In late January, I found myself consistently waking up to snow that went up to my ankle, to the green pine tree in my backyard immersed in white frost, to the outside of my bedroom window coated with ice. I wondered, what could be responsible for this phenomenon? Because I didn't recall the winters of 2019 and 2020 to be this snowy, I had a hunch. That the burdensome impact of global warming was finally reversing, but how could that be? Was it because, since we were all stuck inside during this whole lockdown, the economy has slowed down, and the Earth has had some time to recover from the scorching hands of global warming? Are we finally seeing change?
Turns out, I was very off the mark! According to meteorologists at the United Kingdom Meteorological Office, 2021 is predicted to be slightly colder than previous years. However, due to the cumbersome footprint of global warming, it is still expected to be one of the hottest years on record! And even more shockingly, although many climate activists hoped that the COVID-19 pandemic would assist the Earth in environmental recovery, it did not help at all, if anything, it did quite the opposite. Despite all the lockdowns brought fourth by officials, they barely made a dent in the vast realm of climate damage made by humanity throughout the last couple years. We haven't had a month where temperatures had been below average since May 2020! This is because our then-president, Donald Trump, had a history of denying climate change, of sacrificing the needs of our planet just to further our country's economic status. And as for the seeming improvement this January, it was a hoax. In fact, it ended up being warmer than average by 3.5°! Had it not snowed so heavily in the last 9 days of this January, it would have been one of the warmest ever!
However, we should not lose hope. Due to the La Niña in the Pacific Ocean, strong winds will blow to the equator westwards, making the overall temperature this year slightly colder. This is the first La Niña in years, since the 2017-2018 winter! The two following winters of 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 have exhibited weak El Niño weather patterns, which are associated with the warming of oceans. NOAA's Climate Prediction Center (CPC) expects for La Niña to continue into this spring, and possibly even into next winter!
As for the weather this February, we should expect the first few days to be more snowy and cold. However, there will be a warm up by the end of this week. In spite of that, this February will be colder and snowier than average.
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