Melting Arctic ice is causing UK winters to get colder

New research suggests link between the Arctic melt and recent snowier winters

A man walks through snow covered banks of the Danube river in Zemun near Belgrade on February 12, 2012. Cold weather claimed seven more lives on Sunday in the Balkans -- two in Albania, one i
(Image credit: 2012 AFP)

THE COLD, snowy northern hemisphere winters of the last few years may be down to the retreat of Arctic sea ice, according to research by American and Chinese scientists.

Rising global temperatures have caused a drop in the area of the Arctic Ocean covered by ice in summer and autumn. That has increased the temperature of Arctic air, according to the research headed by Dr Jiping Liu. This in turn reduces the temperature difference between the Arctic and more southerly latitudes over the Atlantic Ocean, which weakens the northern jet stream, the air current that normally brings Europe and the west its warmer weather. Warmer Arctic weather, it seems, also causes extra evaporation of water from the Arctic Ocean, which then falls as snow across northern latitudes.

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