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It’s spring in the Midwest. The only problem? It’s midwinter (www.cnn.com)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11868967 Definitely feeling it here. It was warm enough to comfortably go ride my motorcycle on Friday.

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.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago

This is a much bigger problem than just losing winter tourism money or the fact that it’s warmer than normal.

This directly impacts the temperatures for the coming year(s).

Normally, the snowfall and ice in winter acts to reflect a large portion of the solar radiation (white is a great reflective surface), but instead, nearly all of that solar radiation is just sinking right in and adding more energy (heat) to the system.

This is a big part of the positive feedback loop, and if it continues we are fuuuuuuuucked.