While Binghamton University may offer an exemplary education at an affordable price, there is one characteristic that always manages to irk the students who call this campus home: the weather.
The seemingly constant presence of overcast skies ‘ as well as the occasional need to wear snow boots and shorts in the same week ‘ often leaves students perplexed, wondering why seasons won’t flow as seamlessly as they might elsewhere in the state.
‘Spring is a changeable time of year. It’s typical for spring to be highly variable,’ said Ray Brady, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. ‘You can have summer-type weather and winter-type weather within a week.’
Binghamton’s unusual seasonal transition can be attributed to its location directly underneath a jet stream. Jet streams are fast-flowing air currents that form at the boundaries of neighboring air masses with significant temperature differences.
‘We’re located in between the really cold Canadian air and the really warm Gulf of Mexico air,’ said Mark Blumler, director of undergraduate studies for the geography department. ‘It’s sort of a transition area between warm and cold.’
The jet stream marks the division between the two areas and often shifts.
‘If you’re south of the jet steam, it’s warm, and if you’re north of it, it’s cold,’ Blumler said. ‘The jet stream is often right over us, and it swings back and forth.’
This constant shifting is often the cause of the variety of weather conditions seen in Binghamton.
‘One day you’re north of it, one day you’re south of it, and that causes big changes in very short periods of time,’ Blumler added.
The staggered transition between seasons isn’t the only thing causing Binghamton’s weather woes. Binghamton’s location in the center of a valley also factors into the area’s often bizarre weather patterns.
‘The valley itself has an effect,’ Brady said. ‘Depending on the direction of it, we can have funneling of wind.’
The wind traveling through the valley is often the cause of decreased temperatures and significant wind-chill effects. The low elevation also increases the risk of flooding and there have been two major flood events in the last year.
Brady said that Binghamton’s low elevation may also be the cause of the area’s early and late season snowfall. The excess snow that falls every spring and fall saturates the water table, making the possibility of flooding even greater.
Global warming may also be a contributing factor, as the length of seasons appears to vastly change from year to year.
‘What global warming seems to be doing is making our springs shorter,’ Blumler said. ‘The transition from winter to summer is going faster.’
While only a handful of scientists dispute the existence of global warming, not enough information exists to draw a definite conclusion for a specific area like Binghamton. Scientists like Blumler are still waiting to make conclusions.
‘It seems to be a global warming effect, but it’s hard to be sure,’ Blumler said.