Cars are buried in deep snow in the south Buffalo area on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in Buffalo, N.Y.

((AP Photo/Mike Groll) )

After a brutal winter that left parts of the country , many were looking for a culprit to blame.

According to a new study, climate change might be off the table as the reason when it comes to the unusually harsh winters we've seen in recent years.

A team of scientists from Swiss university ETH Zurich and the California Institute of Technology say that, , climate change doesn't cause cold snaps.

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The study, published in the Journal of Climate, that rising temperatures in the Arctic weaken the polar jet stream, which in turn leads to higher temperature variability and harsher winter seasons.

Rather, the scientists say, and increasingly rare cold snaps. The team used climate simulations and "theoretical arguments" to back their statements.

In fact, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has about wintertime temperature variability with its own climate simulations.

But don't get too excited. While it may not be the reason behind extreme winters, climate change will continue to heat up the globe.

"Despite lower temperature variance, there will be more extreme warm periods in the future because the Earth is warming," ETH Zurich professor and lead scientist Tapio Schneider said.

Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration .

Other extreme weather events tied to climate change include and .

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