Crikey, Do I Look Like an Idiot!

Remember this post about the Jet Stream doing something weird by crossing the equator?

It turns out that this sort of thing is not unprecedented and not even unusual. In fact, it is a mechanism, one of a few or several, by which the air of the Northern Hemisphere mixes with the air of the Southern Hemisphere. So it actually is something that would happen in a normal world.

However, The Washington Post interviewed Jennifer Francis, professor of meteorology at Rutgers University who specializes in the relationship between global warming and the jet stream and she said that “cross-equator flow cannot be unprecedented, maybe not even all that unusual.”

This broadsheet also interviewed Sam Lillo, who is working toward his PhD in Meteorology at U of Oklahoma and he replied, “None of this is unusual, There isn’t a wall at the equator separating the two hemispheres, and air is free to flow from one side to the other.”

But of course, I uncriticaly reblogged Robertscribbler's article which stated that this was " Something that would absolutely not happen in a normal world," quoting four paragraphs from it verbatim including the above phrase (in quotes), and made myself look like an idiot when the Washington Post article came out. A closer look at the article's first graphic from Earth Nullschool shows that jet stream that branched out and sent a stream crossing the equator was not the polar one at the 80th North parallel, but the subtropical one further south. Now to his credit, Robert has toned down the content of his blog article, parts somewhat, parts considerably.

Now when the Polar Jet Stream really does jump the Equator and join the other polar stream, that would be really, really weird. Possibly even the end of our regular seasons.

I guess it's back to posting Angel of Apocalypse and LastMessage's YouTube videos and even some of my own.

2016 is strange!

More Global Weirding - Near Northern Jet Stream Splits, New South Fork Jumps Equator to Join Near Southern Jet Stream.

Posted 28 June 2016 by Robertscribbler.

Gigantic Gravity Waves to Mix Summer with Winter? Wrecked Jet Stream Now Runs from Pole to Pole

It’s as if global warming [Ed-M: global weirding] were ringing the Earth’s atmosphere like some great, cacophonous alarm bell. The upper level zonal winds are swinging wildly from record high positive anomalies to record low negative anomalies. Gravity waves — the kinds of big atmospheric waves that tend to move air from the Tropics all the way to the Poles and are powerful enough to cause the Caribbean Sea to ‘whistle’ in the satellite monitors — are growing larger. And the Jet Stream now has redefined all boundaries — flowing at times from the East Siberian Sea in the Arctic across the Equator and all the way south to West Antarctica.

South Fork of Northern Jet Stream Caught Crossing the Equator. Source: Earth Nullschool. 

Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream crosses the Equator in this Earth Nullschool screen capture to merge with the Southern Hemisphere Jet Stream. It’s the very picture of weather weirding due to climate change. Something that would absolutely not happen in a normal world. Something, that if it continues, basically threatens seasonal integrity.

The big trough today begins near the Northern Hemisphere Pole. It pulls Arctic air down over Eastern Siberia and into a Pacific Ocean storm track. There, a second big dip in the Jet Stream pulls a crazy loop of this upper air flow further south. And here is where things get really weird — for the upper level river of air that began in the Arctic then makes a jump directly across the Equator.

But our story of a wayward Jet Stream doesn’t end there. The upper level air flow that originated near the North Pole joins with a building Southern Hemisphere Jet Stream ridge pattern over the Southeast Pacific. Feeding into very strong upper level winds, it turns southward into a high amplitude wave that crosses the Horn of South America and slams itself, carrying with it a big pulse of extreme warmth, into the upper level airs over Western Antarctica.

For more, click at the link below.

https://robertscribbler.com/2016/06/28/gigantic-gravity-waves-to-mix-winter-with-summer-wrecked-jet-stream-now-runs-from-pole-to-pole/#comment-84471