How does global warming contribute to record cold temperatures?

Question

I really want to know because I don't know how global warming to supposed to contribute to these shifts in the weather--thanks!

Answer 1

As I understand it, it is related to the shifting of ocean currents.  As polar ice caps melt, it creates larger contrasts in ocean temperatures along current lines, thereby changing the normal current patterns and making emerging trends more pronounced and more frequent:  wet places become wetter, dry places become more dry, and cold places can become colder.

Answer 2

Conditions over one winter are weather -not climate.  Thirty years would be considered climate.

Skeptic argument.

It was way colder than normal today in Wagga Wagga, proof that there is no global warming.

"Does this even deserve an answer? If we must ...

Answer:

The chaotic nature of weather means that no conclusion about climate can ever be drawn from a single data point, hot or cold. The temperature of one place at one time is just weather, and says nothing about climate, much less climate change, much less global climate change."

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2006/10...

Answer 3

Some argue that the weather we are experiencing is merely a shift like the earth has experienced for it's entire existence...like the ice age etc.  However, the fact that we have holes in our ozone, which basically protects our habitats from severe changes, leads most to come to the conclusion that we are experiencing more severe weather changes because we are slowly losing our protective layer.

Answer 4

Good Question. Where I am at it is nearly freezing and it snowed on Saturday April 19. Sheesh. Now I don't pretend to know why warm is actually cold but I'm sure a riddlin based prozac munchin scientist will be able to tell you. Now don't go believing anything else. This is Global Warming at its finest.

Never ever question a scientist.

Answer 5

We've been pumping serious CO2 into the atmosphere for 150 years. C02 absorbs solar energy = heat = kinetic energy. More kinetic energy in the atmosphere mean more air movement (hot and cold), that means more storms (winter and summer).

The earth still cools in winter and warms in summer, but with more energy in the atmosphere, the consequence is weather extremes of every sort.

Answer 6

I suppose by frfler's logic, heat waves, droughts, floods, etc. cannot be caused by global warming because they are weather, not climate.

I agree.

Edit:

Why do people continually relate global warming to "holes in our ozone layer"? They are unrelated. CFCs have not been emitted on a large scale for decades, so the hole in the ozone should be shrinking being that the ozone layer continually repairs itself. But, oh wait... the ozone had a hole in it well before we started emitting CFCs...