Warming Arctic May Be Causing Jet Stream To Lose Its Way

Discussion in 'The Green Patch' started by tulianr, Feb 16, 2014.


  1. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    February 16, 201410:12 AM
    [​IMG]
    The jet stream that circles Earth's north pole travels west to east. But when the jet stream interacts with a Rossby wave, as shown here, the winds can wander far north and south, bringing frigid air to normally mild southern states.

    EXCERPTS:
    Mark Twain once said: "If you don't like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes."

    He was making an unknowing reference to the jet stream, which drives the weather over North America and Europe like a high-altitude conveyor belt. But increasingly, the jet stream is taking a more circuitous route over the northern latitudes, meaning weather systems hang around longer than they used to. And, a warming Arctic is probably to blame, says

    Francis — who says it's too early to know if the well-established Arctic warming is caused by man or some natural phenomenon — was speaking during a session on Arctic change at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago on Saturday.

    The wayward jet stream could account for the persistently severe winter weather this year in the U.S. and Britain, as well as California's long drought.
    .....

    "The strength of the jet stream is directly proportional to the difference in temperature between the poles and the tropics. When it's strong, the jet stream tends to take a straighter path, but when it's weak it meanders. As the Arctic is experiencing warming at faster rates than the tropics, that difference is getting smaller, so the jet stream is weakening along with it."

    "What that means for mid-latitudes, where Britain [and the U.S. are] located, is weather that stays in place for longer. Weather patterns will be more likely to get 'stuck' over a location, yielding long periods of rain and sun rather than Britain's traditional 'changeable' skies."
    .....

    Warming Arctic May Be Causing Jet Stream To Lose Its Way : The Two-Way : NPR
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    I Put this in the gardening section, because it ties in with some of my recent thoughts regarding gardening. Specifically, "How prepared am I for a radically changing local climate?"

    I moved to where I am with great purpose. I wanted a moderate climate, with plenty of rainfall, but not too much. I wanted a winter season to kill off pests, but not too long or severe. I wanted fertile soils that grew not only what I planted in them, but a variety of wild edibles. I moved from West Texas, and I still love the people out there, but my little farm there offered me none of the above.

    So twelve years ago, I picked up and relocated. Now, I'm fat and happy; but I have been thinking lately about how to prepare for severe changes, gardening-wise.


    For the past two years, we haven't really had a winter (temperatures in the seventies during December); yet this winter was locally the most severe in forty years in some respects. This article suggests that this may become the new norm - highly erratic weather patterns, or even long term changes to established patterns.

    So I've been pondering what steps I can take in this changing climate - more extensive greenhouse use, drought tolerant fruit and vegetable varieties, cold resistant fruit and vegetable varieties, etc.

    Anyone else been thinking along those lines?
     
    Last edited: Feb 16, 2014
  2. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    An excellent post. I think that there are a variety of strategies and tactics that can be used to ensure food security in the face of highly variable climate changes, and unseasonable or severe, damaging weather events. There are crop protection methods, technologies, cultural practices and selective breeding options that humans already use to effectively deal with subsistence farming in climate hostile environments.,

    The keys to survival would seem to include, among other things, adaptability, diversity, adoption of a flexible, permaculture approach to food production, and an avoidance of mono-culture or any approach that results, figuratively, in putting all of one's eggs into the one basket, so to speak. Commercial mono culture can be highly productive, and lucrative...but a crop failure can be pretty epic, and with no alternative crop, things would be rather bleak, particularly in the case of the crop being a food staple. The potato famine in Ireland is a case in point.

    Without being exhaustive...

    Protecting against cold:

    glass houses, cold frames, plant variety selection, planting tree shelter belts, creating micro climates that catch and hold warmth...

    Protecting against heat / drought:

    green houses, shade cloth, water retention strategies such as swales, irrigation, mulching, tree shelter belts, food forests where tree canopy species provide shade protection for species closer to the forest floor, plant variety selection...

    Protection against high rainfall:

    drainage improvements, raised garden beds, selection of plant varieties that are resistant to root rot, smuts, mildews etc...

    I think you get the general idea.

    Permaculture is not a panacea to every problem, but its mimicry of how natural systems survive and adapt is well worth investigating and at least trialling.




