Germany encountered a rare snowstorm and extreme weather. Why is the local weather so extreme this year?

Germany encountered a rare snowstorm

According to news released by the German Meteorological Office, many places in Germany experienced extreme weather from the evening of the 6th to the 7th local time, with blizzards in the north and freezing rain falling in the center. . The highest level of weather warning has been issued in some areas. Relevant departments have called on people to avoid driving as much as possible, and some public transportation has also been forced to suspend operations. Firefighters, police, disaster prevention and control, and road service organizations from all over the country are doing their best to coordinate their work and actively eliminate risks.

German media reported on the 7th that many federal states, including North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, and Thuringia, were severely affected. Not only were many roads blocked, but short-distance and long-distance trains were also blocked. was cancelled. At the same time, accidents caused by extreme weather are common, including wind and snow blowing down trees, damage to power supply facilities leading to power outages, etc. The latest data released by the North Rhine-Westphalia police show that from the afternoon of the 6th to the early morning of the 7th, 222 accidents occurred there, causing 2 people to be seriously injured and 26 people to be slightly injured.

In addition, according to experts from the Meteorological Bureau, this extreme weather with a huge temperature difference between northern and southern Germany is very rare. The temperature in the northeast will even drop to about minus 20 degrees Celsius, and the wind speed can reach 70 kilometers per hour. Snowfall amounts in relevant areas ranged from 20 to 40 centimeters. Moreover, extremely low temperatures are expected to remain in Germany for the next week.

The culprit of extreme weather: climate warming

In fact, we can see from a temperature trend in 2019 that 2019 became the second hottest year in history, and the climate The factors causing drastic changes may have a clear relationship with humans. According to a report by the World Weather Attribution Organization, due to climate change caused by human activities, the summer heat wave in 2019 increased by 1.5-3℃, and many countries in the world have exceeded 40 degrees. Breaking the historical record, this extreme high temperature only occurs once in more than 1,000 years. So scientists are very worried that extreme high temperatures like ours may frequently hit the earth. Some scientists have even warned that 2019 may be the coolest year in the future, which also indicates that our hot weather in 2020 may hit a new high again.

Under the current background of climate warming, climate variability increases, atmospheric and ocean circulation and their interactions change, and the well-known climate change laws may also change, resulting in climate change. Abnormal uncertainty increases, causing extreme weather events to occur more frequently. The global warming trend continues, and many key indicators of the climate system are showing an accelerating change trend, such as the global average sea surface temperature has increased significantly, the global ocean heat content has increased significantly, the glacier has retreated, the Arctic sea ice extent has decreased, and sea level has increased significantly. rise. Projections from climate models indicate that if anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are not controlled, the frequency of extreme weather and climate events will increase in the future, as well as their intensity and duration.

?