Physics Today - Article on the Melting Arctic
On Thursday, 10 March 2016 15:31:29 UTC, Graham P Davis wrote:
On Thu, 10 Mar 2016 14:55:02 +0000
Norman Lynagh wrote:
The March issue of 'Physics Today' contains a review article titled
'Is the Melting Arctic Changing Mid-Latitude Weather?'. The
conclusion is that the jury is still out.
There was a similar discussion over sixty years ago. In 1950 , an
article in Weather by CEP Brooks explained why the argument that a
pre-war, fast-warming Arctic should have decreased upper winds had been
proven to be incorrect. In fact, the upper winds increased. This led to
large slow-moving or stationary waves in the upper atmosphere. It's
perhaps significant that the period of Arctic warming ended with a
series of severe winters in Europe.
The current re-hash of the same pre-war(?) idea that a slowing of the
jet-stream will result from differential warming between the Arctic
and the Tropics may be wrong again. Those scientists who ignore history
are doomed to repeat it. However, their ignorance of atmospheric
dynamics may again save their forecasting bacon as far as the weather is
concerned. Perhaps two wrongs will again make a right as they did
during the first half of the twentieth century..
So how long after the atmospheric tests of nuclear bombs DID the cold winters take place?
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