An unprecedented array of unpredictable weather has been barraging BU as the final stretch of the semester approaches.
At 9 degrees Fahrenheit, last Friday was Binghamton’s coldest Nov. 25 on record. Just four days later the temperature rebounded to a record high 63 degrees Fahrenheit, making it the hottest Nov. 29.
“Within a span of four days we went from a record low to a record high, which is interesting to say the least,” said Dave Nicosia, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Binghamton.
But the entire season has been “topsy-turvey,” Nicosia said, with the mercury hitting 70 degrees Fahrenheit in early November — just days after the season’s first bout of snow.
“There was an early season snow storm on Oct. 25 and downtown Binghamton got a couple of inches but it really hit the hills. We don’t normally get weather like that until mid- to late-November,” Nicosia said.
Nicosia said he doubts that global warming, a widely accepted scientific theory that the warming of the Earth is being caused by pollution, played a role in the recent weather mania.
But BU geophysics professor Steve Dickman thinks global warming might have played a role in Binghamton’s recent weather unpredictability
“Due to increasing industrial activity there has been an increase in greenhouse gases which trap heat as it tries to leave the atmosphere,” Dickman said. “But another consequence of global warming is more variable weather.”
Temperatures change when bodies of air called jetstreams circulate the atmosphere, separating masses of hot air from cold air.
“One of the consequences of the atmosphere having more energy is that jetstreams will also have more energy, causing it to meander or wriggle from side to side,” Dickman said. “So there may be warm weather one day when south of the jetstream and then a cold day when north of the jetstream.”
“Binghamton is under one jetstream now so you would expect to see more variable weather.”
But Nicosia, the weather-service official, said the effects of global warming can only be felt over a long timeframe. He proposes a different explanation for Binghamton’s weird weather.
“There are some very cold weather masses up in Canada that sometimes drift as far down as Binghamton before retreating back north,” Nicosia said.
These Canadian weather systems can make Binghamton very cold while there is still warm weather to the south.
“Binghamton is a very interesting place to forecast the weather,” Nicosia said.
But BU students have not appreciated Binghamton’s unpredictable weather, with campus being plagued by broken umbrellas and leaky shoes one day, and students tearing off gloves and scarves the next.
“It’s ridiculous. I’ve been drenched in so many downpours. It just comes out of nowhere,” said Hattie Nuttall, a junior majoring in mathematics.
“It’s been annoying,” said Robin Bassant, a senior majoring in computer engineering. “You dress up for cold weather and then it is so warm outside.”
But Nicosia said the bouts of unusually warm weather will not last much longer:
“This is pretty much the last gasp of summer…we are on the downward spiral come December.”