No, Donald Trump, the existence of fall does not disprove global warming
By Angela Fritz October 19
Like clockwork, Donald Trump has yet again illustrated that he does not understand weather or climate change, arguing that this morning’s cold weather disproves the existence of global warming.
A few things for Mr. Trump, though:
1. Who is calling this a “major freeze?” This is a pretty typical fall freeze, but I understand the media can sometimes get carried away with itself, so I double-checked with a Google news search. Alas, no one is calling this a major freeze.
2. This freeze is not weeks ahead of normal. Maybe, maybe if I’m giving Mr. Trump the benefit of the doubt it’s a few days, maybe a single week ahead of normal for some people. Here in the D.C. region, you could even argue it’s behind schedule in parts of northern Virginia and western Maryland. We keep track of these things.
Median date of first freeze. (NOAA)
3. The existence of winter (or cold temperatures, or winter storms, or ice, or a snowball on the Senate floor) does not disprove the theory of global warming. Winter will always be colder than summer, and there’s no single cold snap — not even a year’s worth — that will invalidate the fact that our Earth is on a warming trend due to the burning of fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases.
In fact, there are even studies that suggest global warming will increase the severity of our winter storms, as the air warms and more water vapor is made available for snow.
The Earth just recorded its warmest summer on record, according to NOAA, NASA and the Japan Meteorological Agency, and the entire year is all but certain to end as the warmest on record.
“[T]he historical data suggest it would take a remarkable and abrupt reversal in the NOAAGlobalTemp time series over the remainder of the year to upend 2015’s drive toward record-breaking status,” NOAA scientists wrote in September. “In other words, it appears extremely unlikely that 2015 will lose its commanding lead.”
But I’m guessing that won’t have any impact on Mr. Trump’s future global warming tweets.
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