Visible satellite imagery of the 2010 North American blizzard over the north-eastern coast of the United States. (Credit: National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center, Wikimedia Commons)
The extreme cold weather observed across Europe and the east coast of the US in recent winters could be partly due to a natural, long-term pattern of warming and cooling Atlantic waters, known as the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO).
Earth scientists have shown a connection between this pattern and changes in atmospheric circulation that allow cold weather systems to exist over the eastern US and Europe. Though this pattern does not hold for the winter of 2013-2014, it may have contributed to colder winters from 2009-2013.
Original research paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters on April 1, 2014.
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