Global warming and airflow changes 'caused US and EU heatwaves'

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/26/global-warming-planetary-airflow-extreme-weather-us-eu


Heatwave in 2003 in France. Photograph: Dominique Faget AFP/Getty

Global warming may have caused extreme events such as a 2011 drought in the United States and a 2003 heatwave in Europe by slowing vast, wave-like weather flows in the northern hemisphere, scientists said on Tuesday.

The study of meandering air systems that encircle the planet adds to understanding of extremes that have killed thousands of people and driven up food prices in the past decade.

Such planetary airflows, which suck warm air from the tropics when they swing north and draw cold air from the Arctic when they swing south, seem to be have slowed more often in recent summers and left some regions sweltering, they said.

"During several recent extreme weather events these planetary waves almost freeze in their tracks for weeks," wrote Vladimir Petoukhov, lead author of the study at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

[Demeter]

1. No kidding

[Bigmack]

2. Who would have EVER guessed that

climate change could have ACTUAL, REAL effects? Imagine THAT! Ms Bigmack

[CRH]

3. Equinoxes have been long been watched, ...

for a reason. Let us observe this year and learn. Seasonal norms will be changing, air and water currents will be changing, Arctic ice volumes will be changing; and promising yet more change, unpredictable by old norms. Welcome to climate change.