“Historic” snowfalls have the US northeast this week, with Buffalo, New York under an astonishing 2.4m (8ft) of snow – enough to cause some roofs to cave in under the pressure…Scientists now have evidence that these persistent extreme weather patterns are increasing in their frequency, due to the rapid heating up of the Arctic that is changing the behaviour of the jet stream, and in turn, the polar vortex. And Jennifer Francis of Rutgers University, one of the leading US scientists studying the relationship between Arctic warming and changes in the jet stream, believes that it’s thanks to ‘global warming’ that northern hemisphere weather is becoming more extreme – and it’s not about to get any better.
Newsroom Home / theecologist.org