COLD SNAP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does cold snap mean? 

• COLD SNAP (noun)
  The noun COLD SNAP has 1 sense:

1. a spell of cold weather

  Familiarity information: COLD SNAP used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COLD SNAP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A spell of cold weather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

cold snap; cold spell

Hypernyms ("cold snap" is a kind of...):

patch; piece; spell; while (a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition)

 Context examples 

The ocean circulation began slowing down about 400 years before the cold snap, but once the climate started changing, temperatures over Greenland plunged quickly by about 6 degrees.

(A new study is the first to measure the time lags between changing ocean currents and major climate shifts., University of Cambridge)

But a cold snap was on, the thermometer registering fifty below zero, and each time he broke through he was compelled for very life to build a fire and dry his garments.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Laurie did not see, for he was carefully skating along the shore, sounding the ice, for a warm spell had preceded the cold snap.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"An' I wisht this cold snap'd break," he went on.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Comparing the data from the three cores revealed that the AMOC weakened in the time leading up to the planet’s last major cold snap around 13,000 years ago.

(A new study is the first to measure the time lags between changing ocean currents and major climate shifts., University of Cambridge)

A similar pattern emerged near the end of that cold snap, transitioning out of the ice age; the current started strengthening roughly 400 years before the atmosphere began to heat up dramatically, when Greenland warmed up rapidly — its average temperature climbed by about 8 degrees over just a few decades, causing glaciers to melt and sea ice to drop off considerably in the North Atlantic.

(A new study is the first to measure the time lags between changing ocean currents and major climate shifts., University of Cambridge)