States in the Southeast, Northeast and Midwest experienced historical amounts of snowfall and snowstorms in the past week, with up to two feet of snow building up in the Northeast and Carolinas. Schools temporarily shut down and there are 85 confirmed deaths, with reports expecting storms to continue in February. Freshman Biology and Advanced Placement Environmental Science teacher Brian Bodas discussed the causes and consequences of these events.
What do you think caused this spike in snowstorms, especially in the Northeast, Southeast and Midwest this year, compared to previous years?
“There are a number of different phenomena, from longer-term climate and weekly meteorological stuff, to other things like El Niño and La Niña. Usually, cold storms influence southern states, and it’s mostly due to the deviation in the jet stream since the Arctic air gets sent to the south. So, these occurrences definitely aren’t common but are certainly not unheard of. [In] Florida, where this doesn’t typically happen, there is usually just a deviation in the jetstream and associated with pressure regions that cause deflection of the jet stream. La Niña data makes this typical for alterations in jetstreams, so the storms are going into the Pacific Northwest because of the jetstream.”
What do these storms mean for the environment and animals? How long will recovery take?
“Most plants and animals that have gone through the evolutionary process are highly adapted. In terms of distribution, because of climate change, [and] in terms of capacity to tolerate these things like [storms], recovery probably won’t take long. Tropical plants and animals will definitely suffer more, though, because these types of storms are atypical in those regions.”
How are environmental agencies like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and United States Department of Agriculture handling these types of situations since many are affected? How do you think this is going to affect the agricultural industry and prices in our grocery stores?
“Domestic products in these states that normally suffer from these periods might be set back by a year [maximum], or there might be a reduction in crops, like oranges in Florida or nuts in Georgia. So, this could increase the market price temporarily, but probably not for long. Some of the agencies are modeling and forecasting meteorological events much better, like El Niño and La Niña, with advanced forecasting. So, since we knew this storm was coming, this helps prepare and remediate problems. Like other storms, we already knew they would happen, so this helps companies like electrical corporations wait for the event and combat it more easily, especially when … restoring electricity [is] needed. Modeling is super helpful, too, for quick response time, unlike decades ago, when we didn’t know that a lot of these events would happen. So we can definitely better predict the extent of these storms and how to prepare.”
