Winter Storm Juno was likely caused by climate change, according to at least two high-profile prognosticators. The only problem is, the blizzard largely went bust.
One of those predicting snowmaggedon was New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who on Monday said that snowstorms like Juno are “part of the changing climate.”
“There is a pattern of extreme weather that we’ve never seen before,” Cuomo said at a press conference announcing a state of emergency. (RELATED: 2010s Are The Snowiest Decade On Record Despite Global Warming Predictions)
Meteorologists had predicted that Juno would bring more than two feet of snowfall to a swath of land stretching from Philadelphia to Boston. But meteorologists scaled back the forecast early Tuesday morning to between eight to 12 inches of snowfall.
Pop scientist Bill Nye was also left with egg on his face.
During an interview on MSNBC on Monday, Nye said “I just want to introduce the idea” that the storm “could be connected to climate change.”
“The economic effect of storms like this is huge,” said Nye.
“You cancel half of the flights out of the world’s — one of the world’s busiest airports, certainly the eastern seaboard is a very busy area economically for airplane travel and so when you start having big storms and you don’t have the infrastructure to deal with it, you are costing your society a lot of money and we’re in the developed world where we can handle this stuff,” Nye continued, referencing the cancellation of more than 7,000 flights in advance of the storm.
“Now proving any one storm is connected, especially cold-weather events is difficult. But I just want to present that.”
While Nye addressed the economic fallout from “extreme weather,” Gary Szatkowski, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Mount Holly, N.J., addressed the flip-side of the coin when he apologized on Twitter for the huge forecast miss.
OK, no sense postponing the inevitable. Snow amounts have been sharply curtailed. New products coming out now from @NWS_MountHolly
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
My deepest apologies to many key decision makers and so many members of the general public.
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
You made a lot of tough decisions expecting us to get it right, and we didn’t. Once again, I’m sorry.
— Gary Szatkowski (@GarySzatkowski) January 27, 2015
Those key decision makers declared travel bans and states of emergency all along the projected path of the storm.
Gov. Cuomo shut down New York City’s subway system late Monday night. Mayor Bill de Blasio implemented a curfew on travel within New York City, save for emergency vehicles. The ban also included food delivery cyclists.
According to the New York Observer, though the Big Apple was forecast to receive as much as 30 inches of snowfall, only eight inches had accumulated in Central Park by Tuesday morning.