Publication Date February 9, 2012 | NASA

Deconstructing a Mystery: What Caused Snowmageddon?

United States
Nicknamed “snowpocalypse” and “snowmageddon,” an exceptionally severe winter storm dropped several feet of snow around the Washington, D.C., area in early February 2010. Image: NASA
Nicknamed “snowpocalypse” and “snowmageddon,” an exceptionally severe winter storm dropped several feet of snow around the Washington, D.C., area in early February 2010. Image: NASA

Two years later, scientists are still searching to identify the unique set of conditions that enabled storms of this magnitude to occur. To determine a direct cause to infrequent but major winter storms, Siegfried Schubert and colleagues Yehui Chang and Max Suarez -- all of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. -- became detectives...El Niño-induced sea surface temperatures and an extended negative phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation caused the changes in 2009-10 winter storminess.