January Thaw or Climate Change?
January 2020 broke records with consecutive 70 degree days — should we be worried?
What often trips people up about climate change is the word “change.” It brings to mind the image of a paradigm shift, something akin to the massive upheavals that killed the dinosaurs and brought on the ice age. However, this isn’t how climate change works. The climate crisis is an amplification of existing weather phenomena — summers that aren’t just hot but blazing, winters that aren’t just cold but brutal, intense storms that are frequent and disastrous — along with extreme interruptions in weather patterns.
So, in terms of the annual January thaw, an event that we all anticipate and enjoy — yes, we had one. Or more accurately, we had a mid-winter spring.
Last weekend, Jan 11th and 12th, Boston saw highs of 70 degrees or above on consecutive January days for the first time ever. Buffalo, where the temperature on the same date last year did not reach 20 degrees, reached 67 degrees on Saturday. Records for daily highs were broken from Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh to New York City and Bangor, Maine. This begs the question — was it a January thaw or was it climate change?
The January Thaw is not just anecdotal — annual average temperatures do rise about 10°F around January…
