Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

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Yes, it's freezing outside. That's the weather.

And, yes, global warming is happening, too. That's the long-term warming of the climate caused by humans' greenhouse gas emissions. 

President Donald Trump got the internet talking when he suggested on Sunday that snow in the northeastern U.S. somehow negated modern climate science.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1086971499725160448

Trump's tweet quickly triggered the ire of climate scientists.

"I think it is important to say, 'No, just because it snowed once in winter on the East Coast doesn't mean that decades worth of observation that's tracking the warming of the entire planet are somehow invalidated,'" said Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University.

Trump's apparent arguments that large snowfall totals and "near record setting cold" mean the climate isn't changing are common. They've been widely debunked, too. 

, run by climate scientist John Cook, includes them on its list of the "most used climate myths."

First, the "cold" argument. Here's what Skeptical Science 

Overall, Americans' thinking on global warming appears to be shifting. 

A new Yale University survey found that 72 percent of Americans say global warming is "personally important" for them, and nearly as many said they worry about climate change. 

Concern about global warming among Americans spikes

Why more concern with climate change? Hayhoe thinks it's because people are starting to see the negative impacts where they live.

"It's all kinds of events from wildfires to hurricanes and heat waves to floods and droughts," she said. "Ten years ago, most people couldn't really point to a specific way their lives are being affected by a changing climate."

Use the audio player above to hear an interview with Hayhoe on what makes for effective climate change communication, plus a Climate Story from Marco Hunt of Leech Lake.

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President Trump recently got the internet talking when he suggested, inaccurately, that recent cold and snow in the northeastern U.S. somehow negated modern climate science.

Psst ... climate change is still here, even though it's freezing out

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