By Brad Johnson

(ThinkProgress​.org) Cat­a­strophic “snow­poca­lypse” and “snow­maged­don” events are exactly what sci­en­tists have been warn­ing would hit Vir­gini­ans because of global warm­ing, in part because warmer air can hold more water. As National Wildlife Fed­er­a­tion cli­mate sci­en­tist Amanda Staudt notes, win­ter storms are get­ting fiercer even as the sea­son gets warmer:

• Win­ter­time tem­per­a­tures have been increas­ing across the north­ern United States. Since the 1970s, December-​​February tem­per­a­ture increases have ranged from 1 to 2 degrees in the Pacific North­west to about 4 degrees in the North­east to more than 6 degrees in Alaska.
• Win­ters are get­ting shorter, too. Spring arrives 10–14 days ear­lier than it did just 20 years ago.
• Global warm­ing is bring­ing a clear trend toward heav­ier pre­cip­i­ta­tion events. Many areas are see­ing big­ger and more intense snow­storms, espe­cially in the upper Mid­west and Northeast.
• Global warm­ing is shift­ing storm tracks north­ward. Areas from the Dako­tas east­ward to north­ern Michi­gan have seen a trend toward more heavy snow­fall season.

In other news, this past month of Jan­u­ary was the warmest on record for the planet.

Read the rest Think Progress » Vir­ginia GOP Mocks Epic Snow Storm As ‘12 Inches Of Global Warm­ing’.