If you thought January was snowier than usual, you were right.
A sampling of National Weather Service reporting stations around our region tells the tale.
At Windsor Locks, Conn., there were 57 inches of snow. It was the snowiest month in history at that location, smashing the old record of 45.3 inches set in December 1945.
Boston had 38.3 inches. That's the third snowiest January on record. Concord, N.H., had 38.1 inches, or double the normal January average of 18.9 inches.
Providence, R.I., had 30.7 inches, its fourth snowiest January on record. Worcester, Mass., had 48.4 inches in January, second only to the 50.9 inches that fell in January 2005. Albany, N.Y., had 34.4 inches, the sixth snowiest January for that station.
And February, usually the snowiest month of the winter, began with another foot of snow in the Brattleboro area.
We can hear people saying, “See, there's no such thing as global warming!” The climate change naysayers usually say such things after a major cold snap or snowstorm.
However, according to climatologists, global warming is a major reason why we're seeing so much snow in New England.
Last month, the National Climatic Data Center said that 2010 tied 2005 as the warmest year on record, and that for the 34th consecutive year, the Earth's temperature was above the global average of the 20th century.
The center's data shows that nine of the 10 warmest years have occurred since 2001 and that the Earth's average surface temperature has risen more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900.
At the same time, the center finds that the farther north you go, the more the warming increases. For example, the Arctic Ocean has warmed an average of almost 3 degrees F in the past three decades.
Increasing Arctic temperatures directly linked to the snowy winter we're going through. According to a report last month from the Inter Press Service (IPS), large volumes of warm water are pouring into the Arctic Ocean, speeding the melt of sea ice.
How warm? Normal January temperatures in the Arctic are about –35 F. This year, they approached 35 degrees F in some areas. This temperature swing is very unusual in a region that receives only about four or five hours of weak sunlight this time of year.
Even worse, the warming and melting of the Arctic is happening much faster than climatologists expected. With less Arctic sea ice, and the warming of the ocean and the atmosphere there, some experts fear that the ice cover will be essentially gone in as little as five years - something that most climatologists had previously thought would take decades to happen.
Since the polar regions are key drivers of Earth's weather and climate, researchers agree that the rapid defrosting of the Arctic has already altered the climate system.
Why? As more and more sea ice melts, there is more open water to absorb the summer sun's heat, which is not desirable when you consider that a day of 24-hour summer sun in the Arctic puts more heat on the surface of the ocean than a day in the tropics. That extra heat in the ocean is gradually released into the lower atmosphere from October to January, as the region slowly re-freezes months later than normal.
With a large part of the Arctic Ocean now radiating heat instead of being cold and ice-covered, wind circulation patterns in the northern hemisphere are being disrupted.
As a result, the Arctic stays warm, while mid-latitude regions become colder and receive more snow for much of the winter.
That was the pattern last winter, when the Mid-Atlantic states saw record-breaking amounts of snow. That pattern is repeating itself this winter, only this time, southern Vermont is seeing more snow than last year.
Winter in Vermont is predictably unpredictable. However, if cold and snowy winters become the rule rather than the exception in the Northeastern United States in the coming years, the extremes of Vermont weather in winter could become more extreme.
In short, this winter in Vermont is what global warming looks like.
This past spring in Vermont, when we saw a hard freeze in May that affected many crops, is what global warming looks like.
This past summer in Vermont, when we saw drought and a long succession of 90 degree days, is what global warming looks like.
This past fall in Vermont, when we had abnormally warm weather right into late November, is what global warming looks like.
And the new normal for weather in Vermont, thanks to global warming, is shaping up to be wild swings in precipitation and temperature, more storms of greater intensity, and utter unpredictability.
The realities of global warming are all around us. What are we going to do about it?