The air currents that wrap around our planet are becoming unrecognizable to climate scientists.
Some have even compared the chaotic pattern of the Jet streams after a painting by Van Gogh.
The southern part of the jet stream over North America has completely disintegrated and is currently caught in a vicious revolution that has produced an extraordinary heat wave.
While it is normal for the air currents to stop, split apart, recombine and flow in opposite directions, these tropospheric air currents are typically quite continuous over long distances with an overall west to east flow.
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The current fragmentation is unlike anything specialists have seen before.
“When I look at this jet stream, the word insane comes to mind,” tweeted the chief meteorologist of a local Florida news station, Jeff Berardelli.
“This configuration, likely amplified by global warming, creates a record-breaking heat dome so extreme that even experts are amazed!”
I am frankly unable to even characterize the current large-scale planetary wave pattern. Frankly, it looks like a Van Gogh https://t.co/NJmN54vC27 pic.twitter.com/xLtBLRZxFi
— Professor Michael E. Mann (@MichaelEMann) June 20, 2023
The climate scientist and author Michael E Mann quickly responded to Berardelli’s tweet. Mann has been studying the wave behavior of planets for years, and yet on the internet he said that he has seldom seen ‘such a disjointed configuration’.
Jet streams are known to sometimes become ‘blocked’, causing weather systems in certain regions to become stuck for days. But recent proof suggests that climate change may create more blockages than usual by slowing jet streams so they break apart, creating chaotic weather on the ground.
That seems to be what’s happening in North America right now, and it’s not just climate change that’s contributing.
Mann explains that El Niño probably also exacerbated the situation.
“I am frankly unable to even characterize the current large-scale planetary wave pattern,” he said tweeted.
Even the average layperson can clearly see the differences when comparing a normal pattern of jet streams with what is happening today.
Currently man describes the jet streams over North America as “slow and wobbly”, which is likely due to climate change.
Last year, one study warming temperatures found in the Arctic were specifically weakening jet streams in the Northern Hemisphere.
What’s more, because of El Niño, the paths of these have jet streams also changed latitudeexposing the southern regions of the US to the heat dome.
In the United States alone 40 million people are currently under high heat warningand in the past week there have been widespread power outages.
The center of the heat dome is over Mexico and has already done so caused massive bird deaths.
The climatologist Maximiliano Herrera apparently told Berardelli that the heat wave is “category 7” in some parts of Mexico. Category 5 is the highest current ranking on the heat index scaledefined as “more than extreme” heat.
Herrera essentially argues that we are now past the previous extremes.
“[I]It’s just something in its own class, nothing like this can even try to compare,” is Herrera quoted as said. “Records were wiped everywhere by insane margins and beaten for a whopping 7 days in a row.”
There is also no sign that the heat wave will end anytime soon. Some experts think the dome could hang until July.
Strange jet stream patterns have occurred in the Earth’s atmosphere in the past coincided with extreme weather conditions both in the northern and southern hemispheresalthough usually not in both at the same time.
But right now, even the southern hemisphere’s jet streams don’t seem right, experts remark.
This version is a bit clearer IMO. Even the southern hemisphere’s radius appears particularly wavy, perhaps related to the record-low sea ice there: pic.twitter.com/lfuv9t72yj
— dr. Jennifer Francis (@JFrancisClimate) June 21, 2023
For example, this week in South Australia there is a jet stream with unusually wet weather to some regions of the country.
And back up north, the Atlantic hurricane season is starting months early, University of Miami climatologist Brian McNoldy warns.
Meanwhile, sea surface temperatures have also risen into uncharted territory and it doesn’t look like they’ll return to normal levels any time soon. This has already caused massive fish kill And poisoning by marine mammals and everything for the El Nino has been deployed well.
“It is now clear that the Earth’s climate system is far out of balance and we should be very concerned,” said Steve Turton, environmental geographer at Central Queensland University. explained for the conversation.
From pole to pole, the wind of change is here. The climate crisis is no longer a future problem. It is happening right now, right before our eyes.