This week we’ve seen a range of weather. We had a foot of snow and temperatures in the teens. Then it was 45 degrees and raining. Are these wild fluctuations caused by climate change? A Kent State geography professor says no. Cameron Lee says these types of ups and downs are normal.
Lee says the winter weather is not a result of climate change.
“By the sheer nature of where we live in the mid latitude we’re going to get a lot of day to day weather changes, and we’re also going to get interannual changes meaning some winters we’re going to have snowier or colder winters and some winters we'll have dryer or warmer weather. Climate trends are showing that we’re getting slightly more persistence in our average everyday weather variability.”
Lee, who is an applied climatologist, says other parts of the world are seeing more temperature and dew point changes including tropical regions, southwestern U.S. deserts, even Canada, but not Ohio.
Lee acknowledges that climate change is a problem, but says it’s not to blame for the weather in our area.
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