Climate Matters: Dry winter air has been harsher than normal this year
If you've been outside in Mid-Missouri recently, you've probably made moisturizer and lip balm part of your daily routine.
Winter often brings colder, drier air that can quickly dry out our skin, and this year has experienced even lower humidity than usual.
According to an X post by Ben Noll, a meteorologist at The Washington Post, dew points have been several degrees below average so far this winter across much of the eastern United States. Conversely, out West, dew points have been higher than normal this season.
Eastern Missouri has seen dew points between 2 and 4 degrees lower than average so far this winter. Longer-term humidity trends could result in more harshly dry winter days, even though a warmer climate generally holds more moisture.
Scientists have already established a link between a warming world and atmospheric moisture. For every one degree Fahrenheit of warming, the atmosphere can hold 4% more moisture. This additional water can lead to heavier rain and snow, increasing flood risks.
Although there is now more water vapor in the air than in past decades, data from the UK Met Office indicates that the air over land is warming too rapidly and drying out, causing relative humidity—the percentage of water vapor in the air—to decrease.
The world may be heading toward a future where rising dew points contribute to heavier rain and floods, while decreasing humidity dries out the air during the dry spells.
So far, this winter has been slightly drier and cooler than usual, but signals suggest that February is about to turn warmer. Temperature outlooks for the next 6 to 14 days favor much warmer-than-normal conditions for the central part of the country, although wetter-than-average conditions are also expected.
