Isn't increased snowfall an expected result of global warming?

Question

This is a scientific question, so I don't need to hear deniers complaining about how people blame everything on global warming.

Here is my thinking:

On average global warming causes increased precipitation to fall due to warmer average weather causing more evaporation. In the winter, when temperatures are below freezing, precipitation falls as snow.

On average, an increased global temperature of a fraction of a degree is not going to bring winter temperatures in cold regions above freezing. But it is going to increase evaporation.

Therefore, it seems to me that increased snowfall is an expected result of global warming. However, I don't think I've ever seen this result predicted.

Is my thinking on this issue correct?

Answer 1

maybe. it could cause more snow we just don't know for sure. there are way to many variables to "logic" this one out.

Answer 2

But it's getting colder and I mean really colder.

Answer 3

I agree, but increased precipitation also happens during ice ages, its how the snow falls to harden into glaciers in the first place.

I dont deny that it is warming but I do deny the thought that we are "99% sure we are causing it".  Because there is no way they are that sure.  Warming trends have happened in the past, therefore we cant assume this one is caused by us until we determine what caused the past warming trends.  We need to find out what causes the cycles in the first place, in order to determine its cause.

But the increased precipitation is noticable in some areas.  Other areas are experiencing droughts.  But isnt this a common thing though?  There will always be a flood or drought somewhere in the world at a given time..

Answer 4

Your thinking is valid.

That's all I can say.

Answer 5

You can't generalize like that.  Some place might become dryer and some wetter, some colder and some warmer, with the overall global pattern being warmer.

However, in general, you're generalization might be true.  if you know what I mean.

Answer 6

Your thinking is so one side im suprised you can even walk straight.  Do you walk in a circle?

If global warming is true... winter percipitation would not fall as snow but as rain!  If you can't figure that out on your own then there's nothing that logic and common sense can do to help you.

I love being right and hearing myself say it.

Answer 7

I once had a wise man say to me "whatever you can imagine can be done, at least on paper".I don't think the terms: average or global wouldn fit in with the logic because, some information is missing from this picture.Among many other things it could just as well turn colder or hotter then expected.

Answer 8

u make an excellent point with the rainfall, but i dont really think it is. they call it global WARMING because the polar ice caps are melting more and more every year do to the extreme temperatures in the atmosphere. a few people have noticed that the winter this year was much warmer than it was last year, and that there was less snowfall than usual. the planet is being heated, and that would result to LESS snowfall and more rain.

i may or may not be correct, i dont know. but from the name of the issue and the comparison of winters i'd say that there'd be less snowfall, not more.

Answer 9

Not necessarily.  Warming reduces the number of days below freezing, shortening the snow season.  

http://aspenglobalwarming.com/westerncol...

• Aspen's climate has already changed noticeably in the last 25 years. "Temperatures have increased by about 3 degrees and the average number of frost-free days per year has increased about 20 days," the study said.

• Total precipitation decreased 6 percent over the last 25 years while snowfall is down 16 percent.

• Most of Aspen's precipitation will fall as rain rather than snow. "Snowpack will decline, and peak runoff will occur earlier in the spring," the study said.

Warming trends in the Tahoe Basin:

http://www.tahoedailytribune.com/article...

-- Cold days are fewer: The number of days with average air temperatures below freezing has dropped from 79 days to 52 days since 1911.

-- Less precipitation falls as snow: The percentage of snow in total precipitation has decreased from 52 percent to 34 percent since 1911.

Answer 10

Of course increased temps will increase evaporation.   Which in turn will increase clouds( that block sunlight) which will cause more snow in higher elevations.(reflecting sunlight back into space.) thereby reducing warming........OH MY that sounds like a natural cycle!!!!!!!

Have a nice day:)

Answer 11

That is correct.  And a lot of the water that will be evaporated from the oceans will fall over Antarctica and the north pole as snow, lessening the impact of melting glaciers.

Answer 12

yes

Answer 13

Yes, I did expect more extreme weather due to GW. The cold spell prevailing in China have never lasted so long in its entire recorded history. Broke the record for the coldest Lunar New Year in Hong Kong.

Answer 14

I think the problem is that no one really knows what climate change is going to do.  Of course we can all conjecture about what 2-10 degrees of global temperature rise will do on the whole, but we have no idea how it will impact convection currents in both air and sea, and where and when rain will fall.  This is the biggest problem of all. Therefore, I can't see how we could possibly predict more snow will be the result of global warming.  Depends on the latitude we're talking about and whether we completely interrupt the cycles of air and sea cooling by, say, melting Greenland, exacerbating El Nino/La Nina, etc.  Six Degrees Can Change the World will begin airing tonight on National Geographic channel.  Everyone should check out this documentary on climate change.

Answer 15

the 10 feet in Chicago or snow in Baghdad. Still like  lower heating cost.

Answer 16

It seems reasonable to me however I do not know if all this snow is becasue of global warming, I think this is just weather. It is winter after all so the snow could just be that we are just having a more snowier winter. Your arugement makes sence to me but I think it is more just weather.

Answer 17

No, it means that global warming is over.

Answer 18

Yes. The same thing happened,but on a much slower pace,when the previous ice ages occurred.  If you noticed,the ice sheets didn't cover the oceans,only the continents. I'm sure there is a direct correlation between the temp. of the ocean water,and the rate of evaporation. The same process can be seen with lake effect snow from the Great Lakes. When the lakes freeze over,the lake effect snow ends. Try to imagine a huge walk-in freezer,with a warm shower spraying down in the middle.  It wouldn't take long before there would be big block of ice,with a hole in the middle. Then you have the albedo effect,when snow cover reflects the infra red rays away,keeping the air next to the ground below freezing. An ice age can start that way. Now, the change in weather patterns ,with unusual,powerful wind shears that tore apart the rapidly forming hurricanes,bringing more of the warm tropical energy into the northern latitudes.  That's why we've had such  bizzare winter weather.  69 F-3 or F-4 tornadoes on a single day is weird enough,but in the winter,and so far north!?!  Look for more of the same!

Answer 19

Yes, Dana, your thinking IS correct.  

But let's go further.  

Doesn't snowfall increase the albedo?  Wouldn't this be a NEGATIVE feedback?

Also, wouldn't an increase in snowfall in a place like the high plains of Antarctica sequester some water and cause the ocean levels to DROP?

Oh those pesky parameters and feed backs!!!  Who could ever sort them out??  Tell me, Dana.  Who?

#1:  Not a bad point, Dana, but the fact is is that there is a lot of snow on the ground this winter--from north to south.  I live in Kansas and it's been white all winter.  That's not normal.  Increased snowfall is increased snowfall and it feeds back negatively (negative wrt temp increase).

#2:  "miniscule"??  Compair the area of Antarctica and throw in the interior of Greenland to the rest of the glaciers on the planet.  If snowfall increases in these areas, it is gone for--just about--ever.

#3:  Multi-parameter computer modeling on data derived from "proxies", and then extrapolated far into the future??

Where are the mathematicians/statisticians in these arguments?

Get a grip on yourself.  Really, does EVERYTHING point to global warming?  Even the stuff that doesn't point there?

You've got religion real bad, my boy.

Answer 20

yes

there is not much else to say.

I always think not of Global Warming- but  of Climate "Change", as such one should expect the weather to change, and shift "outwards" towards the extremes. Hence more snow , more rain, etc