Climate Denial Crock of the Week

Extreme gyrations of the jet stream are becoming more common, and that was only made more evident by the extreme setup that we have seen over the last week in North America, and indeed across the Atlantic.
More and more TV weather professionals are starting to explain the climate context of the day to day weather, especially extreme events. Above, two who have become friends, Jeff Berardelli, formerly of CBS News and now Chief Meteorologist at WFLA Tampa, and Chris Gloninger, Met Chief at KCCI Des Moines.

Immediately below, see the temperature anomalies (departure from normal) in the University of Maine’s highly useful Climate Reanalyzer. Big temperature differential set up by a jet peak up over Alaska, diving down over the central US, driving cold air south in the East, and warmer air north to Alaska, Greenland and across the Arctic.

Under that, from the same source, the jet stream set up, which lines up pretty well with the warm and cold extremes that we’ve been seeing. More and more scientists believe these kind of loopy jets are exacerbated by the loss of sea ice in the arctic, and a warming climate.

Having conversations with key experts on this, and will expand in next Yale Climate Connections video.
For now, see my jet stream explainer below.