Jet Stream Slowly Moving North Over N. America, Increasing Odds Of SW Drought, Atlantic Hurricanes

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON - The jet stream — America's stormy weather maker — is creeping northward and weakening, new research shows. That potentially means less rain in the already dry South and Southwest and more storms in the North. And it could also translate into more and stronger hurricanes since the jet stream suppresses their formation. The study's authors said they have to do more research to pinpoint specific consequences.

From 1979 to 2001, the Northern Hemisphere's jet stream moved northward on average at a rate of about 1.25 miles a year, according to the paper published Friday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. The authors suspect global warming is the cause, but have yet to prove it.

The jet stream is a high-speed, constantly shifting river of air about 30,000 feet above the ground that guides storm systems and cool air around the globe. And when it moves away from a region, high pressure and clear skies predominate. Two other jet streams in the Southern Hemisphere are also shifting poleward, the study found.

The northern jet stream "is the dominant thing that creates weather systems for the United States," said study co-author Ken Caldeira, a climate scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, Calif. "Bascially look south of where you are and that's probably a good guess of what your weather may be like in a few decades."


EDIT

http://www.startribune.com/science/17855729.html

[phantom power]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=143636&mesg_id=143636

[hatrack]

2. Post in haste, repent at leisure . . . .

:toast:

[Warpy]

3. Uh, it always moves north this time of year

opening up the pathway for the midsummer monsoon season. The years it's stayed more southerly are the years the monsoon has been choked off.

[NickB79]

4. I think they mean the average latitude of the stream is moving north

That's what I got from this:

"From 1979 to 2001, the Northern Hemisphere's jet stream moved northward on average at a rate of about 1.25 miles a year".

[tom_paine]

5. Yes, that is what they mean.

This invalidates Warpy's comment fully.