The United States of America have seen worsening weather conditions as years go along. From horrific storms like Hurricane Katrina to having regular occurrences of wildfires every year, it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what “normal” weather actually is. 2018 in particular was filled with lots of unusual weather phenomena.
The jet stream is a high-speed high-altitude airstream blowing from west to east near the top of the troposphere which has important effects on the formation of weather fronts. A southern dip in jet stream resulted in record cold in the East of the United States in the first week of January 2018. The state of New York recorded a record low of 16.4 degrees Fahrenheit, smashing the previous record of 21.4 degrees Fahrenheit for the first seven days of the year.
Another rare occurrence that happened in January 2018 was the appearance of snow in all fifty of the United States of America on the 17th. The falling of snow everywhere from sunny California all the way to picturesque Hawaii was a gift from Winter Storm Inga which added to the snow and sleet content on the ground in the East and South, with the rest of the U.S. already experiencing snowfall. The last time the states experienced snow coverage on this scale was on the 12th of February 2010.
Winter Storm Grayson brought snowflakes to the Florida panhandle for the first time since 1989, and the first January snowfall since 1885. Georgia got six inches of snow whilst Charleston and South Carolina got over five inches.
April 2018 saw the coldest temperatures of all time for the two American states of (). It was actually the coldest April in the United States of America in twenty-one years. What makes it stranger is the fact that it was followed by the hottest May in recorded history for the United States according to the National Weather Service. May 2018 was actually hotter than the Dust Bowl era in the 1930s when the United States experienced severe dust storms
Drastic weather changes have been linked to climate change. The Union of Concerned Scientists in the United States have expressed the need for urgency when it comes to taking care of the environment.