Conservancy Lead Scientist M. Sanjayan Forecasts More Wacky Weather

M. Sanjayan, lead scientist of The Nature Conservancy, told the CBS Early Show today that there are probably two reasons for the weird weather that constantly dominates recent news headlines. The latest is the unusual snowfall seen along the Northeast on the weekend lead-up to Halloween. In some places, there was more than two feet of snow.

In the video above, he says, “It’s a la Nina year, which means the Pacific is cold in terms of the ocean, and that changes the air path around the continental United States. [Also, it] probably is the effects of climate change making the storms more intense and more frequent. On the climate change side, absolutely, it’s going to continue. So we are going to be in for more wacky weather, if you’d like. On the la Nina front, we are not sure. We think there is another la Nina year, this year. I, for one, I’m buying my ski passes already!

“La Nina years tend to bring snow, particularly to the north part of the country. And particularly the northwest part of the country. But any one event is very difficult to predict,” Sanjayan said. “See, scientists are really good at thinking about climate, but they are not so good about thinking about weather, which is what most people ultimately care about — what you are going to dress your kids up in when they go out trick or treating tonight.”