With the new year, an increased number of changes during the winter season have become more evident. The lack of snow and severe weather has highlighted the lack of consistency with the winter weather this year. The blame has started to shift towards the fact that 2024 is an El Niño year, which, according to CNN “Typically leads to a milder winter in the North, from the Pacific Northwest to the Rockies, Plains and Midwest. Individual storms can still form and deliver bouts of brutal cold or heavy snow to these regions, but they are typically less frequent… This would be bad news for portions of the Midwest also dealing with extreme and exceptional levels of drought, and for snowpack in the Pacific Northwest.” The El Niño year, which occurs every two to seven years, cannot only be to blame for the inconsistent weather that Issaquah and Washington as a whole are experiencing, as the world itself is suffering from similar weather anomalies. This is not only due to the El Niño year, but also due to climate change.
The effects of climate change have become increasingly noticeable with the severity of the blizzards and storms that the Pacific Northwest has experienced. According to National Geographic, “Scientists predict climate change could make blizzards more intense. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. This moisture eventually falls as precipitation—either as rain (when temperatures are warm) or snow (when temperatures are below freezing)—which results in more frequent and intense storms. Sea temperatures are also on the rise, which increases the amount of energy and moisture available to storms, thus amplifying their severity.” This means that all the weather changes due to El Niño are then being amplified by the effects of climate change as the severe weather inconsistency, due to the El Niño year, that cause blizzards to become more intense are only intensified by global warming. The combination of both of these weather altering effects has made a noticeable difference in our climate. Senior Brooklyn D’Souza states, “I have definitely noticed a difference [in our climate] compared to a few years ago.” Freshman Sebastian Csonaki states, “It feels hotter.”
The amplified severity of inconsistent weather has only increased their negative effect on the climate. As the changes pile up, the effects on society have begun to increase. According to ABC, “As winter gets shorter, disease-carrying pests are migrating further north and thriving… [these] ticks are moving up the eastern seaboard, already fully established in southern Massachusetts and getting into Maine. As winters continue to shrink in calendar days, the Lyme disease-carrying black-legged ticks will become established farther North, even into northern Maine.” While the severity of this tick seems far across the country, there have also been some noticeable changes to Washington’s climate, other than the severe cold, and unpredictable weather. Junior Colin Ryall states, “There is much less snow than usual, and it has made it harder to snowboard.” This may seem like an unimportant change, but there are many jobs that are reliant on a consistent amount of snow that must be dropped every year. According to USA Today, “From 1982 to 2021, the snowpack season became shorter at about 86% of the sites where snowpack was measured, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports. Across all sites, the length of the snowpack season decreased by about 18 days, on average.” A decline in the snowpack means that the availability of better snow, or even any snow at all, is also going to decrease, as with less snow on the ground, it is harder for the snow to stick and pile up. This decline in snow will then harm the skiing and snowboarding industry with resorts lacking enough snow to have longer seasons and make enough money to last until next winter. The resorts themselves create jobs for many people during the winter, and a decline in their availability could harm many other people who rely on the resort to make a living. The lack of jobs does not only extend to snow sports, according to sophomore Shaela Joy, “There is going to be less jobs available for winter-based jobs like snow plowing.” Due to global warming, which has made changes that have had severe negative effects on the climate itself, a whole community of people whose pay relies on the snow every year is at stake.
Overall, the inconsistency in the weather can not only be blamed on the El Niño phenomenon, as climate change’s hold on the weather tightens, the certainty of how Washington’s weather patterns decreases, only furthering the harmful impact on our society; Either through ticks spreading diseases, that otherwise would not be able to survive without a warmer climate, or through changing the lives of many, whose jobs rely on the climates consistency, winter is becoming harder to manage for all.
