Posted on 04/17/2008 2:03:00 PM PDT by blam
Jet Streams Are Shifting And May Alter Paths Of Storms And Hurricanes
Hurricane Andrew. Storm paths in North America are likely to shift northward as a result of the jet stream changes. Hurricanes, whose development tends to be inhibited by jet streams, may become more powerful and more frequent as the jet streams move away from the sub-tropical zones where hurricanes are born. (Credit: NOAA)
ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2008) — The Earth's jet streams, the high-altitude bands of fast winds that strongly influence the paths of storms and other weather systems, are shifting--possibly in response to global warming. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution determined that over a 23-year span from 1979 to 2001 the jet streams in both hemispheres have risen in altitude and shifted toward the poles. The jet stream in the northern hemisphere has also weakened. These changes fit the predictions of global warming models and have implications for the frequency and intensity of future storms, including hurricanes.
Cristina Archer and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology tracked changes in the average position and strength of jet streams using records compiled by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the National Centers for Environmental Protection, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The data included outputs from weather prediction models, conventional observations from weather balloons and surface instruments, and remote observations from satellites.
Jet streams twist and turn in a wide swath that changes from day to day. The poleward shift in their average location discovered by the researchers is small, about 19 kilometers (12 miles) per decade in the northern hemisphere, but if the trend continues the impact could be significant. "The jet streams are the driving factor for weather in half of the globe," says Archer. "So, as you can imagine, changes in the jets have the potential to affect large populations and major climate systems."
Storm paths in North America are likely to shift northward as a result of the jet stream changes. Hurricanes, whose development tends to be inhibited by jet streams, may become more powerful and more frequent as the jet streams move away from the sub-tropical zones where hurricanes are born.
The observed changes are consistent with numerous other signals of global warming found in previous studies, such as the widening of the tropical belt, the cooling of the stratosphere, and the poleward shift of storm tracks. This is the first study to use observation-based datasets to examine trends in all the jet stream parameters, however.
"At this point we can't say for sure that this is the result of global warming, but I think it is," says Caldeira. "I would bet that the trend in the jet streams' positions will continue. It is something I'd put my money on."
The results are published in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters.
Adapted from materials provided by Carnegie Institution, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Global cooling still will. The problem was the same that many apocalyptic cults have, that of the deadline. In the case of cooling, it wasn’t soon enough. They couldn’t maintain the fever pitch in the public for something that wouldn’t really get going for at least a century or two, so they latched onto warming as a possible alternative for their wealth redistribution scheme. Warming held a lot of possibility, since it was likely that temps would go up a little more before they started dropping. Plus, since the cooling failed to materialize the week after the articles came out, any future warnings would be treated as crying wolf, and consequently boost the warming hysteria. The problem now is that warming is collapsing sooner than they predicted, plus the science is getting better and more widely understood, so (some) people are more able to pick holes in the warming fallacy.
"why..why..well, that means the prevailing winds will be coming from the northwest and opening the windows during summer months will create a breeze directly into the spare room and there's....there's nothing in the spare room cept my litter box...?????...I must hide this report from my staff"
Jet streams move around lot. Sorry guys, false alarm.
” It is something I’d put my money on.”
Freakin’ loser! or should that be the FR-approved “looser?”
Are you talking about the jet stream (air) or the Gulf Stream (water)?
You might share with me how you grey scaled ... or maybe not.
Well apparently, I was talking about the Gulf Stream, but i just read that the Jet stream is a few hundred kilometers wide. So the point is still relevant.
Nevermind
Be explicit ... the difference could be hugh.
Hugh and series!
Bu they for sure CAN say that we need to do something “urgently.” (and that something is usually higher taxes on carbon, etc.)
Good. I liked your response though. These articles predicting disaster alway seem to be filled with words like “could”, “may”, “might”, “no proof”, instead of “will” and “here’s the proof”.
Why put something into print that is a pipe dream?
The answer is, without these pipe dreams all blown up out of proportion, the left would have nothing to herd the cats with.
...like walking, living in the dark, living without air conditioning...
You get the picture. While they live the life of Riley, we’re supposed to live like it’s 1000 BC.
No thanks.
Very good, this illustrates their ignorance perfectly. Also, wouldn’t steering these storms northerly weaken them dramatically, thereby causing them to lose steam faster??
Blasphemer!!!! ;-)
I suppose it could, if the area up north hadn’t heated up to match the area where the storms used to take place.
This twelve mile tracking per decade seems more than a little suspect though. What do we compare that with in the past. You see, this may be something that has been taking place for thousands of years, cycling up then down over and over again.
These folks are so damned anal.
The more the x42 bwitch and the Obamarang (hey .. I like that .. ) duke it out ... the more I have hope for the destruction of this socialist party once and for all.
I've concluded we're still a two party system, but it's Democrats and Socialists .... We're the Dems.
I think it can...could, may, should...during a whopping 23 year span in earth’s history.
The sky is falling. Someone tell these morons that weather patterns do change.
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