Suprise: Historic Snow, Bomb Cyclone In Nebraska Blamed On ‘Climate Change’

They’ve been having a lot of fun in Nebraska with what used to be known as “weather” (and snowfall is the force behind snowfall)

Record snowfall, ‘historic’ bomb cyclone are forces behind Nebraska floods, blizzard

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In popular culture it’s known as bombogenesis, or a bomb cyclone, an epic drop in air pressure that triggers historic weather.

By itself, the moisture-filled storm would not have dealt Nebraska the crippling blow that has occurred. Our harsh, late winter set the stage. When the two combined, they produced Nebraska’s worst flooding in 50 years and worst blizzard in nearly as many years.

“This storm can be considered historic,” said Greg Carbin, chief of forecast operations for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center. “This was a monster, no question about it.”

As the storm roared to life over the Great Plains, it set an apparent record for low pressure in Colorado, set records for snows in Wyoming and Nebraska and shattered flood records in eastern Nebraska.

Wait for it

Bomb cyclones likely have been a part of the planet’s weather system for many millennia. And Nebraska is known for having — over the course of its four seasons — some of the most extreme combinations and types of weather on the planet.

Here we go

But human-caused climate change is warming the planet at an accelerating pace, and that has set the stage for even more extreme weather.

“For sure, the strongest storms are getting stronger with global warming,” said noted climate scientist James Hansen, a native of Iowa. As the Earth warms, its atmosphere has become richer with moisture, which means there’s more latent energy for storms to tap.

Oh, it doesn’t stop there

“There is evidence now in modeling studies that climate change is increasing these factors, supporting the development of more intense bomb cyclones and Nor’easters, packing tropical storm-scale winds and dumping huge amounts of precipitation (often in the form of huge snowfalls).”

Additionally, one of the best understood consequences of global warming is the trend toward heavy rains and snows. That’s what happens on a planet that is more humid.

Last month was Omaha’s snowiest February on record and one of the 10 coldest. This change in winter has increased the potential for a buildup of snow and ice just as spring arrives. The consequence? A greater potential for widespread flooding.

And this was all caused because you drove a fossil fueled vehicle and had a burger. Your fault.