With climate change, Washington may have entered era of more blockbuster snowstorms but less snow overall

Snowfall trends in Washington, and other East Coast cities, are leading scientists to this conclusion: Global warming, may paradoxically be contributing to an uptick in big East Coast snowstorms.

DC Snowstorm 012216

A largely deserted Connecticut Avenue around Dupont Circle during the beginning of the Snowzilla storm on Jan. 22, 2016, in Washington. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post/For The Washington Post)

By Andrew Freedman, November 26

As Washington’s winter climate has warmed several degrees over the past 120 years, average snowfall has declined by about half a foot, from roughly 21 inches to 15 inches. Yet recent decades have also featured several of the biggest snowstorms the city has ever recorded.

Colin Zarzycki, the lead author of the study, says that as winters continue to warm, overall snowfall will decline in the Northeast, and the total number of snowfall events will also decline. However, when conditions align to produce snow, it will fall at more intense rates than typically occurs now. This will increase the odds of having a big snowstorm, he says.

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With climate change, Washington may have entered era of more blockbuster snowstorms but less snow overall