Comments on: Climate change and the jet stream

By: jane

jane — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:25:22 +0000

I live in Florida, and have seen in just the last two years things I thought I’d not see here. It is April and I still wear a sweat shirt in the morning. Some days the clouds have the same low gray structure I’ve seen far north of here. The heat in the summer is physically unbearable now. I’m in my 60′s and can remember big news in the 50′s to have a day that hit 90. NEWS with pictures of an egg frying on the sidewalk.

How can people not notice? The sciencecan be complex, but really just basic Earth Science from High School. But not to notice?

I fear it is too late and the artic conveyer turnover will come to a stop in the next two to ten years and my children will have hell to pay and whoever survives, I hope they leand to trust in what they know and see.

By: Susan Anderson

Susan Anderson — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:45:29 +0000

Peter Golding, there are now several excellent expositions (I won’t call them explanations, exactly,, as the subject appears to be complex) about the recent Sudden Stratospheric Warming events; also we have lost a lot of multi-year ice in the Arctic and the ice is breaking up it seems a mite prematurely.

http://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/researchhighlights/SSW/

By: Peter Golding

Peter Golding — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 10:47:17 +0000

Curiouser and curiouser, many thanks for a good explanation, there also seems to be a further effect. I have noticed that recently (start of April ’13) that there seems to be a correlation between the North Atlantic Current and the jet stream, (it makes sense as it is a large heat source). This year the Gulf Stream is very southerly and the North Atlantic Current is, or rather appears to be stuttering, that is due, one assumes, to the increased volume of fresh water making its way south and my using insufficient data. I also expect that this is a simplistic interpretation of an extremely complex scenario, however it is very scary as bears a stark resemblance to the start of the Younger Dryas period.

By: Jeremy Holt

Jeremy Holt — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 15:10:16 +0000

I had the idea to look for is the jetstream becoming wavier from chaos theory. When energy is added to a system flow goes from linear to oscillating but what next at some point the system goes from oscillating to chaos.

By: Andrew Boughen

Andrew Boughen — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 09:51:41 +0000

so have I read this right us humans are making the weather worse if thats the case what are all the government doing about it nothing because all they are worried about is money there will be no planet if they keep this up and im fed up nobody seems to speak up about this anymore just been pushed aside I love this planet but the way its going is very bad i got to say this is the worst winter I have know no sign of spring just more cold weather coming because its got stuck again and that’s all to do with jet stream which we are messing up people need to start acting now not later

By: Mann

Mann — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 04:38:47 +0000

I have a basic question about jet streams.

Is a trough in a jet stream a southward bend or is it a dip in elevation ? I ask this because when shown on a two dimensional map even a vertical bend ( dip in altitude ) would appear as a latitudinal bend.

By: Mikeb

Mikeb — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 12:02:03 +0000

Nice explanation. Thanks.

By: Mandy Collins

Mandy Collins — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 07:28:54 +0000

Good stuff! I live in South East Australia (Beechworth) and have lived here for 25 years. The last 12 months have been the windiest I have ever experienced here. We have been having some extreme wind events in recent years. This year not so much extreme but just constant wind which is really unusual for this part of Victoria. The logical connection between overall climate warming generating more energy and thereby increasing wind – speed, amount, whatever (I’m no scientist) has been ringing bells with me and your explanations of what’s happening with the jet stream and northern hemisphere makes sense for down here – the blocking too – how parts of Australia get very prolonged heat waves. Anyway, very interesting and thankyou. I think wind is the climate change factor that is yet to make its impact felt.

By: Susan Anderson

Susan Anderson — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:19:03 +0000

You make so uncomplicated. Thank you! So many fake skeptics are fond of pointing to things like our northern midwest and Canada, and Siberia, as “disproving” global warming. The simpler and more direct the explanation, the more likely that some magic thinking will be dispelled.

Also, your comment policy is so rational and straightforward, though I’m sure it is work for you to keep the discussion sane and reality-based. Thanks again.

By: CCG Webmaster

CCG Webmaster — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 15:25:07 +0000

With projections made from PIOMAS giving total loss of summer time sea ice within only a few years, it seems reasonable to suppose that we can expect the effects on the jet stream (and accordingly the weather) to rapidly become much worse (with attendant threat to agriculture and infrastructure).

The loss of the Arctic albedo (snow and ice) represents a very fundamental transition occurring in the earth system – all we’re seeing so far is little changes at the beginning. A little thought about albedo feedback, insolation and the physics of ice leads towards that conclusion.