What's up with these crazy weather patterns?
Asked by
Yellowdog (
12216
)
February 14th, 2021
As I write this, an hour before dawn, in Memphis, TN it’s 16 degrees fahrenheit.
Go way up north several thousand miles to Saint John, Newfoundland, on the eastern coast of Canada, it is now daybreak, and it is a few degrees warmer, at 19 degrees.
Cross the ocean and much further north, its 34 degrees in Bergen, Norway and 28 degrees near the Arctic Circle at Narvik, Norway—and Reykjavic, Iceland—not too far from the Arctic Circle, its a balmy 43 degrees fahrenheit .
Walnut Grove, Minnesota is currently eighteen degrees below zero. Now, I know that Minnesota has very cold winter nights. But the coldest and furthest north place my phone’s weather app lists—Northeast Greenland, is sixteen degrees warmer than Walnut Grove, at only two below zero.
Any comments on this crazy weather?
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6 Answers
It’s the meandering of the polar jet stream, which divides cold arctic air from warm subtropical air.
Areas south of the jet stream get warm air. Areas north of the jet stream get cold air. The jet stream meanders across hundreds of miles of latitude, so the same latitudes can experience very different weather.
For reasons related to global warming, the jet stream is weaker than it used to be, and consequently meanders a lot more.
Sounds like you’re experiencing what we use to call a “blue northern” when I was in Texas. Not sure what a blue norther is. HA!
Anyway, it’s a pleasant 30 degrees F here in Tacoma at 4:30 am. Should warm up a bit. It’s been a very mild and wet winter here so far. Very nice.
Stay warm!
Cold winter this year. Winters seem to happen in cycles, and then maybe a touch of the climate change (global warming) is adding to the misery.
The Jet Stream keeps dipping way down south. There’s usually a few weeks of very cold in Memphis in the winter. It’s not very unusual for northern places to sometimes be warmer than southern. Depends on the weather pattern and location of the two places.
Are you looking more at the full weather map compared to years past?
Maybe this current pattern has something to do with La Niña? Isn’t that out in the Pacific now? I don’t know much about it.
Effects of climate change, wouldn’t you say?
The weather is an immediate everyday phenomenon. Climate change is just as real and just as observable; you simply don’t see it on the same local and immediate scale as the daily weather conditions.
But if your flower garden blooms two weeks earlier than usual, and the bees arrive late, you’re going to notice the difference.
It’s a bit like aging. You might have days when your back really hurts, and you know you need new glasses, but those things don’t happen suddenly. The process of change over time is nonetheless very plain, especially when you look back at some old photos.
Hopefully it will be a wakeup call to those who don’t believe in climate change, but probably not.
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