This weather now serves as the backdrop—and perhaps, as the - TopicsExpress

Michael Bluestein

This weather now serves as the backdrop—and perhaps, as the inspiration—for an increasingly epic debate within the field of climate research. You see, one climate researcher, Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University, has advanced an influential theory suggesting that winters like this one may be growing more likely to occur. The hypothesis is that by rapidly melting the Arctic, global warming is slowing down the fast-moving river of air far above us known as the jet stream—in turn causing weather patterns to get stuck in place for longer, and leading to more extremes of the sort that weve all been experiencing. There is a lot of pretty tantalizing evidence that our hypothesis seems to be bearing some fruit, Francis explained on the latest installment of the Inquiring Minds podcast. The current winter is a perfect example of the kind of jet stream pattern that her research predicts, Francis added (although she emphasized that no one atmospheric event can be directly blamed on climate change

Posted on: Fri, 21 Feb 2014 21:40:24 +0000

This weather now serves as the backdrop—and perhaps, as the - TopicsExpress

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