Why Winter Froze Over?

Usually, I do not write pieces such as this, but well...

The winter this year has been unusually cold and there has been mountains of snow piling up everywhere, one is tempted to ask the staunch proponent of global warming to do a naked dance in New York, just so that they realise that it ain't that warm at all.

Just before writing this post, I did a short search on what most 'Experts' have written about the same. I found a lot of wind speed, ocean currents, solar activity, arctic sea ice concentration,etc.

The actual reason for the cold winter is an unpronounceable volcano. Eyjafjallajökull!

In the earlier part of 2010, this volcano blew up in great fashion and hit air travel, to and from Europe for about a month. The eruption was a massive one, which sent tonnes of ash and gas into the stratosphere.

In the year 1991, Mount Pinatubo in Philippines had erupted much in a similar manner, which is the second largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

"The effects of the eruption were felt worldwide. It ejected roughly 10 billion metric tonnes (10 cubic kilometres) of magma, and 20 million tons of SO2, bringing vast quantities of minerals and metals to the surface environment. It injected large amounts of aerosols into the stratosphere – more than any eruption since that of Krakatoa in 1883. Over the following months, the aerosols formed a global layer of sulfuric acid haze. Global temperatures dropped by about 0.5 °C (0.9 °F), and ozone depletion temporarily increased substantially"




This is a point that was also debated by Mr. Nathan Myhrvold, in the book Super Freakonomics. He describes the effects of the Pinatubo eruption and also proposes, inducing SO2 into the stratosphere as a possible solution to global warming in the future. Large volcanic eruptions are known to have the potential to bring down global temperatures. The effects of the same tend to last a few years. This is a proven fact.

Therefore, the next few, at least couple of winters, will remain rather cold before things normalise and the global warming groups can start creating a fracas again. Though, there is agreement in the scientific community that this might not be last that we have seen of the Icelandic volcanoes and Katla, the big brother of Eyjafjallajökull, and also the largest of the Icelandic volcanoes might be getting ready to blow up. In the past 1,000 years, all three known eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull have triggered subsequent Katla eruptions.