The Jetstream is a Nasty Drunk
May 16, 2014
Jetstream walks into a bar…
My sister in Frankfort, Michigan called me today to complain about snow.
Meanwhile, droughts, flooding, and fire continue, as the jet takes on what senior meteorologist Paul Douglas calls “a drunken pattern”.
And the Ice sheets creep, creep, creep.
Above, map as of may 15 from University of Maine Climate Re-Analyzer.
Below, more analysis from Paul Douglas.
Climate Denial Crock of the Week 
May 16, 2014 at 5:52 am
Another example of global weirding:
In 1975 Professor Wallace Smith Broecker coined the phrase “global warming” in a paper called “Climate Change: Are we on the Brink of a Pronounced Global Warming?” which discussed inadvertent climate change caused by industrial activities involving the burning of fossil fuels. The phrase became increasingly popular within the media and stuck in people’s minds, with many people envisioning a pleasant warmer future, with less frost, ice and snow, less cold, chilly winter days and nights, hot sunny beach holidays, swimming in warm seas and a rosy future. Satellite measurements on sea level started soon after, in 1978, but with a tiny sea level rise of around 1.78 mm per year, reported by NASA, it did not seem cause for alarm and all seemed very manageable.
As time has progressed, atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and average surface and sea temperatures have slowly but steadily risen, we have started to see more extreme weather events around the globe, worldwide insurance claims for events like floods and droughts are on the increase and premiums are rising, unseasonable and increased forest fires are occurring around the world in places like Siberia, Australia, California and Norway, January 2014 was the wettest in England and Wales for 248 years, with ancient coastal cliffs crumbling away under high seas and widespread coastal damage and inland flooding. Thousands of bats and flying foxes were killed in record hot weather in Queensland, Australia during their summer of 2013/2014, a record cold winter has been experienced in the US recently, while in Alaska and along the Arctic circle abnormal winter highs have been experienced in a phenomena called “Warm Arctic, Cold Continents”, and the pleasant vision of a gentle uniformly warming world has been well and truly shattered.
Early in the twenty first century Hunter Lovins, co-founder of the Rocky Mountains institute, coined the phrase “Global Weirding” to describe this extraordinary and disruptive increase caused by extreme weather events. With more carbon dioxide, poison ivy is growing bigger, stronger, more robustly and delivering more poison, with increased warmth pine bark beetles are spreading into new climate zones, causing the losses of millions of trees in places like the Rocky Mountain national park. There are strong regional issues emerging associated with water distribution, with wetter places getting wetter and drier places getting dryer (U.S West, Mediterranean and Australia are examples of recent drought). All this is evidence of global weirding.
May 16, 2014 at 8:00 am
A fun project would be to paste together different snippets of ‘everyman’ Paul Douglas’ face as he describes increasingly bizarre weather patterns over the last decade. How do you dispassionately report the approaching Climate Apocalypse? Perhaps a ‘Weathergirl Goes Rogue’ incident is approaching? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmfcJP_0eMc
May 16, 2014 at 9:13 am
Very funny,but did you read the comments? Makes you want to scream,reading such ignorant denier tripe put forth with such smug confidence.
May 17, 2014 at 12:10 am
par for the course. you develop a reptilian skin, after awhile…
May 16, 2014 at 10:38 am
Yo tambien
May 16, 2014 at 1:19 pm
[…] Jetstream walks into a bar… My sister in Frankfort, Michigan called me today to complain about snow. Meanwhile, droughts, flooding, and fire continue, as the jet takes on what senior meteorologis… […]
August 1, 2014 at 7:06 pm
[…] how the jet stream seemed drunk last winter, to use the apt phrase coined by Chris Mooney? It still is, apparently; while both coasts are sweltering, right now it is cold from Montreal to […]