A large blizzard hit the east coast on December 26, 2010, causing widespread problems. One of the worst areas hit was NewYork City. The Blizzard shutdown the city’s three major airports and stopped trains. It was the six largest snowfall in New York
City’s history with twenty inches of snow.
The clean-up of the blizzard has been slow causing officials to examine the response. The slow response left streets unplowed for days and many passengers were stranded on trains and in the airports. On Dec. 26, all flights were canceled at the Kennedy International Airport and the Newark Liberty International airport in New Jersey, but some flights did come out of La Gaurdia Airport. The flight
cancelations totaled 4,000.
The New York Department of Sanitation has taken heavy criticism. It’s workers have been accused of being purposely slow in their response because of anger about recent budget cuts. Some workers have said that their bosses ordered them to slow down. New York City’s Department of investigation is deciding wether to conduct a formal investigation.
Along with the people stranded, thousands of people were without power from the sixty-five mile per hour winds and falling trees. Five people died in car accidents during the storm.
The recent cold has caused people to question global warming. Some Republicans have said that global warming is ending and that it was a hoax. This si a big blow for many left wing democrats because they support global warming and climate change where as the right wing republicans support big industry and spending. Many global warming experts now say that the recent cold temperatures are actually a sign of global warming. Some weather predictions have shown that January could be the coldest for the U.S. since the 1980s. Scientists have said that the melting sea ice and rising temperatures have caused changes in atmospheric pressure that has affected the jet stream, changing the way cold air moves.
Also the melting ice has created more moisture in the air which has turned into more
snow over in Siberia. Some of the weather fluctuations in the US and Australia are due to the rise minimal rise in water in the ocean. Although the rise was small it created massive fluctuations in weather patterns. This was cause by there being more area for the sun's rays to reflect which caused the weather patterns to shift due to a small amount o cooling. When the weather patterns changed both countries were very unprepared which resulted in a catastrophe for them. In the US it shut down most of New York City and in Australia it resulted in a flood the size of Germany and France combined.
Scientists do not completely understand how the melting ice will affect the climate, but its affects will increase as more ice melts. The cold weather has caused an increase in global warming skeptics. Studies have shown that the number of believers increases after an unusually hot summer and decreases after a very cold winter.
Despite of the recent cold 2010 turned out to be one of the warmest years on record and the past decade has been the warmest decade on record. Also the record
highs have increased compared to record lows to two record highs for every record low.
I believe this is important because Global Warming is a major world issue.
My sources were:
>The New York Times-Science-Snow and Snowstorms http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/snow_and_snowstorms/index.html?scp=3&sq=northeastern%20blizzard&st=cse
>CNN U.S.-NYC Officials to Probe Response to Last Week’s Blizzard-http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/01/04/new.york.snow/index.html?iref=allsearch
>The Scientific American- “Bulge” in Atmospheric Pressure Responsible for Cold Winter Amid Global Warming-http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bulge-in-atmospheric-pressure
>The Washington Post-Record Warmth in 2010 Despite Cooling Influences- http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2011/01/2010_dominated_by_record_warmt.html
>The Wall Street Journal-Fear of a White Planet-http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203513204576047741057676566.html?KEYWORDS=global+warming
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