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FACT BRIEF

Does cold weather disprove human-caused climate change?

Thursday, April 8, 2021
By John Cook
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NO

While local weather can be colder than average on a given day or week, overall temperatures are rising and cold snaps are happening less often. Nineteen of the 20 warmest years since 1880 occurred since 2000, and average global temperatures have risen one degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution.

This doesn’t mean cold weather will disappear entirely. But isolated occurrences of cold weather do not mean global warming isn’t happening. Weather refers to short-term fluctuations in events such as temperature and precipitation. Climate refers to long-term meteorological trends.

Recent warming is attributable to human-caused greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation, land use changes and the burning of fossil fuels. These gases prevent heat from escaping the atmosphere, warming the planet.

See a full discussion of this at Skeptical Science
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Cold Weather Still Happens in a Warming World
NASA Global Temperature
NASA What's the Difference Between Weather and Climate?
NASA The Causes of Climate Change
Columbia What Do Cold Snaps Have to Do With Climate Change?
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Skeptical Science
Skeptical Science is a non-profit science education organization. Our goal is to remove a roadblock to climate action by building public resilience against climate misinformation. We achieve this by publishing debunking of climate myths as well as providing resources for educators, communicators, scientists, and the general public. Skeptical Science was founded and is led by John Cook, a Senior Research Fellow with the Melbourne Centre for Behaviour Change at the University of Melbourne.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.