{"id":96989,"date":"2026-01-26T10:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/96989\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T10:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:48:32","slug":"philadelphia-snow-climate-scientists-explain-the-connection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/96989\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia snow: Climate scientists explain the connection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In fact, it may seem like a paradox, but Barlow said that scientists think the biggest winter storms \u2014 like <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/articles\/philadelphia-winter-storm-2026-snow-updates\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the one that hit<\/a> a large swath of the U.S. this past weekend \u2014 are becoming more intense due to <a href=\"https:\/\/whyy.org\/whyy-news-climate-desk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">climate change<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>A warmer atmosphere can hold more water, so that increases precipitation overall, Barlow said.\n<\/p>\n<p>When conditions are right, snow is still possible. And in some cases, climate change can even drive heavier snowfall.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s more water coming down,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we also manage to get some old-fashioned cold, then you have the potential for more snow.\u201d\n  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe upper limit on snow is higher, because you\u2019ve increased the water side of it,\u201d he added. \u201cBut you\u2019re decreasing the temperature side, so getting that upper limit is harder.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p>Barlow said scientists are trying to figure out whether climate change could also turbocharge the biggest winter storms indirectly by disrupting the circulation in the stratosphere.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSort of helping them stay cold \u2014 colder than they would otherwise be in a warming environment,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n<p>The combination of rare but intense winter weather events could mean communities are less prepared, Barlow said.\n<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn terms of \u2026 how familiar people are with these events and how much cities have reasonably budgeted for snowplows and snow removal and ice and all that, it hits differently,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you\u2019re unfamiliar with them, they hit harder.\u201d\n        <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In fact, it may seem like a paradox, but Barlow said that scientists think the biggest winter storms&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,14834,5206],"class_list":["post-96989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-snow","tag-whyy-news-climate-desk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}