This winter has been pretty much void of snow.
Dr. Andrew Ellis, a professor of meteorology and climate science at Virginia Tech, said rising temperatures across the globe may lead to more winters like this one. But he said it’s hard to predict.
Dr. Ellis said that winters this mild and wet are uncommon.
“The warmer atmosphere, it’s just harder to get precipitation out of that atmosphere,” said Ellis. “But when it does rain, it’s really volatile because the atmosphere is really charged with moisture.”
Dr. Ellis said with a warming climate, the atmosphere is more volatile, meaning severe weather outbreaks could be more common and more dangerous.
“The increased energy in the atmosphere associated with global warming is, sort of, cueing up the atmosphere to be more volatile when severe weather or more difficult weather situations do unfold,” said Ellis.
He said we should expect to see warmer temperatures in the years ahead, but since next winter will be an El Niño year, we may have more snow next time around.