Stubborn Jet stream behavior has brought historic drought and january wild fire to california.
Scientists are finding evidence that “stuck” jet stream events may be related to human caused climate change.
Meanwhile, just as the east shakes off the “polar vortex” of misplaced arctic air that blanketed the area in early january, yet another cold air bubble is gathering.
The remainder or January is expected to be colder than normal, sometimes downright frigid. The pattern is very similar to the pattern during the first week of January when temperatures plunged more than 20 degrees below normal in the so-called polar vortex event. This time, the cold could stick around for a longer duration.
The European model’s (ensemble mean) pattern at high altitudes (500 mb, or around 18,000 feet) through the end of the month exhibits a huge ridge of high pressure over western North America and a big dip in the jet stream over the East Coast.
Referencing the maps below, remember that the high altitude winds parallel the thin black height lines generally running from west to east. Therefore, weather systems will be diving southeastward from Canada towards the East Coast during this January 21-31 period, with arctic air frequently following them.
The maps below show the average pattern for the 5-day periods ending January 26 (top) and January 30 (bottom). Long-range forecasters like using 5-day averages because the longer wavelength features, the ones easiest for the models to forecast, stand out. In this case, the averages are indicating that the pattern changes very little during the period and that the “nefarious” polar vortex is displaced well southward of its normal position.
Democracy Now video includes Jeff Masters.
One of the best resources (in an easy-to-understand manner) for polar vortex and stratospheric sudden warming events is by Patrick Martineau:
http://p-martineau.com/
http://p-martineau.com/2014/01/13/a-new-wave-of-interest-for-the-polar-vortex-and-stratospheric-sudden-warming-events/
http://p-martineau.com/vortex/
One of the best resources (in an easy-to-understand manner) for polar vortex and stratospheric sudden warming events is by Patrick Martineau:
http://p-martineau.com/2014/01/13/a-new-wave-of-interest-for-the-polar-vortex-and-stratospheric-sudden-warming-events/
Patrick Martineau
Easy to understand perhaps (if you read parts twice), but so dry my eyeballs cracked while reading it. LOL Patrick needs to “jazz it up” just a bit if he wants to compete with Peter in the infowars.
Can hardly imagine what California is in for this summer – Hoping I’m wrong.
Over here in southeastern Austria we’ve had one week so far that looked somewhat like winter, with temps going below 0 °C. Other than that it’s been truly balmy, with as much as 13 °C today. Well into January!
I know I shouldn’t be looking outside my window for proof for or against AGW, but if this keeps up another couple of weeks, we’ll have had a winter without winter. And I wouldn’t be surprised if this is also related to what’s happening in the US.
???
January in the Southern Hemisphere is like July in the Northern Hemisphere.
It’s 40C + in Southeast Austrailia today – big heat wave
Austria, my friend, is where I live. Also known as Österreich. 🙂
Maybe they should start organising the Austrian Open to replace the Australian Grand Slam?
“Ro, a roo, a female roo, re, a drop of future global warming….”?
Whoops, My mistake – don’t have my glasses on and am a little deniier paranoid. They’re dumb and pull dirty tricks. For a moment I thought I had caught one
I deny a lot of things, but not when they’re undeniable.
Viel vergnugen, Herr Neven. I can’t get an umlaut on my keyboard.
I like to call it the Mangled Jet Stream 😉