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Well, January 2025, let me tell you,

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it was quite the month for weather, wasn't it?

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On the one hand, the U.S. had its coldest

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January in gosh, over three decades.

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But get this, globally, it was the hottest

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January ever recorded.

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It's almost like Earth decided to throw us a curveball, huh?

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It really does.

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I mean, you have these two extremes

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happening at the end of time, so what's going on?

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It really shows how complex this whole

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climate change situation is, you know?

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You'd think a La Nina year, which usually makes things

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cooler, would make a bigger difference,

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but this time, not so much.

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So let's dive into this a little bit.

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First, that deep freeze in the U.S.

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How cold are we talking here?

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So in the U.S., the average temperature for January 2025

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was way below what it normal is,

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like for the whole 20th century.

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Actually, it was the coldest January since, get this, 1988.

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And over a dozen cities, mostly in the Southeast,

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had some record-breaking lows.

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We're talking top 10 coldest Januarys ever for them.

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Wow, especially for the Southeast, that's pretty unusual.

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What was behind this cold snap?

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What kept it going for so long?

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So the main thing was this stubborn weather pattern

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called a Greenland block.

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Basically, it's like a wall of high pressure

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just sitting over Greenland, and that forces

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the really cold Arctic air down south into the U.S.

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And to make things worse, there was another blocking pattern

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from like Western Canada all the way

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to the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

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So it was like this double whammy,

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trapping all that cold air.

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So basically, these blocking patterns just kind of shut

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the door on the U.S. and wouldn't let that cold air out.

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Right, exactly.

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And wasn't there a bunch of winter storms in January too?

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Did those have anything to do with this cold air?

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Oh, absolutely.

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It's like this frigid air mass was setting the stage

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for these storms.

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We had four major ones hit the U.S. in just 18 days.

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Cora and Enzo, those were the big ones,

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especially for people down on the Gulf Coast.

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They don't usually get hit with such intense winter weather.

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Enzo especially was one for the record books,

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just really powerful and disruptive.

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Yeah, those storms were no joke.

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But here's the thing, while the U.S. was freeing its,

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you know what, off, the rest of the world

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was baking in record-breaking heat.

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Kind of a head scratcher, right?

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You're telling me, I mean, it's a crazy contrast.

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The U.S. was shivering, and meanwhile,

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the whole planet was experiencing this crazy warmth,

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like never before.

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Actually, it broke the record for the hottest January ever,

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and that record was just set last year.

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Wow, talk about a swing in temperature.

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So where exactly were these global hotspots?

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Where was this warmth most intense?

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Well, believe it or not, Alaska, you know,

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land of ice and snow, had its eighth warmest January on record.

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Big parts of Canada and Russia were also unusually warm,

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and down in Australia,

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they had their second hottest January in, get this,

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115 years.

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Wow, it really seems like this heat wave

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hit every corner of the globe.

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What about the oceans?

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Were they unusually warm too?

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You bet they were.

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Huge stretches of the Atlantic, Indian, Pacific,

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you name it, they were all record warm for January,

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and that widespread ocean warming is a big deal

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when you're trying to understand

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why the whole planet is getting hotter.

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So basically, the Earth decided to crank up the heat

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everywhere except to the U.S., huh?

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Why would that happen, especially during a La Nina year

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when things should have been cooler?

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That's the question that has scientists puzzled,

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and they're looking at the surprising possibility,

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and that is, get this less cloud cover.

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I know, sounds kind of strange, right?

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But it turns out the amount and type of clouds

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can really mess with global temperatures.

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Wait, hold on.

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Fewer clouds would make the planet warmer.

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Don't they usually block sunlight and keep things cooler?

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Yeah, some types of clouds do.

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Like those low-hanging ones, they act like mirrors,

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reflecting sunlight back into space.

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That helps cool things down.

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But other types, like those high-series clouds,

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actually trap heat and can make things warmer.

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Oh, I see.

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So it's like a balancing act

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between different types of clouds, huh?

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What have scientists found out

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about how cloud cover has been changing?

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Well, research shows there's been a pretty big drop

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in these low-altitude clouds over the last 10 years,

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especially over the oceans.

