Introduction: Recently, China has been hit by a rare cold wave that may have originated in relation to climate change in the Arctic. According to Reuters, warming in the Arctic could weaken the barriers that normally block strong Arctic winds, allowing cold air to move south, affecting China's winter weather. This phenomenon has caught the attention of meteorologists, who warn that global warming could lead to instability in the climate system, triggering more extreme weather events.
Text: On December 13, a strong wind accompanied by a cold wave entered China from Xinjiang and quickly moved eastward, causing severe cold in northern cities such as Beijing, and even rare snowfall in places such as Guangdong in the south. This extreme cold weather is not common in China, but this year's cold wave has not only dropped significantly in temperature, but also lasted longer, which has caught the attention of experts.
Climatologists point to a possible leak from the polar vortex around the Arctic, which is a possible cause of the cold wave event. Polar vortices usually tightly surround the Arctic, preventing cold air from the Arctic from invading lower latitudes. However, as the Arctic region warms, the intensity of the polar vortex may weaken, making it easier for cold air to move south, triggering cold waves.
Sun Shao, a climatologist at the University of California, Irvine, pointed out that the Arctic Circle has been the region with the fastest rate of global warming in the past 30 years, a phenomenon known as "Arctic amplification". He explained that a warming climate causes the polar vortex to weaken, which makes it easier for the cold air inside the vortex to move southward, leading to the occurrence of cold wave events.
Although there is still debate about whether the weakening of polar vortices is becoming more common and the direct impact of global warming on the frequency of occurrence of this phenomenon, researchers generally agree that global warming is causing more extreme weather events, including rare cold spells in winter.
Sun Shao stressed that severe cold spells do not contradict global warming, but rather indicate that the climate system is becoming increasingly unstable. This instability makes climate** based on regional averages or monthly averages no longer accurate.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that Arctic sea ice has been shrinking since 2000, with temperatures in the Arctic rising twice or faster than the global average. These changes could have far-reaching implications for global climate patterns.
Although China's weather forecast** states that the unusually cold weather will end by the end of December and temperatures will rise back to normal across the country, meteorologists warn that the El Niño phenomenon has complicated China's winter weather forecast. El Niño usually leads to warmer winter temperatures in China, but this can mask intra-seasonal fluctuations and extreme events.
Conclusion: The recent extreme cold weather in China may be caused by the warming of the Arctic, a phenomenon that has attracted the attention of meteorologists. They warn that global warming could lead to instability in the climate system, triggering more extreme weather events. This change not only has an impact on China's winter weather, but could also have long-term implications for global climate patterns. Therefore, we must remain vigilant about climate change and take action to reduce its impact on human societies and ecosystems.