things up means the atmosphere can and does hold more moisture," explains Kevin Trenberth, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "So in winter, when there is still plenty of cold air there's a risk of bigger snows. With east coast storms, where the moisture comes from the ocean which is now warmer, this also applies."
"More winter and spring precipitation is projected for the northern U.S., and less for the Southwest, over this century," adds the draft US National Climate Assessment.
Sources:
1)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123671588
2)
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/01/global-warming-janus-snow