Combined day-night band and high resolution infrared imagery from the NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite 26 January 2015 nor’easter (1:45 a.m. EST). Image Credit: NASA/NOAA

So, technically, “snowmageddon” only ranked 36th in New York City’s list of biggest snowfalls. Still, there’s no denying that the east coast experienced a generous dusting this week, and that has more to do with climate change than you might think.

Between January 26 and January 28, “Winter Storm Juno,” as it has been dubbed in the media, dumped over 30 inches of snow over 54 locations in six states. Coastal areas also experienced high winds and flooding, which is unusual (we’ll get to that in a moment). Worcester, Massachusetts had its heaviest snowstorm on record (34.5 inches) while Boston reported the sixth heaviest snowstorm in its history (24.6 inches).

Insane ice encrusted car from one of our photogs @BOSTONsVideo in Scituate. #Blizzardof2015 pic.twitter.com/iX2aYr9fmV

— Eric Fisher (@ericfisher) January 29, 2015

Some of our readers out there may have friends, family members, office workers or political representatives who like to use winter weather as “proof” that global warming is a sham. Planet Experts has covered this before. Make no mistake, the planet is definitely getting warmer, but this is why “climate change” and “global warming” are two related but separate phenomena.

Read the rest at Planet Experts.