If your life has felt like a hot mess this year, you’re not alone. Same goes for the Arctic, which month after month has seen its ice cover contract to new lows. By late September, Arctic sea ice may reach its lowest extent since satellite record-keeping began… There could also be more global effects. Some evidence indicates that Arctic warming – which is causing a change in the temperature gradient between the equator and the poles – could be shifting the polar jet stream, causing it to meander more north and south rather than traveling a straight line. A recent study from Rutgers University linked a wavier jet stream to an uptick in extreme weather events, noting that “these are the types of phenomena that are expected to occur more often as the world continues to warm and the Arctic continues to lose its ice.”