Grazza
Super Moderator
Posts: 11451
Registered: 07-02 |
Danarchy said:
Thing about global warming is that the first thing that happens when the earth warms up is that the ice melts, which creates arctic currents and thus colder weather all around.
It's rather more complex than that, and what you describe is (a simplified account of) one plausible situation (with some tangential historical precedents), but by no means the only one. All you can really say is that significantly altering the composition of the atmosphere is liable to have significant impacts of climate, but the nonlinearity of the system (from a mathematical viewpoint) makes it hard to predict very specific outcomes.
Anyway, the OP is referring to more of a weather phenomenon. I haven't seen any forecasts with -25C for central Europe, but I'm surprised that you haven't experienced any extreme cold in Hungary, as it does have a pronounced continental climate (hot summers, cold winters). My parents were in Budapest in January 2006, and got some days where the temperature was as low as -20C. The forecasts that I have seen for Europe as a whole reflect typical regional variations, with the maritime areas not so cold. And yes, Britain's little bit of wet snow will probably bring things to a halt. But before you laugh at the country as a result, bear in mind that ice (which you tend to get when humidity is high and temperatures bobbing up and down around freezing point) is a lot more troublesome than light dry fluffy snow.
Here in Minnesota it has been an oddly warm winter. That may be due in part to a positive phase of the Arctic Oscillation (last winter, a negative phase was linked to a colder winter in normally temperate parts of the North Hemisphere).
Jodwin said:
When I was living in northern Finland the dry -40 felt about the same as -20 does here in south, by a huge a lake and about 50km from the sea.
Indeed. I'd rather have a dry sunny -20C in Minnesota than a wet miserable +5C in the UK.
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02-02-12 17:38 
