True Story:
In the late 70s, my brother worked at NOAA at their climate modeling division. One of the scientists there created a Jet Stream model. That model showed that, as Global Warming added energy to the atmosphere, the bends in the Jet Stream would increase until there was “a week of summer and a week of winter pretty much the whole year round.” The model was dismissed as producing “ridiculous results”.
Now, assuming that this model wasn’t so ridiculous, how would this play out? Well, the Arctic is in darkness half of the year, so, Global Warming not withstanding, it’s going to get cold. And its peak of cold will tend to be near the end of the dark period, say February. But if a meandering Jet Stream spreads this cold over larger areas, we can expect much colder late winters and much cooler springs in the temperate latitudes. And, since energy is conserved, this means that average Arctic temperatures will rise faster than would otherwise be expected. Here’s a map of average temperature deviation:
Note that the largest warming is seen in the Arctic.
Now, this may be really bad news for the things we worry most about Global Warming, namely the melting of Arctic ice and, especially, Greenland ice. Indeed, that latest news reports seem to bear this out:
Study shows Arctic ice still disappearing
BOULDER, Colo., April 5 (UPI) -- A team of U.S. scientists has determined the maximum extent of Arctic sea ice the past winter was the second lowest on satellite record.
The University of Colorado-Boulder researchers said the extent of the Arctic ocean covered by at least 15 percent ice was 5.7 million square miles in March, slightly higher than the record low of 5.6 million square miles measured in March 2006.
The declining sea ice has been blamed on higher winter temperatures in the Arctic, which are believed to be a result of increasing levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and strong natural variability in the ice, said researcher Walt Meier of CU-Boulder's National Snow and Ice Data Center.
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20070405-09120400-bc-us-arcticice.xml