Here is a key quote from Gunnar's post: "...bringing very cold air southwards in one place (e.g. US) and warm air northwards in another (e.g. Europe)..."
The whole Earth simply cannot change temperature suddenly, for thermodynamic reasons, any more than a bathtub full of hot water can suddenly become cold. Abrupt changes in temperature in one place on Earth are offset by corresponding (opposite) changes in another place. Putting it another way, the atmosphere can move heat around much faster than it can gain or lose it. At this simple level of analysis, the current North American cold snap doesn't really say anything at all about climate change. However, the effects of that decreased latitudinal temperature gradient the Gunnar mentioned would seem to be worth modelling. Martin M. Meiss 2014/1/9 Gunnar Schade <[email protected]> > Mike, > > I presume the headlines below the articles are from "Ed Driscoll"? > Well, they are both very wrong. The vortex is part of Global Circulation > (google that). It is neither "caused" by cooling nor by warming but simply > part of how the atmosphere works. > > The "evidence" for "global cooling" in the 70ies was was very weak, and > there was certainly no consensus on what the climate future would be other > than what was understood about past glaciations and that the current > interglacial would eventually end. > Today, we understand the climate much better and we can hypothesize how > Warming contibutes to the more erratic movements of the polar jetstream. > Unusual warm and dry spells in the NH this winter (and in past winters) are > caused by the jetstream waves moving very slowly or even stalling in place, > bringing very cold air southwards in one place (e.g. US) and warm air > northwards in another (e.g. Europe). There is evidence that these prolonged > patterns can be caused by a diminishing equator-to-pole T-gradient, such as > driven over longer time periods by Global Warming. > > I suggest considering "driscoll" for the nonsensical dribble it is: Noise > created to sow doubt about the scientific consensus on global change. There > is plenty of that on the www and its all debunked many times over. > Watch the Weather Channel like my 10-yr old does. He can explain the > jetstream. > > Best Regards, > Gunnar >