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And that means less sunlight

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is being bounced back into space.

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So you know what they call Earth's reflectivity,

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Earth's albedo.

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Earth's albedo, right.

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Exactly.

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So less reflectivity means a darker Earth,

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which means more heat is absorbed, got it.

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So what's causing this decrease in clouds?

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Well, scientists are looking into a couple of things.

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One idea is that it might be because of less air pollution.

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It sounds weird,

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but some pollutants can actually help clouds form.

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So as we clean up the air,

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which is great for our health,

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we might accidentally be reducing those low-hanging clouds.

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That is kind of catch 22.

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Cleaning up the air is good,

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but it might make the planet warmer.

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Are there any other explanations

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for this shrinking cloud cover?

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Another possibility is that it's a feedback loop

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triggered by rising temperatures.

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Think about it, as the planet heats up,

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it can throw off the balance of moisture

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and temperature in the atmosphere.

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And that can mess with how clouds form

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and how stable they are.

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So it's possible that warming

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is causing fewer low-altitude clouds,

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which then makes the warming even worse.

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So it's like a vicious cycle.

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Exactly.

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This whole cloud cover thing is just one part

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of a much bigger, more complicated picture.

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What else could be speeding up global warming?

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Well, there's this thought-provoking idea,

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although a bit controversial, from James Hansen.

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You might have heard of him.

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He's a climate scientist

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who's been warning about global warming for decades.

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He's saying that global warming is actually sped up

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by more than 50% in the last 50 years.

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That's way faster than a lot of climate models predicted.

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More than 50% faster.

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That's a huge jump.

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Why does he think that's happening?

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He thinks we might have underestimated

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how sensitive the climate is to greenhouse gases,

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for one thing.

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And remember that catch-22

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with air pollution we talked about?

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He thinks that plays a big role here, too.

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You see, reducing aerosol pollution

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is a good thing for people's health,

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but it also removes a shield

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that was kind of hiding some of the warming

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caused by greenhouse gases.

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So it's like we've been accidentally

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holding back some of the warming,

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and now that we're cleaning up the air,

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the full impact of those greenhouse gases is hitting us.

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Right, and it's important to say

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that not everyone agrees of Hansen's views.

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His recent work, especially his ideas

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about something called solar radiation modification,

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has sparked a lot of debate in the scientific community.

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But there's no doubt he's a really important figure

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in the climate change field,

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and he's been pushing us to take this issue

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seriously for a long time.

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Well, there's certainly a lot to think about.

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Record breaking cold, record breaking heat,

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disappearing clouds, and this idea

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that global warming is accelerating,

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it's a lot to process.

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Yeah, it's a lot.

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Maybe we should take a break here

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and come back to this later.

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We can talk about what all this means

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for the planner's future.

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Yeah, that's a good idea.

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Let's take a pause.

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So are we ready to jump back into those crazy weather events

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from January?

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Absolutely, we were just getting to James Hansen's work

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and his idea about this pretty radical solution,

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solar radiation modification.

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It sounds kind of like something out of science fiction.

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Yeah, it does sound a bit futuristic,

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but basically SRM is about intentionally reflecting

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a little bit of sunlight back into space

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to counter all the warming from greenhouse gases.

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It's like creating a giant sunshade

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for the planet to cool things down.

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So we'd be dimming the sun on purpose.

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How would we even do that?

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Well, one way people are talking about

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is injecting these tiny reflective particles

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called aerosols into the stratosphere.

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Those particles would then scatter sunlight away from Earth

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so less solar energy hits the surface.

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It almost sounds like we'd be trying to copy what happens

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after a big volcanic eruption.

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Didn't Mount Pinatubo cool the planet

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when it erupted back in 91?

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Exactly, that eruption spewed tons of sulfur dioxide

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into the stratosphere,

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and that actually caused global temperatures to drop

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by like half degree Celsius for a couple of years.

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SRM is kind of trying to do the same thing,

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but in a more controlled and long-term way.

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Hmm, it seems almost too easy, you know?

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Like a quick fix for a really complicated problem,

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but I bet there are some big risks involved,

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and it probably raises some medical questions too.

