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Showing posts from July, 2019

115 and Counting

July 3, 2019 Last Friday, the temperature reached 115 degrees Fahrenheit in Gallargues-le-Montueux, France, a record for the entire country. France was not the only country in Europe suffering from record-setting heat: Germany, Poland, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, and others were sweltering. Why? Scientists have their eyes on the polar jet stream, the fast-moving flow of high-altitude air currents at the top of the world. When the jet stream wanders, cold Arctic air can spill southward, or hotter air from the middle latitudes can move north. These scientists theorize that the melting of Arctic ice, along with the decreased temperature difference between the Arctic and lower latitudes, is causing the jet stream to weaken, leading to its wobbly flow. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, says a "meandering, slowed jet stream . . . favors stalled extreme weather regimes like the ones we are seeing right now." The hotter the Arctic, the weaker the jet stream.