Wacky Weather: What’s Causing It?

By Devi Bridgemohan

Staff Reporter

Despite the recent snowfall, the northeastern United States is expected to have spring-like warmth surge back in.

Students are shedding off their jackets and bringing back their spring garments for the warm weather.

The results of this year’s Groundhog Day showed that we’ll have six more weeks of winter. With these recent weather changes, it seems questionable if our famous groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, really did see his shadow.

The question is then raised: what’s the cause of this wacky weather? Could it be global warming? Or is it because spring is just right around the corner?

“I think it’s global warming because it was such a drastic change in such a short amount of time,” said sophomore Rosheika Vaughan. “It shouldn’t be so hot in February; it’s still winter.”

Recent weather reports show that the highs are in the 50s and 60s. Usually, the high temperatures in Connecticut during these months are in the 30s and lower 40s, according to rssweather.com.

This surge of spring-like warmth across the East is expected to provide temperatures more akin to May rather than the end of February.

Sophomore Nazique Eaddy even dared to challenge if the change of weather was caused by another powerful factor.

“I think the government is controlling the weather and that it was fake snow,” said Eaddy. “How does this all happen? It’s the government and global warming.”

According to global warming statistics gathered by nasa.gov, the planet’s average surface temperature has risen about 2.0 degrees since the late 19th century.

Freshman Greg Lynch offered his opinion on the possible causes of global warming.

“Global warming is caused by increased use of coal in energy creation,” said Lynch.

Junior Jake Mazza attributes global warming to another classic reason.

“It’s a result of the large increase in fossil fuel usage over time,” said Mazza.

Global warming is a change that is heavily driven by increased carbon dioxide and other human-made emissions into the atmosphere, according to climate.nasa.gov.

Globally, about 36.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide was emitted in 2016. Ironically, 2017 was among the hottest years on record, according to Scientific American. Since then, it’s only been getting hotter.

2017 was just a glimpse of how intense the weather has become. Hurricanes like Harvey and Irma were some of the most devastating natural disasters in recent history.

Hurricane Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane that hit Texas on Aug. 25, 2017. According to the Natural Hurricane center, Hurricane Harvey caused $125 billion in damage, making it the most costly hurricanes in U.S. natural disaster history.

13 million people were affected in Texas and other states like Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. As of Oct.ww 13, 2017, at least 88 people have died from the storm, according to texastribune.org.

With statistics to back up a trend of rising global temperatures, we can only speculate as to how Earth’s natural landscape will fare in the coming years.

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