    The following are some links to just one permaculture design site. There are many web resources on this subject, just a seach engine click away: This particular site has been created by one of the two co-founders of the permaculture movement: David Holmgren.

    Permaculture principles: Permaculture Design Principles

    Permaculture ethics: Permaculture Ethics - Earth Care • People Care • Fair Share

    Permaculture free downloads and resources: Free downloads - Permaculture Principles

    this is an additional link to a different permaculture site with a treasury of resources...

    Permaculture practical techniques and links: Practical techniques | Permanent Culture Now
     
  3. chelloveck

    chelloveck Diabolus Causidicus

    Just a few video clips on sustainable food forest permaculture farming:





     
  4. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    That's along the lines of what I'm thinking; being more creative and flexible in my approach to gardening; maintaining sustainable agriculture in the face of a changing climate. I'm not a master gardener, by any means. I have much to learn. I'm thinking though that in addition to learning to be a good gardener in my own little part of the world, it would behoove me to study gardening techniques in very cold, very warm, very wet, and very dry climates. If climate scientists are correct, climatic conditions that we have always taken for granted, may not be so predictable in the future.
     
    Yard Dart and chelloveck like this.
  5. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    All the rain we've had this past week, it is KILLING me that we don't have a rain catchment system set up. That is getting added to my plans for this year.
     
  6. tulianr

    tulianr Don Quixote de la Monkey

    High Temperatures to be in the 50s in Parts of the Central U.S. Next Week - in July. Morning Lows Possibly in the 40s.

    Excerpted:
    Call it the ghost of the polar vortex, the polar vortex sequel, or the polar vortex’s revenge. Meteorological purists may tell you it’s not a polar vortex at all. However you choose to refer to the looming weather pattern, unseasonably chilly air is headed for parts of the northern and northeastern U.S at the height of summer early next week.

    Bearing a haunting resemblance to January’s brutally cold weather pattern, a deep pool of cool air from the Gulf of Alaska will plunge into the Great Lakes early next week and then ooze towards the East Coast.

    Of course, this is July, not January, so temperatures forecast to be roughly 10 to as much as 30 degrees below average won’t have quite the same effect.

    But make no mistake, in parts of the Great Lakes and Upper Midwest getting dealt the chilliest air, hoodies and jeans will be required. Highs in this region could well get stuck in the 50s and 60s – especially where there is considerable cloud cover.

    Wednesday morning’s lows may drop into the 40s over a large part of the central U.S. Remember, this is July!

    The heart of the chilly airmass will probably just skirt the East Coast, but temperatures are likely to be about 10 degrees below normal. Highs may struggle to reach 80 in D.C. next Tuesday and Wednesday with widespread lows in the 50s (even 40s in the mountains).

    The pattern may last only a few days, but will probably set some records, especially around the Plains and Great Lakes – where water temperatures are still depressed from the frigid winter in which ice remained on Lake Superior into June.
    .......

    Poor man’s polar vortex to make shocking summer return in eastern U.S. next week
     
  7. BTPost

    BTPost Stumpy Old Fart,Deadman Walking, Snow Monkey Moderator

    Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of Folks..... Get out the winter Woolies....
     
  8. VHestin

    VHestin Farm Chick

    The water temps are still depressed? Maybe they need chocolate...
     
  9. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    tulianr likes this.
  10. -06

    -06 Monkey+++

    The Antarctic just had record cold temps in the month of June. One was the coldest on record.
     
    tulianr likes this.
  11. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    And they found that the ice cap has a warm out flow of water that comes from below the glacier. NOT Man Made!
     
  12. DarkLight

    DarkLight Live Long and Prosper - On Hiatus

    You two knock it off and get with the program!

    Repeat after me: we are at war with eastasia, we have always been at war with eastasia and we will always be at war with eastasia.
     
  13. HK_User

    HK_User A Productive Monkey is a Happy Monkey

    We're but a flea bite on an Elephants A$$, Nature will do as it wants, we may or may not survive in the next 100 years.
     
    Yard Dart, tulianr and Brokor like this.
  14. VisuTrac

    VisuTrac Ваша мать носит военные ботинки Site Supporter+++

    wOOt! 40-60 !
    dont need a fire nor AC.
    Just like baby bear said, just right!
     
    tulianr likes this.
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