Volcanoes may warm locally while cooling globally
The debris thrown into the stratosphere by the June 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo was supposed to give the world a break from the record-shattering global warmth of the 1980s. But throughout North America and much of northern Eurasia those expectations were confounded as the following winter proved unusually mild. Normally frigid Minneapolis, for example, had its third warmest winter ever, with temperatures averaging a relatively sultry 4.3[degree]C above normal. So the obvious question is, what might have temporarily counteracted Pinatubo's chilling effects on the northern continents The stratospheric haze created by Mt. Pinatubo did, as expected, screen out some sunlight and cool the globe as a whole. But recent evidence also suggests that it may have had the counter-intuitive effect of raising winter temperatures in large regions of North America and northern Eurasia by altering the weather patterns in those areas.
- OSTI ID:
- 6194518
- Journal Information:
- Science (Washington, D.C.); (United States), Vol. 260:5112; ISSN 0036-8075
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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