This article explains how climate change impacts temperature anomalies, such as extreme cold days and extreme hot days. The article discusses how jet streams and proximity to the poles or equator can determine which of the extremes warms the most. If students have experienced extreme and life-threatening heatwaves, this topic can be sensitive, especially with students experiencing homelessness. Students in colder climates may have the misconception that climate change can positively result in milder winters. The Extreme Weather Lesson: Are Winters Getting Worse? can help challenge this idea. When talking about temperature extremes, it may also be pertinent to discuss solutions and preparedness strategies, as well as the role of environmental justice. The Redlining and Environmental Racism Lesson can help students make the connection. Young students may benefit from the e-book Prepare with Pedro! Extreme Heat to understand how to be safe in the face of rising temperatures.
Written By: MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
The MIT Climate Change Engagement Program, a part of MIT Climate HQ, provides the public with nonpartisan, easy-to-understand, and scientifically-grounded information on climate change and its solutions.
Global warming is usually measured by the rise in the world’s average temperature. But scientists are also working to measure the impact of climate change on something called “temperature anomalies”: periods of especially warm or cold weather that notably depart from the average.
As climate change advances, winter cold temperature anomalies are expected to be especially impacted, according to Talia Tamarin-Brodsky, an assistant professor in MIT’s Program in Atmospheres, Oceans and Climate. In temperate regions, cold winter days are warming faster than both the average temperature and temperatures on the hottest days.
Cold days happen when cool air drifts towards the middle of the earth from the Arctic. But in recent decades, the Arctic has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the world. That means that as climate change progresses, the temperature difference between the Arctic and warmer areas closer to the equator is shrinking, making the cold anomalies less, well, cold, says Tamarin-Brodsky.
Still, it’s the hottest days that will actually feel the most intense, especially during summer, because those temperatures will be farther from the new average—which is also getting warmer. In the future, we’ll experience significantly more high-heat days and heatwaves.
