“Waking up on Christmas morning, relate USA Today, Millions of people across the United States have faced unprecedented temperatures as a gigantic polar storm has been pounding the country for several days now, bringing heavy snowfall and dangerous cold. ” From Friday, December 23, the storm evolved into a low pressure bomb, “a meteorological phenomenon characterized by high winds, heavy snowstorms and freezing temperatures.”
While the cold snap is expected to continue in the coming days, the death toll is already 24. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses lost power and thousands of flights were cancelled. This climatic episode also affects Canada, where up to 550,000 customers of the Hydro-Quebec distributor were deprived of electricity at the same time on Friday, at the peak of the cuts, indicates CBC.
Climate change
In another article, USA Today has brought together the explanations of several scientists in order to respond to those – many – who argue that this cold snap calls into question the reality of global warming.
The American information site specifies in particular that, if we observe an increase in global temperature for 150 years, “this does not mean that it is hotter everywhere but that the climate, as a whole, is more volatile.”
The fact remains that, on average, the winters are getting warmer. From a climatic point of view, the American winters are shorter, the summers longer; “57% of US weather stations have recorded a decline in snowfall since the 1930s,” continues USA Today. As the century progresses, it is expected that “the number of extreme heat episodes is increasing, despite some extreme cold episodes.”