Spring snow chaos in Europe ‘caused by melting sea-ice in the Arctic’, scientists say

Scientists are warning that rising temperatures are ‘lifting the lid’ off the Arctic, creating colder, wetter weather across Europe, writes Harry Cockburn

Less Arctic sea ice is resulting in more open water in winter, producing more evaporation and more precipitation across Europe, scientists say (Getty)

The loss of Arctic sea ice due to global heating has been linked to unseasonably cold weather and increased snowfall further south across Europe, new research has revealed.

Despite March being among the warmest on record, temperatures have fallen in April and last week both Switzerland and Slovenia recorded their coldest April temperature in over 100 years, while snow fell across countries including Germany, France, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the UK this week.

Wine makers and apple growers have been badly impacted by the cold spring weather, with workers at famous wine producing chateaux in France stoking thousands of small bonfires close to the ground in efforts to warm their crops, however, losses are already mounting, ith some producers saying the deep frost has meant losses are 90 per cent above average.

Scientists now suggest that the rapid reduction in sea ice levels across the Arctic due to the climate crisis has increased the amount of open water, leading to higher levels of winter evaporation which is fueling more extreme snowfall further south.

The study, led by Dr Hanna Bailey at the University of Oulu, in Finland, focused on the weather patterns which led to 2018’s “Beast from the East” - the February snowfall which brought large parts of Europe to a frozen standstill, causing £1bn a day in economic losses.

The research team said the long-term decline of Arctic sea-ice since the late 1970s had a direct connection to this type of weather phenomenon.

They discovered that in 2018 atmospheric vapour traveling south from the Arctic carried a unique geochemical fingerprint, revealing that its source was the warm, open-water surface of the Barents Sea, part of the Arctic Ocean between Norway, Russia, and Svalbard.

They found that during the Beast from the East, open-water conditions in the Barents Sea supplied up to 88 per cent of the corresponding fresh snow that fell over Europe.

"What we’re finding is that sea-ice is effectively a lid on the ocean. And with its long-term reduction across the Arctic, we’re seeing increasing amounts of moisture enter the atmosphere during winter, which directly impacts our weather further south, causing extreme heavy snowfalls.

“It might seem counter-intuitive, but nature is complex and what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” said Dr Bailey.

When analysing the long-term trends from 1979 onwards, researchers found that for every square metre of winter sea-ice lost from the Barents Sea, there was a corresponding 70kg increase in the evaporation, moisture, and snow falling over Europe.

The researchers said their findings suggest that within the next 60 years, a predicted ice-free Barents Sea will likely become a significant source of increased winter precipitation across Europe which will fall as rain or snow.

“This study illustrates that the abrupt changes being witnessed across the Arctic now, really are affecting the entire planet,” said Professor Alun Hubbard of UiT - the Arctic University of Norway.

He added: “Climate change doesn’t always manifest in the most obvious ways.

“It’s easy to extrapolate models to show that winters are getting warmer and to forecast a virtually snow-free future in Europe, but our most recent study shows that is too simplistic.

“We should beware of making broad sweeping statements about the impacts of climate change.”

The research is published in the journal Nature Geoscience.