The year's first major snowstorm in the U.S. dumped a whopping five feet of snow on some areas in upstate New York on November 19. Weathermen fear this could be the toughest winter yet for most of the U.S.

Climate change is largely to blame for this phenomenon as shifting weather patterns caused these drastic changes in air pressure at the root of Tuesday's staggering amount of snowfall in Buffalo and other areas of upstate New York, said Thomas Peterson from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center (NOAA).

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Peterson, who is also the president of the World Meteorological Organization's Commission for Climatology, said cold air travelled down from Canada earlier than expected. This phenomenon took place when the Great Lakes were still warm.

The monster snowstorms blanketing the northeast would have been here if this cold air arrived in January when the Great Lakes are colder as opposed to its present warm waters in November.

This is clear evidence average global temperatures have risen. Extreme weather patterns are leading to colder winters in some areas of the world. This year's record snowfall in the U.S. is reminiscent of the polar vortex last year that sucked in cold northern air and dumped this as massive snowfalls.

NOAA said monthly global average temperatures has been higher for the past 355 months. September was the hottest month ever since 1880.

Since global temperatures are now warmer, it is affecting atmospheric patterns in the jet stream that moves across the U.S. The stream has diverged towards Canada (where it's very cold) and has turned south towards the U.S., said John Zobitz from Minnesota's Augsburg College, an expert on climate change.

He adds this temperature change will make patterns of precipitation change in some places. Some places will be wetter than average and some will be drier, too.

Even if the rest of the world is getting warmer, it also means some places also become a lot colder, Zobitz concludes.

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