Jonathan Martin, a meteorologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has been tracking the size of this cold pool, tracing it back to when such reliable data began in the 1940s. Martin views the long-term cold pool data as a unique indicator of human-caused climate change.
“It’s one of the first free atmosphere, that is, away from the surface … measurements that conclusively show that the hemisphere is warming during the wintertime,” he said.
“The dice are loaded,” Martin said. As the world warms, it’s clear that cold pools are likely to keep shrinking and winters of the future are more likely to keep breaking warmth records.