Global General

Strong snowstorms due to global warming: researchers

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-02-18 09:14

MEXICO CITY - A statement from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) said on Thursday that the snowstorms lately registered in the United States, Mexico and Europe were due to the global warming.

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UNAM's coordinator of the Research Program on Climate Change (PICC) Carlos Gay said in the statement that the increase of heat in the atmosphere raises the level of the condensate water.

Gay said that certain hydrometeorology events could cause confusion about the climate change because "people ask themselves how it is possible to have strong colds and snowstorms" where experts talk about global warming.

Gay said that "it has a logical explanation. What happens is that the snowstorms are consistent with our idea of global warming. If we talk about thermodynamics, it is said that there is warmer gas or an atmosphere in these conditions, have more vapor, water which could become rain or snow."

He said that in the cold zone with low temperatures, the water becomes snow instead of rain.

Gay said that the snows will continue in the coming years due to a reduction of the water, which in normal conditions is kept in the polar regions, glaciers and rivers.

He said that the permanent ices in the North Pole are being reduced and even this region is becoming an island.