Posted on 05/25/2006 10:24:54 PM PDT by lainie
Deserts in the American Southwest and around the globe are creeping toward heavily populated areas as the jet streams shift, researchers reported Thursday.
The result: Areas already stressed by drought may get even drier.
Satellite measurements made from 1979 to 2005 show that the atmosphere in the subtropical regions both north and south of the equator is heating up. As the atmosphere warms, it bulges out at the altitudes where the northern and southern jet streams slip past like swift and massive rivers of air. That bulging has pushed both jet streams about 70 miles closer to the Earth's poles.
Since the jet streams mark the edge of the tropics, in essence framing the hot zone that hugs the equator, their outward movement has allowed the tropics to grow wider by about 140 miles. That means the relatively drier subtropics move as well, pushing closer to places like Salt Lake City, where Thomas Reichler, co-author of the new study, teaches meteorology.
"One of the immediate consequences one can think of is those deserts and dry areas are moving poleward," said Reichler, of the University of Utah. Details appear in Thursday's Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science.
The movement has allowed the subtropics to edge toward populated areas, including the American Southwest, southern Australia and the Mediterranean basin. In those places, the lack of precipitation already is a worry.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Beyond my abilities. Junk science.
you've hit the nail on it's point
It's simple, we are all going to die!
That wasn't a nail that suffered the direct hit.
Whatefer it was, it splattered.
I could use some of that climate where I am.
I would think that a bigger factor would be the balooning population in the American southwest, which is tapping limited groundwater supplies. Wouldn't that be a bigger contributor to desertification? Just how big are Phoenix and Denver these days?
Because Al Gore got ripped off in the election the world is going to end.
WE ARE ALL DOOMED!
The tropics are getting bigger, and the subtropics (deserts) are moving northward.
What's so terribly frightening, is that places like Arizona ("American Southwest") and southern Utah will become drier! ...drought, drought--federal aid needed! [irony, sarcasm]
"Extreme fire" danger signs were up in Colorado through the whole winter and are still up. ...no barbeques. We must all pay for those who wish to have pines right next to their houses, forestry chicks who burn their ex's letters on windy days, and other enviro-nuts.
ping
you forgot the children...
There isn't much that million gallon per hour pumps, imported top soil and our 20 million guest workers can't turn into a tropical garden of eden.
Worry Warts: relax!
The desert hasn't hit the Southern Califonia coast yet. When I look out my window at the hills in the morning, it is about as green as Ireland. The winter before last, we got 35 inches of rain. This year, we were down to about the average of 12 inches, but since the rain came late in the season, with a nice late little rain storm just this past Sunday, it is still green, very green.
He's on drugs!
The jet stream controls our local weather.
In winter it drops below the area where I live, allowing arctic air to bring us lots of snow.
In summer it typically moves north, to just above Reno, giving us warm dry summers, but keeping Oregon wet.
This year is has remained SOUTH longer than usual, directly contradicting his assertion.
After 16 years of personal observation I can tell you that the jet stream has NOT made any significant changes in it's normal pattern over Nevada.
Oh hum.zzzzzzzzz.
That's the answer, then.
This guy's an assistant professor, in his second year of teaching, and the Associated Press has heralded his "discovery" as important as the other headlines of the day. Then again, they include, "Gov. Richardson Questions Guard Plan."
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