"Keith (Southend)" wrote in message
...
http://acdb-ext.gsfc.nasa.gov/Data_s...2013_merra.pdf

Wonder what it will mean this time of the year?
--
Keith (Southend)
"Weather Home & Abroad"
http://www.southendweather.net
Twitter:@LawnscienceEssx

Keith,

I mentioned your post to a UEA PhD student at an RMetSoc meeting yesterday,
and sent her your link. She replied:

"Thank-you for the link. It is an interesting plot. I tend to look at the
zonal mean zonal wind fields from ECMWF
(http://users.met.fu-berlin.de/~Aktue...var=u&lng=eng).
It looks like you were right, there has been quite a disturbance in the
upper stratosphere which began around the 15th of March (historical data is
here
http://users.met.fu-berlin.de/~Aktue...g.php?lng=eng),
but it hasn't been able to penetrate below the 10hPa level that would
typical label it as a sudden stratospheric warming. It may be the first
signs of the break down of the vortex as we are heading in to spring."

I've posted it here as I thought you might be interested.

Cheers, Alastair.