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Oh yeah, you're definitely right to be cautious.

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Messing with Earth's climate system,

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even if we mean well,

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could have some unintended consequences,

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and they could be pretty bad.

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Some scientists are worried that SRM

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could disrupt weather patterns in different regions,

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change rainfall, maybe even hurt the ozone layer,

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and then there are the ethical questions,

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like who gets to decide how much to cool the planet,

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and what should the ideal temperature even be?

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This is a global issue,

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so everyone needs to work together and be really careful.

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Yeah, there's so many things to consider.

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It makes you wonder if climate change is already so bad

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that we have to try these risky solutions.

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Well, that's the big question, isn't it?

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Hanson in his paper argues that just cutting emissions

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might not be enough to avoid the worst effects

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of climate change.

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He sees SRM as a last resort,

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you know, like buying us some time

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to figure out a more sustainable way to live.

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It's definitely a lot to think about,

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but having these conversations,

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even if they're tough, is super important.

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We have to understand the pros and cons

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of all the options we have.

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Absolutely, and we can't forget that SRM,

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even if it works,

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is in a replacement for reducing greenhouse gases.

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It's just one possible tool,

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but the most important thing is still to get off

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fossil fuels and move to cleaner energy.

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I totally agree, there's no easy answer or quick fix here,

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but let's get back to January 2025 for a minute.

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We talked about the record cold in the US,

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the global heat wave,

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and this whole thing with clouds disappearing.

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And all of this happened during a La Nina year,

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which should have cooled things down, right?

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Yeah, that's a crucial point.

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La Nina usually makes things cooler

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because the sea surface temperatures in the Pacific

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are colder than normal,

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but as we saw, January 2025 didn't follow the usual pattern.

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So is La Nina losing its cooling power?

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What does that mean for the future?

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Are we gonna keep getting hotter?

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A lot of climate scientists are wondering the same thing.

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It's possible that all these warming factors we talked about,

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like more greenhouse gases and fewer clouds,

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are starting to overpower La Nina's cooling effect.

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And if that keeps happening,

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well, it means that La Nina years

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might not cool the planet down as much as they used to.

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That's a scary thought.

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It's like, even when nature is trying to help us out,

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we're still getting hotter.

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So what happens when we go back to an El Nino,

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which usually makes things warmer?

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Well, El Nino is the opposite of La Nina, right?

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The Pacific Ocean gets warmer than usual,

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and that tends to boost global warming.

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So if we get an El Nino,

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while all these other warming factors are still going strong,

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we could see some really crazy temperature spikes.

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It's a pretty daunting picture.

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It shows just how interconnected

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all these climate factors are

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and how things can change in ways we don't expect.

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It is, and it's especially worrying

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because Earth's systems are getting thrown out of whack

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at a speed we've never seen before.

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All these changes, the crazy weather, rising sea levels,

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it all shows just how urgent this climate change problem is.

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It's a wake-up call for sure.

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Climate change isn't something

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that's gonna happen in the future.

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It's happening now, and the decisions we make

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over the next few years will have a huge impact,

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but it's important to remember that we're not powerless.

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Exactly, we have the knowledge, the tech,

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and we can make a difference if we work together,

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but we need a change in how we think.

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We need to realize our actions have consequences,

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and we need to commit to a future that's more sustainable.

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It's a shared responsibility,

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and the first step is to understand the science,

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talk about it, and demand action from our leaders,

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but it's also about the choices we make every day.

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Every little thing we do can help.

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That's exactly right.

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Whether it's shrinking our carbon footprint,

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pushing for better policies,

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or supporting businesses that care about the environment,

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we all have a part to play.

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We're all in this together,

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and we need to act fast and with purpose,

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but what do we go from here?

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What are some concrete steps people can take

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to make a real difference?

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That's a great question,

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and a lot of people are wondering the same thing.

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The good news is that there are plenty of things you can do

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in your everyday life and also as a citizen

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to help build a more sustainable future.

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Okay, so let's break that down a little.

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What are some things people can do

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to reduce their impact on the environment?

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What are some practical steps?

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Well, first off, we can all take a look

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at how much energy we use.

