The 2020–2023 North American drought in Los Angeles, September 2022
The 2022–2023 California floods in Chico, California, January 2023

Weather whiplash is the phenomenon of rapid swings between extremes in weather,[1] which some scientists argue is caused by climate change.[1][2][3]

Occurrence

“Weather whiplash” was coined by climate-science-communicator Paul Beckwith in 2017 in his oft-stated phrase "weather wilding, weirding and whiplashing", but in 2023, Vox's Benji Jones wrote that the phrase had been in use for ten years or more.[1] In a 2021 study in the International Journal of Climatology, Cameron C. Lee characterized it as then gaining prominence in both academia and the press.[4] As of 2019, there was no formal scientific definition for weather whiplash.[5]

Weather whiplash was observed amid the 2022 European heat waves, which parched France in one of its worst ever recorded droughts and caused the driest July for decades in England, then broke with heavy rain and flooding,[6] and rains the same summer during the Southwestern North American megadrought.[3] In late 2022 and early 2023, the phenomenon again struck North America as record cold around Christmas receded into record heat in January,[7] which in early February became even more extreme cold across the Northeastern United States.[8] In the US state of California weather events swung from an extreme drought to flooding caused by atmospheric rivers.[1]

Weather whiplash can also bring false springs, or winter warm spells that conceal a freeze following them, and freak snowstorms early in the season; both can disrupt agriculture and the electrical grid.[9][10]

A study in 2018 found a likelihood both extremes of precipitation would increase in California, increasing the chances of very wet years following very dry years and vice versa.[5]

The polar vortex drives fluctuations in winter temperatures in the middle latitudes. Climatologist Judah Cohen and others proposed climate change in the Arctic was causing the vortex to waver, bringing cold air south to the Midwestern United States, which was then replaced by warm tropical air. They said this would increase the frequency of such whiplash in the future.[5] Cohen acknowledged this remained a minority viewpoint as of 2023.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Jones, Benji (January 11, 2023). "Welcome to the era of weather whiplash". Vox. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  2. ↑ Ramirez, Rachel (October 23, 2021). "Weather whiplash: A series of storms could ease California drought, but also unleash flood hazards". CNN. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Borenstein, Seth (August 23, 2022). "Weather whiplash: Summer lurches from drought to flood". Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 13, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  4. ↑ Lee, Cameron C. (June 30, 2022). "Weather whiplash: Trends in rapid temperature changes in a warming climate". International Journal of Climatology. 42 (8): 4214–4222. Bibcode:2022IJCli..42.4214L. doi:10.1002/joc.7458. ISSN 0899-8418. S2CID 244360478. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023 – via Wiley.
  5. 1 2 3 Harvey, Chelsea (February 11, 2019). "How Climate Change May Affect Winter "Weather Whiplash"". Scientific American. Archived from the original on November 13, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  6. ↑ Harvey, Chelsea (August 30, 2022). "'Weather Whiplash' Withers, then Drowns Areas Worldwide". Scientific American. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  7. ↑ "Weather Whiplash". NASA Earth Observatory. January 5, 2023. Archived from the original on April 1, 2023. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  8. ↑ Ostapiuk, Joseph (February 2, 2023). "Arctic blast to deliver dangerously-low temperatures to NYC, says National Weather Service forecaster". silive. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved May 19, 2023.
  9. ↑ Bates, S. (December 21, 2018). "Drastic Shifts in Weather Give People "Winter Weather Whiplash"". Eos. Archived from the original on May 5, 2023. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
  10. ↑ Burchfield, John (April 21, 2023). "Climate Friday | What are the dangers of a spring freeze for farmers?". WTOL. Archived from the original on May 2, 2023. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
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