The Polar Vortex (aka the Arctic Oscillation) has been the subject of comments in 4RG. Follow these links to see how 4RG has tracked changes in this generator of the cold weather North American has been experiencing this year.
Go to last year’s commentary on the winter of 2013 – the blog was based on articles from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the British Met Office. Here is what we wrote:
“. . . the Arctic Polar Jet Stream has gone “loopy”. Usually the jet stream is a fast flowing high atmospheric air current found between air masses of significantly different temperature. With the warming of the Arctic the temperature difference is less so the jet stream is weakening. As it weakens, it starts to meander, looping to the South. The most recent atmospheric charts of the jet stream show significant loops.” [“Loopy”=1. full of loops. 2.Slang. a. eccentric; crazy; dotty . . . ]
Speaking of “ crazy” is there anything crazier than the Southern California experience of no rain for months ending with extreme rainfall from thunderstorms that brought mudslides, impassable roads, sinkholes, flash floods, power outages . . . you name it. But according to TIME Magazine no relief from the drought conditions!