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Simple stuff like switching to those energy-efficient

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appliances, using LED light bulbs,

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and just paying attention to how much we're heating

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and cooling our homes can actually make a difference.

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And for getting around, choosing public transport,

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biking, walking, or even carpooling when you can,

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can really cut down on your carbon footprint.

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Those are great tips for everyday life,

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but what about going beyond individual choices?

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How can people have a bigger impact?

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That's where being an active and informed citizen comes in.

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Support policies and initiatives that promote things

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like renewable energy, sustainable agriculture,

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and responsible land management.

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Talk to your elected officials, make your voice heard,

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and push for change at a bigger level.

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It's good to remember that we have a voice

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and can actually influence those decisions.

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But sometimes it's easy to feel overwhelmed

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by this whole climate crisis.

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What advice would you give to people

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who are dealing with like eco-anxiety?

361
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It's totally normal to feel overwhelmed,

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especially with all the news about climate change

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parting us all the time.

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It's important to acknowledge those feelings

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and maybe even talk to friends, family,

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or a therapist if you need to.

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But I think it's also really important

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to focus on the things you can actually control.

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Turn that anxiety into action.

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Find ways to get involved in your community,

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connect with people who care about the same things,

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and work towards solutions.

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Yeah, turning anxiety into action,

374
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that's a good way to put it.

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Are there any resources or organizations you'd recommend

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for people who wanna get more involved in climate action?

377
00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:52,040
Oh, there are tons of great organizations out there

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doing amazing work on climate change.

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Groups like the Sierra Club, 350.org,

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the Sunrise Movement, they're all fighting

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for climate justice and policy change.

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And locally, you can always check out

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environmental groups or community organizations

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in your area that are working on sustainability projects.

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It's inspiring to see so many people and groups

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dedicated to finding solutions.

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But we've covered a lot of ground today,

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from those wild weather events

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to the complexities of climate science

390
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and the potential for both tech solution

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and individual action.

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Is there anything else you'd like to emphasize

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00:13:25,920 --> 00:13:28,880
for our listeners as they keep learning about climate change?

394
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What's important to keep in mind?

395
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I think the biggest thing to remember

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is that we're not alone in this.

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Climate change is a global challenge,

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and it needs a global response.

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Connect with other people, share what you know,

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support initiatives you believe in,

401
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and don't underestimate what we can achieve together.

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We can create a future that's more sustainable and resilient,

403
00:13:46,800 --> 00:13:48,000
but we have to work together,

404
00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:50,080
stay informed, and never lose hope.

405
00:13:50,080 --> 00:13:52,720
Well said, this has been a really insightful conversation.

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00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:55,000
But like with all our meteorology matters episodes,

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I always end up with even more questions

408
00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:59,040
and a desire to learn more.

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00:13:59,040 --> 00:14:00,760
It just shows that learning is a journey,

410
00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:02,800
especially when it comes to something as complex

411
00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:05,600
and constantly changing as climate change.

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00:14:05,600 --> 00:14:06,640
And that's a good thing.

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Curiosity and a willingness to learn

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are crucial for tackling the challenges ahead.

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So to our listeners, we encourage you to stay curious,

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00:14:13,840 --> 00:14:16,160
keep learning, and find ways to get part of the conversation

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00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:17,720
on climate change.

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Every little bit helps.

419
00:14:18,960 --> 00:14:20,480
And if you're interested in diving deeper

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00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:22,320
into the world of weather and climate,

421
00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:24,960
be sure to follow meteorologist Rob Jones.

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00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:27,200
You can find him on Instagram meteorologist,

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00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:29,240
on TikTok TV meteorologist,

424
00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:31,520
and on YouTube, Rob Jones Hurricane,

425
00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:32,360
where you can also find

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00:14:32,360 --> 00:14:34,720
the Meteorology Matters podcast playlist.

427
00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:36,080
It's been great chatting with you

428
00:14:36,080 --> 00:14:37,480
about these important issues.

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00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:40,000
Thanks for joining us on this journey of exploration.

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00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:42,960
Until next time, stay curious, stay engaged,

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and stay hopeful.