Climate Change Has Affected Seasons Worldwide

The world's climate has been warming steadily over the last century, and although it may natural warm
and cool, the amount of pollution we humans have pumped into the atmosphere have created a greenhouse effect, warmed oceans, triggered weather extremes (colder, shorter winters, longer, hotter summers and the like); stronger storms (hurricanes/typhoons, tornadoes, flooding rainmakers) and research has shown there are also drastic Seasonal Changes around the world. Here's the latest study:

                                                                        (Image: https://medialibrary.climatecentral.org/resources/warming-winter-2017)

Climate Change Has Affected Seasons Worldwide

Oct. 29,2020 Huff. post

In January, even before the coronavirus pandemic put the world askew, Jan Tore Jensen noticed some disturbing changes to the rhythms of life in his home city of Oslo, Norway. “The botanical garden in Oslo was opening up. Flowers were blooming, and something was kind of off,” recalls Jensen, head of Norwegian outdoor-gear company Bergans. The normally wintry city was free of snow until the last day of January, and for the first time ever, Oslo ― along with fellow Scandinavian cities Stockholm, Copenhagen and Helsinki ― witnessed temperatures above freezing every day of the month, the warmest European January on record.

While the past year has brought dramatic manifestations of a warming planet — Cyclone Amphan killed more than 100 people in India and Bangladesh and Hurricane Laura caused widespread damage to the Caribbean and the U.S. — such catastrophes have a specific geography and time span. 

Those who live in the American West couldn’t easily escape the climate implications of this fall’s massive wildfires, but for people elsewhere in the country, this unprecedented disaster was often painted as just a California problem. People often fail to understand climate change because it can feel either too doom-ridden or too distant from their personal lives, research has found.

Climate change is wreaking havoc on both seasonal patterns and the cultures and histories that are connected to them. 

 In the U.S., the first frost of the year arrives one month later than it did a century ago, according to an analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. North American summer has also stretched about a week longer over the past few decades, while winter in some areas of the U.S. has grown shorter by two weeks to nearly two months. And as the seasons shift, the changes ripple through people’s lives and livelihoods. 

 In Arctic Europe, erratic winter weather has made it increasingly difficult for the indigenous Sami to continue traditional reindeer-grazing practices that go back generations. For the Viliui Sakha community in Siberia, whose way of life relies on horse- and cattle-breeding, erratic freezing and thawing patterns mean livestock often find their fodder not blanketed by snow but trapped under ice, impossible to access. 

 In northeast North America, the shortening of winter is hurting the process of maple syrup production, which is important economically in the U.S. and Canada and also culturally, especially among Native American tribes and First Nations. (And of course, as cuisine goes, pancakes and maple syrup are practically as American as apple pie.) 

 In the tropics, climate change could prompt a later arrival of rainy seasons, which could have a domino effect: A delay in the opening of flowers could be a potential problem for bees and hummingbirds that depend on nectar, which in turn could interfere with pollination. If the timing of pollination starts to fail, there may be less fruit for animals like monkeys and parrots.

Rest of the story: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-slow-death-of-seasons_n_5f903d32c5b61c185f460273?ri18n=true&ncid=newsltushpmgnews