By P Gosselin
Winter across Europe has been on the mild side so far – just as predicted by global warming alarmists. But now the weather is about to turn cold.
A cold winter spell is beginning to settle over Europe and there’s a risk the public here might start having doubts about the global warming narrative – especially as heating bills skyrocket and gas reserves run out. Thus, let’s not be surprised if climate-alarm suspects soon rush out another dubious paper claiming that extreme winter cold, too, is a telltale sign of warming.
Just-so story science
This was the case earlier. For example in 2010, in the middle of a bitter cold winter, PIK scientists Petoukhov et al published a paper, “A link between reduced Barents-Kara sea ice and cold winter extremes over northern continents” that found that sea ice loss in the Barents-Kara Seas could triple the probability of cold winter extremes in Europe.
In 2019, Kornhuber et al published a paper, Extreme weather events in early summer 2018 connected by a recurrent hemispheric wave-7 pattern that focused on summer heatwaves, This research tracks the “resonant amplification” of planetary waves that allegedly causes cold air to spill south and stay there for weeks.
PIK researchers, particularly Vladimir Petoukhov, suggest to have identified a specific non-linear relationship, and claim the atmosphere reacts most violently when sea ice concentration is around 40–80% in certain Arctic regions. When the ice disappears, the ocean releases a massive “bubble” of heat into the cold winter air, thus creating a local high-pressure system (an anti-cyclone) over the Arctic. This high-pressure system acts like a physical wall that pushes the Jet Stream south and forces cold, continental winds from Siberia to blow westward into Europe.
Stefan Rahmstorf and his team have also championed the theory, arguing that Arctic warming makes the “waves” in the Jet Stream grow much larger and to move much slower. So, you see warming also leads to unusual cold and harsh winter events across Europe”
As of January 2026, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the broader scientific community have been tracking a highly unusual set of Arctic signals they believe align with the “less ice = harsher winters” mechanism (AMOC slowing, Tipping Points Report in October 2025, and the Arctic Report Card 2025 released just weeks ago.)
According to the PIK, we are no longer looking at “future risks” but rather the live observation of a destabilized system where low ice is creating a “heat dome” over the pole and is forcing the Jet Stream into a “stuck” position, leading to the current cold snaps.
Just-so science: Giraffes have long necks to reach high leaves. Image generated by Grok AI.
While the climate scientitsts insist this is well-grounded climate science, skeptics see it for what it really is: a “just-so story” filled with pseudo-profound bullshit and science sophistry. It sounds perfectly logical and satisfying (e.g., giraffes have long necks to reach high leaves), but it lacks empirical evidence to prove it’s actually how things happen.
Happy New Year everyone!
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