France had a very cold start to winter which notably allowed the Alps and the Pyrenees to snow in, but the American West cannot say the same.
Have you been cold the last few days? Think again, winter has not arrived in the entire Northern Hemisphere. If in France the mercury has fallen low enough, which has allowed our mountain ranges to snow, this is not the case everywhere, and on the other side of the Atlantic, the situation is quite different. In fact, temperatures have reached record highs in America, and the continent has experienced a real month of July to begin winter.
The mercury was indeed 20 degrees above average, which made it possible to have feelings well beyond expectations at such a time of year. These thermal anomalies have particularly affected the great American West, the latter in particular known for its mountain range, the Rockies have not seen snow since last winter, they which are usually recognized for their freezing climate while the end of the year is approaching. Symbol of this warming, the city of Palm Springs in California has recorded temperatures around 37 degrees! In the middle of December.
Faced with this extraordinary phenomenon, climatologists around the world see here a pure and simple demonstration of the action of global warming on our planet. With the increase in greenhouse gases and pollution of all kinds, climates will change in the coming years and many regions of the world will be impacted by this change. If in Europe, the serious floods of the summer, which affected in particular the regions of the Rhine in Germany and in the Benelux were new alarm signals.
The recent rainfall in southwestern France is another demonstration of what nature can produce. And the trend is clearly not in the right direction. The most optimistic climatologists believe that the planet will experience a global warming of between 1.5 and 2 degrees in the coming decades. The most pessimistic think that the Earth could gain up to 6 degrees before the end of the century.
Natural disasters that follow one another
While this may seem insignificant at the local level, from a global point of view such a change can have dramatic consequences, and is likely to multiply extraordinary events of this type. While the American West was experiencing a period of unprecedented warmth, the collision between this hot air and the cold air which touched the east coast generated phenomena much more deplorable than a simple warming of the air.
The central regions of the country have experienced severe tornadoes in recent days, with considerable loss of life. The toll could even exceed 100 dead, an unusual figure for the United States which is however accustomed to this kind of events, the country being hit by 1200 tornadoes every year, often in summer.
