NASA 1999 : Warm Winters In Europe Linked To Greenhouse Gases

Warmer and Wetter Winters in Europe and Western North America Linked to Increasing Greenhouse Gases

June 2, 1999

Why are winters warming up so much faster over Northern Hemisphere continents than over the rest of the globe? A new study by NASA researchers in the June 3 issue of the journal Nature is the first to link the well-documented large degree of North America and Eurasia winter warming and the associated wind changes to rising greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere.

Drew Shindell, an atmospheric scientist from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and Columbia University, NY, found that the large warming that has occurred during Northern Hemisphere winters over the last 30 years — up to nine degrees Fahrenheit, a full 10 times warmer than the global average 0.9 degree Fahrenheit warming — is likely a result of human activities that increase greenhouse gases. Warmer winters will bring more wet weather to Europe and Western North America, Shindell said, with Western Europe the worst hit by storms coming off the Atlantic.

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/19990602/