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Cold wave

Weather phenomenon

  • 43 min read
  • 3 chapters

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In the United States, a cold spell is defined as the national average high temperature dropping below 20 °F (−7 °C). A cold wave of sufficient magnitude and duration may be classified as a cold air outbreak (CAO).

Effects

Impact on humans and livestocks health

A cold wave can cause death and injury to livestock and wildlife. Exposure to cold mandates greater caloric intake for all animals, including humans, and if a cold wave is accompanied by heavy and persistent snow, grazing animals may be unable to reach needed food and die of hypothermia or starvation. They often necessitate the purchase of foodstuffs to feed livestock at considerable cost to farmers.

Cold spells are associated with increased mortality rates in populations around the world. Both cold waves and heat waves cause deaths, though different groups of people may be susceptible to different weather events. More temperature-attributable deaths occur during a cold wave than in a heat wave, though the mortality rate is higher in undeveloped regions of the world.

Infrastucture

Extreme winter cold often causes poorly insulated water pipelines and mains to freeze. Even some poorly protected indoor plumbing ruptures as water expands within them, causing much damage to property and costly insurance claims. Demand for electrical power and fuels rises dramatically during such times, even though the generation of electrical power may fail due to the freezing of water necessary for the generation of hydroelectricity. Some metals may become brittle at low temperatures. Motor vehicles may fail when antifreeze fails, fuel or oil gels, or batteries fail producing a failure of the transportation system.

Fires become even more of a hazard during extreme cold. Water mains may break and water supplies may become unreliable, making firefighting more difficult. The air during a cold wave is typically denser and thus contains more oxygen, so when air that a fire draws in becomes unusually cold it is likely to cause a more intense fire. However, snow may stop spreading of fires, especially wildfires.

Plants and animals

Winter cold waves that are not considered cold in some areas, but cause temperatures significantly below average for an area, are also destructive. Areas with subtropical climates may recognize a cold wave at higher temperatures than other, colder areas of the globe. The cold wave may be recognized at barely freezing temperatures, as these are still unusually cold for the region, and plant and animal life will be less tolerant of such cold. The same winter temperatures that one associates with the norm for Colorado, Ohio, or Bavaria are catastrophic to crops in places like Florida, California, or parts of South America that grow fruit and vegetables in winter.

Cold waves that bring unexpected freezes and frosts during the growing season in mid-latitude zones can kill plants during the early and most vulnerable stages of growth, resulting in crop failure as plants are killed before they can be harvested economically. Such cold waves have caused famines. At times as deadly to plants as drought, cold waves can leave land in danger of later brush and forest fires that consume dead biomass. One extreme was the so-called Year Without a Summer of 1816, one of several years during the 1810s in which numerous crops failed during freakish summer cold snaps after volcanic eruptions that reduced incoming sunlight.

Extratropical cyclone formation

Recent research suggests a possible link between cold waves in North America and extratropical cyclogenesis over the East Atlantic. These may be connected by large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns. Examples include Rossby wave propagation from the North Pacific or an upper-level anticyclone west of Greenland. In Europe, the advection of cold air masses from the northeast emerges as a potential precursor signal for the majority of cold waves, significantly affecting the energy, health, and agricultural sectors of the continent.

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