Climate change churns on

Your Jan. 11 article, “Frigid temps: Inland Northwest and snow drifts is Midwest-Like,” implies Spokane’s 2016-17 winter is stacking up to past severe winters of the Midwest. However, the Midwest has been experiencing the same fluctuations of temperature and mild winter days.

Columbus, Ohio, had no snow and open golf courses on Jan. 20. Spokane has not attained its 44 average inches of snowfall since the exceptional 2007-09 winters. This winter started out with a bang, but shortly after Martin Luther King Day, we had temperatures hovering at 40 degrees. Warmer global temperatures from man-made climate change cause greater fluctuations in the weather, with an overall trend toward more mild winter days in the Northern Hemisphere.

Will this winter end with a whimper as the previous seven? National Atmospheric Oceanic Administration (NOAA) forecasts a return to normal in February. Whether El Nino (warmer air off Southern Pacific) or La Nina (colder air) is the prevailing weather pattern, anthropogenic global warming is still the underlying, driving force.

Outside of 1998, the past 16 years have been the planet’s hottest on record. That’s like the Zags going undefeated for 16 consecutive years.

Mike Kraft

Spokane