As the planet warms, people across Europe and Asia face double the probability of harsh, cold winters.

This finding, published Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience, is based on a computer simulation study and is just the latest research tying declining Arctic ice with extreme weather.

The researchers, headed by Professor Masato Mori of the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at the University of Tokyo, found that melting ice in the Arctic, Barents and Kara leads to atmospheric blocking patterns that pull cold air south over Eurasia and cause it to get stuck there, resulting in freezing winters.