Linking Sandy and climate change

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The remnants of Hurricane Sandy continue to assault the Northeast with wind, rain and snow.

As this unusual storm weakens, some question its connection with climate change .

Sandy was dubbed a "Super storm" and even "Franken-storm" for its unusual formation. Dr. Kerry Cook , a climate scientist and professor at The University of Texas, calls it a hybrid.

"It was drawing energy from the warm tropical Atlantic, but it was also drawing energy from those strong temperature gradients associated with the jet stream and the cold front," said Cook.

There is no direct connection yet between this individual storm and climate change. But, Cook said the factors that led to it are things we can expect to see more of.

"It is exactly the kind of thing we expect to happen more under global warming,” said Cook. “With our warming ocean -- in fact the western Atlantic was several degrees warmer than normal ahead of Sandy -- which probably helped feed energy into Sandy and make the storm stronger and bigger."

The cold front Sandy merged with is an example of cold fronts and the jet stream diving further south with global warming. There have also been record low amounts of Arctic sea ice this year. That’s associated with setting up high pressure as a blocking high over the north Atlantic.

"That funneled the cold air south to meet with Sandy and also caused Sandy to turn inland and go west, northwest the way it did," said Cook.

Cook said to expect months of analysis on the connection between Sandy and global warming.

“This idea of not being able to attribute a particular storm to global warming, it’s true but we can build a case for a role of global warming now,” said Cook.