Arctic Warming Blamed for Dangerous Heat Waves (Rossby waves!)

[NickB79]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/arctic_warming_blamed_for_dangerous_heat_waves_20140817?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+Truthdig+Truthdig%253A+Drilling+Beneath+the+Headlines

LONDON—Few people have heard of Rossby waves and even less understand them, but if you are sweltering in an uncomfortably long heat wave, then they could be to blame.

New discoveries about what is going on in the atmosphere are helping to explain why heat waves are lasting longer and causing serious damage to humans and the natural world. These events have doubled in frequency this century, and the cause is believed to be the warming of the Arctic.

The weather at the Earth’s surface is often governed by high winds in the atmosphere, known as jet streams. In 1939, Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby, a Swedish-born America meteorologist, discovered waves in the northern jet stream that were associated with the high and low pressure systems at ground level that form daily weather patterns.

Jet streams travel at up to 200 kilometres an hour, frequently wandering north and south—with cold Arctic air to the north, and warmer air to the south.

Rossby waves, now where have I heard that phrase uttered before? Hmmmm.......

[GliderGuider]

1. Rossby waves good-bye to the human race...

Understanding Rossby waves is a key to understanding what's going to happen to northern hemispheric agriculture over the next two decades.