<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/AP403548483405_4_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/AP403548483405_4_0.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/AP403548483405_4_0.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A record-shattering winter has left the Northeast buried in piles of snow. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

A backyard filled with snow doesn't disprove climate change.

Contrary to what Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe says, the ability to roll up a snowball months after the hottest year on record ended doesn't either.

The reverse is true.

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Reports from organizations such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) continue to point to one conclusion: Climate change and extreme weather events are linked.

It's counterintuitive, but the same factors that led NOAA to label 2014 the hottest year on record are also possibly contributing to historic snow totals and brutal temperatures in the Northeast.

"The eastern U.S. is just a small part of the planet, so it's certainly possible to have record cold and snow there even as the global temperature hits record highs," Weather Underground blogger Bob Henson said.

The rise in global temperatures influences the path of the arctic jet steam, which, when altered, can help trigger harsher winters like the one slowly coming to an end now .

Paul O'Gorman, an associate professor of atmospheric science at MIT, spoke to the Boston Globe about the link between increasing temperatures and intense snowstorms.

"For relatively mild regions, we would expect heavy snowfall to become increasingly rare as the climate warms," O'Gorman said. "But in colder regions, heavy snowfalls can become more frequent because of increases in the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere or, in some cases, because of changes in the circulation of the atmosphere, such as a shift in position of the storm track."

While the photos of a deck chair peeping out from a snowdrift are impressive, they don't contradict the data.

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In 2014, the U.S. National Climate Assessment reported that the Northeast saw a 71 percent increase in heavy precipitation from 1958 to 2012 .

Rising global temperatures make for increased levels of water vapor in the air. This effect can make for extended periods of drought, but it also leads to more intense rainfalls when precipitation does occur , the U.S. Global Change Research Program says.

Extreme weather events like the 2011 drought in Texas and England's winter weather between 2010 and 2011 have both been linked in part to climate change , according to NOAA.

As research continues into this link, it's possible that standout weather events from the last few years will be connected to climate change.

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