Oulu University scientists in Finland identified the cause of heavy snowfall in the south of Europe in 2018, which led to the catastrophic loss of grape crop. According to the results of scientific work, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the loss of Arctic sea ice due to climate change is able to cause severe and cold winters in medium latitudes. Briefly talks about this in a press release on phys.org.
Scientific work explains how the disappearance of floating ice in the Arctic threatens the whole world, affecting global climatic processes. Snow Paradox is explained by the fact that a reduction in the Arctic seabed ice cover by 50 percent led to an increase in the area of free water and strengthening the evaporation of moisture in winter, which led to stronger snowfall in the south of Europe. The researchers revealed geochemical features in an atmospheric pair moving to the south of the Arctic, which show that its source was the warm open water surface of the Barents Sea.
In 2018, “Beast from the East” fell to Europe – a powerful cyclone, which caused snowfall in February, which led to a loss of one billion pounds of sterling a day. It turned out that 88 percent of the dropped snow arose from the water evaporated from the Barents.
When analyzing long-term trends, starting in 1979, the researchers discovered that every next square meter of winter sea ice lost in the Barents Sea increased the mass of snow dropped by about 70 kilograms. According to forecasts, over the next 60 years, the Barents Sea will be completely free from ice, which will lead to a significant increase in winter precipitation in Europe.