Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - Montana and the rest of the western United States has just experienced a severe winter, breaking a multitude of records that include extreme cold and deep snowpack despite recorded highs in greenhouse gases.

Could an Undersea Volcanic Eruption have Caused this Severe Winter?

Add to that the effects of the Tonga volcanic eruption of January 15, 2022. The Tonga eruption was unique in that it was an underwater volcano that erupted with such force it sent water vapor and ash higher into the atmosphere than has ever been documented before with some estimates indicating that water and ash reached almost 60 miles high and created winds and electrical currents that reached the edge of space.

Dr. Kolb has been Studying the Tonga Volcano for Some Time

KGVO hosted Dr. Peter Kolb on Monday’s Talk Back Program, and he started the conversation by referencing the unusually harsh winter in western Montana.

“Well, everybody has noticed, of course that we have a record, severe winter with record snowpack, at least in my house,” began Dr. Kolb. “Definitely, the snowpack exceeds what was here in the winter of 1996-1997. We've had three separate spells of subzero weather with 10 below zero. We set a record cold again up in Evaro and a lot of places in western Montana. So why does this occur? And as a forest ecologist, of course, I'm interested in trees and how they grow and forest communities but what affects forests communities, of course, is the weather.”

Dr. Kolb directly referenced the Tonga Volcano and its effects on the earth’s atmosphere.

“The Tonga Volcano is the volcano on record for reaching or blowing materials, the highest in the atmosphere of any volcano in history,” he said. “Not only that, it blew something like a trillion tons of water into the upper atmosphere. But the Tonga volcano increased the water vapor in the Stratosphere by 10 percent. We talk about greenhouse gases increasing by one or two one-hundredths of a percent causing global climate change, and here we had a volcano that increased the water content of the stratosphere by 10 percent.”

Dr. Kolb Wonders why there has been no Attention from Major Media About Tonga

Dr. Kolb has been mystified about the lack of coverage the Tonga Volcano and its effects have garnered from the global scientific community.

“So when the Tonga volcano blew and through all this water in the atmosphere, I go ‘Holy smokes, you know, all the literature everything I've read about atmospheric modeling and atmospheric gases. Why isn't everybody jumping up and down going, oh my god, you know, this is huge’?” he asked. “There's this massive vapor cloud, especially over the southern hemisphere that has reflected an enormous amount of solar energy right back out to space and it hasn't come back to the earth.”

Dr. Kolb closed the loop by tying the effects of the Tonga undersea volcanic eruption to the long cold winter and the forecast for a cool and wet spring.

“We reached a super low period in solar output, and then you have this vapor cloud put on top of it,” he said. “So that has created a prolonged La Nina effect. Less solar energy, more moisture coming in here, and also we've had now two or three years of super cold Pacific Decadal Oscillation. So the prediction for the spring and summer is cool and wet. So it's all these things coming together with the volcano, the solar output and the interactions with the atmosphere.”

Credit: Peter Kolb
Credit: Peter Kolb
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Credit: Peter Kolb
Credit: Peter Kolb
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Credit: Peter Kolb
Credit: Peter Kolb
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Credit: Peter Kolb
Credit: Peter Kolb
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Credit: Peter Kolb
Credit: Peter Kolb
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