ESSIC / AOSC Professor Raghu Murtugudde spoke on-air with WBAL radio host Steve Fermier, on the unusally chilly 2013-14 Maryland winter.
An Earth systems scientist, Murtugudde discussed the cold weather that has persisted for much of the U.S. over the past few months. Murtugudde assured Fermier there is an end to the cold weather, citing non-linear weather patterns and the east Pacific Ocean being stuck in a phase of “La Niña,” an oceanic and atmospheric phenomenon characterized by colder ocean waters.
Murtugudde also answered questions about parallels between current weather patterns and weather patterns during 1816, known as the year without a summer. Murtugudde referenced a Nature Climate Change paper that said volcanic activity has contributed to a recent pause in global warming and that 1816’s long winter occurred after a series of eruptions, but concluded current conditions are unrelated to such events.
WBAL Radio Segment
![Figure 3. Monthly TPW anomaly time series shown in red for ERA5 and blue for MiRS SNPP, 2012-2021. The straight lines are the linear regression fits. [a] is for global, [b] for Tropics, and [c] for mid-latitude regions, respectively.](https://essic.umd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/grassotti-zhou-150x150.png)
